Скачать или смотреть How Did One Man With One Hand Stop 200 Japanese Soldiers

May 12th, 1945. Taungdaw. West bank of the Irrawaddy River.
Monsoon rain falls over a jungle hillside in Burma.
A narrow path cuts through the darkness toward a single forward trench — just 100 yards ahead of the British line.
Three Gurkha soldiers wait there in silence.
At 01:20 hours, the first grenade arcs out of the jungle.
Within minutes, the trench is shattered. Two defenders lie wounded.
The third — Rifleman Lachhiman Gurung of the 8th Gurkha Rifles — is left alone.
Then another grenade explodes in his hand.
His fingers are torn away. His right arm shattered. One eye destroyed.
And somewhere in the jungle ahead, two hundred Japanese soldiers begin their assault.
For the next four hours, one trench refuses to fall.
Using only his left hand, Gurung braces his Lee-Enfield rifle against his hip, cycling the bolt alone in the darkness. Attack after attack crashes against the position. Grenades, machine-gun bursts, screaming charges through the jungle.
Still the rifle keeps firing.
By dawn, 87 Japanese soldiers lie dead around the company position.
Thirty-one of them lie directly in front of Gurung’s trench.
But the number is not what mattered.
This documentary tells the story of one of the most extraordinary defensive actions of the Burma Campaign in World War II — and the quiet philosophy that shaped the Gurkha regiments for more than a century.
Not a story of heroism as legend.
But of identity, training, and a soldier for whom retreat simply did not exist.
This documentary reveals:
✓ How a single Gurkha rifleman stopped a Japanese breakout attempt in the Burma Campaign of WW2
✓ The tactical role of forward trenches in jungle warfare on the Irrawaddy Front
✓ The mechanics of fighting with a Lee-Enfield rifle after catastrophic combat injury
✓ The Gurkha regimental code — “Kayar hunu bhanda marnu ramro” — better to die than be a coward
✓ Why the defense of Taungdaw became one of the most remarkable moments in WW2 military history
Rifleman Lachhiman Gurung survived the battle, though he lost his right hand and right eye.
For his actions that night, he received the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery in the British Commonwealth.
But Gurung himself explained the night far more simply.
“I had to fight,” he later said.
“I felt I was going to die anyway, so I might as well die standing.”
The trench at Taungdaw no longer exists.
The jungle reclaimed it decades ago.
What remains is a story still taught to every new recruit of the Gurkha regiments — a reminder that sometimes the outcome of a battle depends on whether a single soldier decides that stopping is not an option.
History is not written only by those who win — but by those who understand why the line never broke.
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📚 Sources:
Victoria Cross Citation – London Gazette, July 27, 1945
War Diaries – 4th Battalion, 8th Gurkha Rifles (Burma Campaign, 1945)
7th Indian Infantry Division Operational Reports
Post-war testimony from Gurkha veterans, 1946–1955