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The Japanese murdered between 15 and 20 million people in world war 2, their brutalization of non-Japanese populations everywhere they planted their flag was as staggering as it was cruel. Experimentation, live dissection, cremation or burying people alive, nightmare stuff

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When you ignore parts of history, for whatever reason, people forget important things like the atrocities committed by the Japanese and their sheer magnitude and scale more than capable of rivaling anything the Nazis did. Death camps, slaves worked and starved to death, and more.

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Which makes the real stories of those who fought against them even more worth telling. As tough as the imperial military was, they ended up getting face fucked in the dark ass jungles. It seems silly to make up an Indian character that kills nazis when there were real Gurkhas.

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Enter Havildar Lachhiman Gurung. Havildar is a rank btw. Story goes that as kid, Gurung went to buy cigarettes for his dad in 1940 but didn’t come back home until 5 years later, and when he did he was missing an arm and an eye. But we’ll get to that.

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While Gurung was in town, he ran into a friend going to enlist. The

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sized Lachhiman came in just under 5 feet tall, and normally would’ve been unfit for service. The British knew war was coming and were desperate for volunteers, so passed him into the 8th Gurkha Rifles

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Burma is one of the forgotten theatres of the war, but was critical in stopping Japan. Burma was the allied supply route into China and saw more than half a decade of brutal jungle warfare that could make Gary Linderer sweat.

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In April, 1945, the Japanese were executing a so far successful plan to withdraw in order to regroup w reinforcements and launch a major counter attack against what would become a heavily outnumbered allied force. Gurung and the 8th GR were sent to cut off the enemy retreat.

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The 8th made contact with the Japanese near a Burmese village called Taungdaw, and ended up cut off and surrounded from the main British task force by several hundred Japanese soldiers. The 8th were ordered to dig in and would fight a jungle version of Bastogne.

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Gurung held the most forward position, a small hill at the outside of the town with two other Gurkhas. On the first night, the Japanese began what would become a 3 day and 2 night attempt to overrun the 8th GR.

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The fight began when Gurungs and every Gurkha position began taking staggering small arms and machine gun fire. The Japanese opened with an out assault. A grenade was thrown into Gurungs position, then a second, then a third.

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Gurung grabbed the first grenade and hurled it back at the Japanese. The second hand landed by his foot, which he kicked out of the fighting position before it detonated. Gurung grabbed the third grenade, and as he was throwing it out of the fighting position, it exploded.

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A lot of us have seen wounds from an explosion, including amputations, and they’re fucking horrible. Gurungs hand was mangled and the bones in his arm had been shattered. He had taken a several shrapnel wounds, and had lost an eye. The two Gurkhas with him had been incapacitated.

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Where most men would’ve given up or died of shock, Lachhiman fought on. With his left hand and shattered arm, he SUCCESSFULLY used a fucking BOLT ACTION Lee Enfield Mk III to continue to engage the Japanese attacking his position.

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He killed them from afar, and when they got close, he killed more at point blank. When they started coming over the lip of his hasty, he switched to his kukri and did serious fucking work.

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You have to take a second to really appreciate what’s going on. Hundreds of Japanese are attacking your platoon, you’re at the furthest position, your hands been mangled, your good arm is shattered, and you’re fighting off fucking samurai using your kukri. And winning.

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After and during every wave of Japanese assault, Gurung fought on using his rifle and blade. He continuously challenged the Japanese, repeatedly yelling “COME AND FIGHT A GURKHA!” fighting for two more days before friendly forces could break through and relieve his unit.

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Ultimately 87 Japanese would be killed by the Gurkhas in that engagement. Of that 87 Lachhiman personally killed 31 of them. He would among many other awards earn the VC for his actions. Tho he lost the use of his hand, his arm recovered, and continued to serve as a Royal Gurkha.

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Gurung would eventually retire and live out the rest of his life as an advocate for Gurkha veterans and a farmer, living peacefully on his family farm. He’s being supported here by ppl on both sides bc when your heart is that fucking big, you need help carrying it around.

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