Lance Corporal Rambahadur limbu
To produce examples of Gurkha heroics, and one
outstanding example was recognized by the award of the Gurkhas'
final Victoria Cross.
Lance Corporal Rambahadur Limbu, then 26, came from the village
of Chyangthapu in yangrop Thum, eastern Nepal. He joined the 2/10th
in 1957 as it neared the end of a ten-year stint of antiterrorist
operations in the Malaya emergency and later moved on to Borneo.
In November 1965 the 2/10th was ordered to dominate
a position 5,000 yards inside the border between Malaysia and Indonesia,
in
the Bau
District of Sarawak.Lance Corporal Rambahadur Limbu's company
confronted a strong enemy force located in the border area entrenched
in platoon
strength on top of a sheer-sided hill. He could see the nearest
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trench and in it a sentry manning a machinegun. He inched himself
forwards
until, still ten yards from his enemy, he was seen and the sentry
opened fire, wounding a man to his right. Rushing forwards, he
reached the enemy trench in seconds and killed the sentry. Under
heavy enemy
fire, he gathered his own group together and proceeded to attack.
Two of his men fell seriously wounded. Knowing that their only
hope of survival was immediate evacuation from their exposed position
so close to the enemy, the lance corporal made three attempts
to
rescue his comrades, crawling forwards in full view of at least
two enemy machine-gun posts. After a pause he hurled himself on the ground
beside one of the wounded and, calling for support from two light
machine guns that
had now come up to his right, he picked up the man and carried him
to safety. Without hesitation, he immediately ran back to the top
of the hill, |
again moved out into the open between intensebursts
of automatic fire, which could be seen striking the ground all round
him, until he eventually reached the second wounded man. Picking
him up and unable now to seek cover, he carried him back as fast
as he could through the hail of enemy bullets.It had taken twenty
minutes to complete this action. For all but a few seconds he had
been moving alone in full view of the enemy and under the continuous
aimed fire of their automatic weapons. Finally rejoining his section,
he was able to recover the light machine gun abandoned by the wounded
and with it won revenge, initially giving support during the later
stages of the assault and finally killing four more enemy as they
attempted to escape across the border.
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