Thaman Gurung

He stood on the exposed crest to cover the final withdrawal.

Thaman Gurung was born at Singla in western Nepal in 1924. He joined the 1st Battalion, 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles, and served as a rifleman in the Italian campaign.

During a patrol on Monte San Bartolo in November 1944, he surprised and captured Germans preparing to fire on his comrades. He then repeatedly crossed the exposed crest, firing his submachine gun and throwing grenades to cover the withdrawal. Finally he took a Bren gun and stood on the skyline, firing until the last section had moved towards safety. He was killed. His actions saved many casualties and helped the battalion obtain valuable information.

There was no subsequent career. He was buried in Rimini Gurkha War Cemetery. His mother received his posthumous Victoria Cross from the Viceroy, Lord Wavell, at Delhi in December 1945.

Official Victoria Cross citation

In Italy on 10th November, 1944, a Company of the 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles was ordered to send a fighting patrol on to Monte San Bartolo, an objective of a future attack. In this patrol were two scouts, one of whom was Rifleman Thaman Gurung. By skilful stalking both scouts succeeded in reaching the base of the position undetected. Rifleman Thaman Gurung then started to work his way to the summit, but suddenly the second scout attracted his attention to Germans in a slit trench just below the crest, who were preparing to fire with a machine gun at the leading section. Realizing that if the enemy succeeded in opening fire, the section would certainly sustain heavy casualties, Rifleman Thaman Gurung leapt to his feet and charged them. Completely taken by surprise, the Germans surrendered without opening fire. Rifleman Thaman Gurung then crept forward to the summit of the position, from which he saw a party of Germans, well dug in on the reverse slopes, preparing to throw grenades over the crest at the leading section. Although the sky-line was devoid of cover and under accurate machine gun fire at close range, Rifleman Thaman Gurung immediately crossed it, firing on the German position with his Tommy gun, thus allowing the forward section to reach the summit, but due to heavy fire from the enemy machine guns, the platoon was ordered to withdraw. Rifleman Thaman Gurung then again crossed the sky-line alone and although in full view of the enemy and constantly exposed to heavy fire at short range, he methodically put burst after burst of Tommy gun fire into the German slit trenches, until his ammunition ran out. He then threw two grenades he had with him and rejoining his section, collected two more grenades and again doubled over the bullet-swept crest of the hillock and hurled them at the remaining Germans. This diversion enabled both rear sections to withdraw without further loss. Meanwhile, the leading section, which had remained behind to assist the withdrawal of the remainder of the platoon, was still on the summit, so Rifleman Thaman Gurung, shouting to the section to withdraw, seized a Bren gun and a number of magazines. He then, yet again, ran to the top of the hill and, although he well knew that his action meant almost certain death, stood up on the bullet-swept summit, in full view of the enemy, and opened fire at the nearest enemy positions. It was not until he had emptied two complete magazines, and the remaining section was well on its way to safety, that Rifleman Thaman Gurung was killed. It was undoubtedly due to Rifleman Thaman Gurung’s superb gallantry and sacrifice of his life that his platoon was able to withdraw from an extremely difficult position without many more casualties than were actually incurred, and very valuable information brought back by the platoon resulted in the whole Monte San Bartolo feature being captured three days later.

Supplement to The London Gazette of 20 February 1945. 22 February 1945, Numb. 36950, p. 1039