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A detachment under Lance-Naik Karam Singh wasassigned to guard a hill outpost; Lance-Naik Singh’s "detachment" con- sisted of three men and himself. The outpost was well in ad- vance of the major defensive works held by his company; to ....... attack these defences, the Pakistanis had first to attack the outpost. Early in the morning of ~3 October 19482 an attack was launched against Karam Singh’s position. Although outnumbered by ten to one, the defenders drove off the raiders, receiving only one casualty. Again they attacked, killing another of the Indian defenders; Lance-Naik Singh and his sole remaining comrade tenaciously held their ground. It soon became obvious to Lance-Naik that the supply of ammunition was fast running out. He decided to withdraw;although heavily wounded him- self, Singh carried his remaining comrade, who was fatally wounded, toward the main company defensive lines. To reach these lines he had to pass through heavy enemy small arms and light artillery fire. During this withdrawal, he was wouuded several times but managed to destroy two enemy sections with hand grenades .................... Although badly wounded, Lance-Naik Singh, upon reaching friendly lines,immediately joined the platoon which was clo- sest to the ma~u action. Braving heavy fire which again wounded him, Karam Singh moved from position to position, en- couraging the soldiers and keeping them in high spirits. The offensive was beatenoff. The enemy almost immediately mottuted a fifth offensive. Karam Singh noticed thattwo raiders were quickly advancing through the Indian crawl trenches; there was no time for him to engage them with fire, and he ran forward, bayonetted both the attackers and returned to his o~n lines. This at- tack, the final one~ was broken. Lance-Naik Karam Singh was awarded the Param Vir Chakra for his bravery, the first living recipient. The official citation states that: "He was an inspiration to his comrades and a terror to the enemy." Lieutenant Rama Raghova Rane~ ~Tth Assualt Fiel.~ Company Date of Action: 10 April 1948 Place of Action: Barwaki Ridge, vicinity Nathpore, Kashmir Date and Place of Birth: 26 June 1918; Haveri, Dhawar During theKashmir Campaign, a column under Brigadier Yadunath Singh was marching from Naushera Rajauri, which had been taken by Pakistani forces on 8 April 1948. The road which they were to take had been heavily mined and blocked by the enemy forces and Second Lieutenant Rama Raghove Rane’s unit of the 37th Assault Field Company was ordered to move ahead of the column to clear the road. When Rane’s party reached the vicinity of Nathp0rethey came under heavy fire from Pakistani mortars. Despitethe heavy fire which killed four men of Lieutenant Rane’sparty, he rallied the men to proceed in their mission of clearing the road. His leadership allowed Indian tanks to move forward. 16 Lieutenant Rane By this time most of the members of his clearing party were injured; Rane himself moved forward in the face of heavy machine gun fire and began the single-handed clearing of a road-block heavily covered by enemy machine g~ns. Again~ the clearing operation was accomplished and the column was allowed to move fo~ard. Eight miles further on~ they came up against another heavily-defended road block. Under cover of a tank, Lieuten- ant Rane singly advancednear the blocky planted mines and destroyed the obstruction again enabling the Indian forces to proceed. The official citation awarding the Param Vir Chakra to Lieutenant Rama Raghove Rane declared: "But for the grim de- termination ~nd tireless diligence of Lieutenant Rane~ who worked ceaselessly, our column would not have reached Chlngas an important feature which secured for us a vantage position to advance further." l? Havildar Major Piru Singh (0A 39~2)~ A Compa~ny~ 6th Battalion ~aJputana Rifles Date of Action: 18 July 1948 Place of Action: Vicinity Tithwal~^West Kashmir Date and Place of Birth: 21 May 191~$ Beri~ Jaipur~ RaJastan Havildar Major Singh On 18 July 1948, Havildar Singh’s company was ordered to attack a strategic and well-defended hill position south of Tithwal. Singh’s section was to be the leading section in the attack~ the first volley of fire and grenades from the Pakis- tani defenders killed half of his section~ but the Havildar Major led his men forward up the hill. Despite his heavy per- sonal injuries~ Piru Singh reached the top of the strategic hill. He then braved the machine gun fire? attacking the near- est emplacement, Jumping into the hunker and bayonetting the gun-crew. He now signalled for the remainder of his section 18 .

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