13/10/2014
The fiercest Sardar - KARAM SINGH , Param Vir Chakra - PVC
Sardar Karam Singh was born on 15 September 1915 to a welloff farmer in Sehna village, near Sangrur in Punjab… Much of his reputation came from the Military Medal that he won for his bravery during the Burma war in 1944. He thus became a hero for his battalion at a very young age. Most of the time while he was in the battalion, he stayed posted in Alpha Company, which was where he got both his gallantry awards.
Richhmar Gali, 13 October 1948
The Sikh soldier peering out of the trench looks worried. ‘Dushman nedhe si. Assi tinn see, tey chautha tu—hun kee kariye?’ (The enemy has come close. We are just three, and you are the fourth— what do we do?) he whispers to his section commander Lance Naik Karam Singh, who is standing beside him, still and ramrod straight.
Karam Singh is a handsome Sikh, more than six feet tall. A proud upturned moustache and dark beard lend him a dark, brooding appearance. He is holding a .303 rifle. He and his men have been able to beat back the first attack from the Pakistanis, but the enemy is back with renewed vigour.
Karam Singh does not answer. His eyes are narrowed in concentration. He is watching the armed Pakistani soldiers advancing towards his outpost. There are just four men in his section and they have already been under intense shelling. All of them are bleeding from bullet as well as splintering rock hits from continuous artillery shelling by the enemy.
He looks at the gun is in his hands but he knows there are too many of them for gunfire to be effective. Besides, he is running short of ammunition… As the enemy soldiers come closer, Karam Singh reaches into his backpack and, pulling out a gr***de, bites the pin off with his teeth. Swinging his arm in a wide half-circle he flings it at them with the war cry of ‘Jo bole so nihal, sat Sri Akaal’. It lands right in the path of the first row of advancing soldiers and a loud blast echoes through Richhmar Gali. Some of the men fall, screaming in pain; the others have lost their composure.
It is only then that Karam Singh turns to look at the tense, mud-stained faces of his tired and injured comrades and smiles. ‘Jadon assi ithe jaan de dange tan saddi keemat wadh jaavegi,’ (If we die fighting, we will always be remembered) he says, his voice firm. ‘Sade piche bathere ne ladanwaale. Saari company sade piche hai.’ (There are many who will continue the fight after we die) With that, he rummages in his backpack for another gr***de and tosses it at those of the enemy soldiers who are still advancing. Another deadly blast rents the air.
Lance Naik Karam Singh was commanding an Alpha Company outpost at Richhmar Gali when around 6 am on 13 October 1948 his section came under a do-or-die attack from the Pakistanis… Karam Singh and his men were outnumbered, but they refused to be cowed down by the enemy whose aim was to recapture Richhmar Gali, skirt Tithwal and move in to attack Srinagar.
The enemy soldiers were coming in wave after wave in a bid to take over the outpost of A Company of 1 Sikh. It is to their credit that Karam Singh and his men managed to hold on to their post during two fierce attacks — the first of which came at 6 am and the second followed at 9.30 am… After repulsing the second attack, the brave soldier was quick to realise that he would not be able to hold on for much longer. He and his men were heavily outnumbered at one to ten; three of them had already sustained serious injuries and they were also running out of ammunition.
Around 10 am, the enemy launched another attack, this time on the company position. Without a thought for his grievous injuries, Karam Singh went about fighting from the frontline trenches. He held on even when the enemy mortar fire and shelling managed to destroy almost every single bunker of the platoon. Moving from bunker to bunker, he implored his tired men to continue being brave; to fight like proud Khalsa warriors. He helped in getting the wounded out and encouraged the uninjured to fight back without fear. In the next attack that came around 1 pm, Karam Singh immortalised himself in the war records of his paltan (unit) by another exemplary act of bravery.
Fifth Pakistani attack, 1 pm
The Pakistani soldiers have launched a fifth attack. There has been no respite since 6 am and the tiredness as well as the strain of his injury is bogging Karam Singh down. He grits his teeth to bear the pain and trains his gun on the enemy soldiers moving forward through the gr***de smoke. He finds that two of them have sprinted the final few yards and are now right in front of his trench, brandishing their rifles. They are too close to be shot without hurting his own men. Without hesitating for a second, Karam Singh fixes the bayonet on to his rifle and leaps out of the trench. Lifting the bayonet in the air with a blood-curdling war cry, he shoves it right inside the chest of the Pakistani soldier in front of him. Before the shocked man can realise what has happened, the hefty Sikh has struck again. ‘Ghonp nikal, ghonp nikal’, Karam Singh mumbles under his breath, remembering the drill taught to him by his instructor.
The enemy soldier lies dead before him, horror writ large in his open eyes. Pulling the bayonet out of his body, Karam Singh pulls it back as far as his arms can go and in a split second brings it forward again with force, pushing it into the stomach of the next man, who is trying to shoot… Karam Singh pulls his bayonet out, and lifting his arm right over his head pushes it into the fallen man once again relieving him of all pain forever. He jumps back into the trench before his comrades can even fathom what has happened.
Shocked by this savage attack and the coldblooded killings by the hefty Sikh warrior, the enemy soldiers retreat one more time. They do not give up though and keep returning despite being beaten back each time by the strong defence put up by the company. It is 7 pm when the enemy’s will is finally broken and they give up. By then, they have launched eight attacks on Karam Singh’s company, all of which had been repulsed by the Sikhs. They have fired 3,000 shells, which have taken a heavy toll and destroyed almost all the A Company bunkers but have not been able to break the spirit of the men. 1 Sikh lose 10 men and have 37 wounded during the battle, which is later described by division commander Major General KS Thimayya, DSO, as a ‘uniquely magnificent fight’. Lance Naik Karam Singh MM is awarded the Param Vir Chakra for his devotion to duty and bravery beyond comparison. He is the first soldier to receive it live.
Not only did Karam Singh survive his injuries; he even marched up to India’s first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, to receive his PVC. This was his second gallantry award. He had been awarded the Military Medal for his bravery in Burma while he was fighting under the British. He was among the five persons chosen by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to hoist the National Flag on 15 August 1947. He lived on to 77 years of age, rose to the rank of Honorary Captain in his beloved battalion and died peacefully at home in 1993.
Author - Richa Bisht , Content Source - http://www.tehelka.com/the-fiercest-sardar/
