The One-Man Gurkha Army: The Stand of Sgt. Dipprasad Pun | September 2010

um on the 17th of september 2010 a platoon from the first battalion the royal gurkha rifles were stationed at two patrol bases near the village of raheem kalai in the north of helmand province at some point during the day the bulk of the platoon departed the bases to secure a key road to the east with two small detachments remaining behind to garrison the outposts tasked with holding the southernmost patrol base were four gurkhas among them sergeant dipper said poon who in the evening of the 17th was on century duty on the roof of the two-story compound that was at the center of the base man in his post for several hours sergeant pun soon began to hear some noises materializing from the other side of the main gate and as he later recalled i thought at first maybe it was a cow but my suspicion soon built up and i saw two taliban digging to lay down an ied in front of our gate [Music] immediately the sergeant called out for the two men to identify themselves but instead of receiving a verbal response bullets and rpgs began to hit the patrol base as a significantly larger taliban force appeared from out of the darkness realising the outpost was under attack sergeant pun grabbed a nearby radio and informed this platoon commander of the unfolding situation before turning his attention onto the enemy as soon as i knew they were taliban i thought i was going to die but as soon as i started firing that feeling went away i knew i had to do something before they killed me and my free comrades i thought before they kill me i have to kill some of them [Music] picking up his sa-80 the goku fired off a rifle grenade at the attacking enemy prior to attaching a nearby general-purpose machine gun from its tripod and returning fire on the advancing taliban fighters the moving forward from three directions within minutes however he had spent all of his machine gun ammunition and so resorted to using a mix of grenades to disrupt the attack including six phosphorus six fragmentation and four rifle grenades once these two had become expended he picked up his saat again and moving from position to position he continued to engage the enemy some of whom managed to break through his line of sight and reach the compound looking for a way to get onto the roof some of the insurgents began scaling at the building's mud walls with one fighter reaching the top first and proceeding to rush the gurkha training his sa-80 onto the enemy fighter sergeant pun shot and killed the insurgent seconds before experiencing a weapon malfunction just as another taliban fighter appeared on the roof ditching his rifle the sergeant grabbed the nearby gpmg tripod and held it at the second insurgent knocking him unconscious [Music] moments after sergeant pun hurt several more of the enemy attempting to climb up to the roof who he pushed back by dropping a sandbag onto one and forcing the others to retreat when a claymore mine detonated eventually after 17 minutes of heavy fighting the enemy attack had collapsed and what was left of the taliban force withdrew back in the direction they had come from a short while later british reinforcements arrived at the patrol base to strengthen its defenses where they found an exhausted sergeant depressed pun still on the roof sergeant pun later stated i thought they might been around 20 to 30 taliban fighters involved in the attack but later locals told me it was probably around 15. i know i'm very lucky to be alive i didn't think the attack would ever end and i nearly collapsed when it was over i did what i was trained to do there wasn't any choice but to fight you

Channel: Liveth For Evermore

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Keywords: British, Military, History, Education, Army, Air Force, Navy, Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, Liveth For Evermore, LFE, Special Forces, Helmand, Helmand Province, Gurka, R.G.R., Royal Gurkha Rifles, Sergeant, Dipprasad Pun, Sgt Dipprasad Pun, The One-Man Gurkha Army: The Stand of Sgt. Dipprasad Pun | September 2010, Rahim Kalay, Operation Herrick, Afghanistan, Patrol base, SA80, GPMG, Sgt Pun, Gurkha holds off, 1 Royal Gurkha Rifles, Gurkhas, British Army, 4th Brigade, Sangin

Id: u_Ml2jpxezM

Length: 5min 17sec (317 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 22 2020