Sepoy Nand Singh, 1st Battalion, 11th Sikh Regiment, winning the VC in Burma, 12 March 1944

Oil on canvas, by Second Lieutenant Edward E L Mortelmans, The Mahar Regiment, 1948 (c).

Sepoy (acting Naik) Nand Singh (1914-1947) 1st Battalion 11th Sikh Regiment, won the Victoria Cross for his gallantry at the Arakan, the coastal region of Burma which borders the Bay of Bengal.

During the night of 11-12 March 1944, a Japanese platoon infiltrated into the area covering the main Maungdaw to Buthidaung road, occupied by the 1st/11th Sikhs, and took up a dominating position. Acting Naik Nand Singh led his section up a very steep knife-edge ridge under heavy machine-gun fire and rifle fire. Although wounded in the thigh, he rushed ahead of his section and took the first enemy trench with the bayonet by himself. He then crawled forward alone under heavy fire, and though wounded again took the second trench at the point of the bayonet. A short time later, when all his section had been either killed or wounded, Naik Nand Singh dragged himself out of the trench and captured a third trench, killing all the occupants with his bayonet.

Nand Singh was killed on 12 December 1947, fighting in Kashmir as a Jemadar in the Army of independent India, against Pakistan. He led troops in the capture of a key objective near Uri and was killed shortly after it was taken. He was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, the Indian decoration for battlefield bravery. This award of both VC and MVC is unique.