The One-Handed Legend: How an “unarmed” Gurkha took down 200 enemy soldiers using only his left hand
On the night of May 12, 1945, the humid jungles of Taungdaw, Burma, were thick with a silence that screamed of impending violence. Deep in a forward trench, a 27-year-old soldier stood just 4 feet 11 inches tall. His name was Lachhiman Gurung, a rifleman of the 4th Battalion, 8th Gurkha Rifles.
Gurung’s position was the tip of the spear—the most forward point of the British defensive line. Behind him lay his company; in front of him, hidden by the shadows of the monsoon-soaked undergrowth, were 200 soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army. They had one goal: to break the Gurkha line and escape a closing Allied trap. To do it, they had to go through Lachhiman Gurung.
I. The Fragile Perimeter
The Gurkhas, legendary hill soldiers from Nepal, lived by a code that had terrified enemies for over a century: “Kayo bhanda marnu ramro” — Better to die than be a coward.
At 1:20 a.m., the Japanese assault began not with a charge, but with a rain of steel. Grenades began arching through the darkness. Gurung watched the first one land in his trench. Without hesitating, he snatched it up and hurled it back. A second grenade fell. Again, he scooped it up and threw it. The explosions lit up the jungle, revealing a sea of Japanese bayonets rushing toward him.
Then came the third grenade. As Gurung reached down to catch it, the fuse ran out.
The blast was catastrophic. The grenade detonated in Gurung’s right hand, shattering his arm, blowing off his fingers, and peppering his body with white-hot shrapnel. The force of the explosion blinded his right eye and tore into his face and chest. His two comrades in the trench were also severely wounded, falling unconscious and leaving Gurung alone in the blood-slicked mud.
II. The One-Handed War
Most men would have died from the shock. Many would have surrendered. Lachhiman Gurung did neither.
With his right arm a mangled ruin hanging by his side, he gripped his Lee-Enfield rifle with his left hand. The Lee-Enfield is a bolt-action weapon designed to be operated with the right hand. To fire it, Gurung had to brace the heavy rifle against his hip, reach over the stock with his left hand to cycle the bolt, aim with his one remaining eye, and squeeze the trigger.
For four agonizing hours, this 4-foot-11-inch “human fortress” held the line. The Japanese charged in waves, screaming their battle cries. Gurung screamed back, daring them to come and fight a Gurkha. Each time they neared the lip of his trench, he cut them down.
When he ran out of bullets, he reloaded using his teeth and his one good hand. When the Japanese threw more grenades, he could no longer throw them back; he simply pressed himself into the dirt, let the shrapnel wash over him, and kept firing the moment the smoke cleared.
III. The Morning Toll
As the sun began to peek through the Burmese canopy, the Japanese forces, decimated and demoralized by what they believed was a full platoon of defenders, finally retreated.
When reinforcements reached the forward trench, they were greeted by a sight that defied medical logic. Gurung was still conscious, sitting in a pile of empty shell casings, his Kukri knife planted in the earth before him as a final line of defense.
In front of his trench lay 31 dead Japanese soldiers. In total, the battalion would find that his one-man stand had helped repel a force of 200, saving the entire company from being overrun.
IV. The Victoria Cross
Lachhiman Gurung was evacuated to a field hospital, where surgeons worked for hours to save his life. Though he lost his right arm and his right eye, his spirit remained unbroken.
For his “supreme devotion to duty” and “gallantry of the highest order,” he was awarded the Victoria Cross, the British Empire’s highest military honor.
When he was later asked how he survived, Gurung’s answer was simple: “I had to fire because the Japanese were coming. If I didn’t, they would have killed me and my friends.”
V. A Legend Retires
Lachhiman Gurung lived for another 65 years after that night in Burma. He returned to his tiny mountain village in Nepal, a place where he was a living legend. Despite his disabilities, he raised a family and became a fierce advocate for Gurkha rights.
In 2008, nearly blind and 91 years old, he made headlines again. The British government had denied settlement rights to many Gurkha veterans. Gurung traveled to London, wearing his Victoria Cross, and joined actress Joanna Lumley in a public campaign to ensure that those who fought for Britain were allowed to live in Britain. They won.
Lachhiman Gurung passed away in 2010 at the age of 92. He remains the ultimate symbol of the Gurkha soldier: a man who proved that size and physical loss are nothing compared to the weight of a warrior’s heart. He was 4-foot-11, he had one hand and one eye, but on a single night in May 1945, he was an army of one.
