Hawaldar Gajendra Singh

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. Additional information may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.

Briefly

Prem Punetha, Russian army museum showcases bravery of soldier from Pithoragarh during WWII, June 29, 2020: The Times of India

Gajendra Singh had joined the British Indian Army in 1936
From: Prem Punetha, Russian army museum showcases bravery of soldier from Pithoragarh during WWII, June 29, 2020: The Times of India

The photograph and citation of an Indian soldier, Hawaldar Gajendra Singh, a native of village Badalu in Pithoragarh district, has been included in the Russian army museum’s gallery of gallant soldiers in Moscow. Singh was awarded the ‘Order of the Red Star’, a Soviet military decoration, for his bravery in the Second World War in 1944. Apart from him, only one other Indian soldier, hailing from Tamil Nadu, has been honoured with the ‘Order of the Red Star.’ The Indian embassy in Moscow informed the family of the dead soldier about the felicitation last week. A letter signed by DB Venkatesh Verma, the Indian ambassador to Russia, was sent to the family in which the ambassador, referring to the inclusion of Singh’s name in the Russian armed forces museum, termed it “a matter of great pride for India and a testament to the bonds of friendship between India and the Russian federation.”

Speaking to TOI, Bhagwan Singh, the soldier’s son, said that his father was recruited in the British Indian Army in 1936. “My father told us he was sent to Chakwal (Rawalpindi), which is now in Pakistan, for training after which he was posted in the Royal Indian Army Service Corps. Most of his service was in the North-West Frontier Province which is now Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa area.”

Reminiscing further, Bhagwan Singh said, “ My father told us that when WWII broke out, he was posted at Basara in Iraq. As part of the Allied Forces, he was deputed to carry ration, arms and ammunition to Soviet soldiers through difficult terrain. One night in 1943 when he was on duty, he was attacked by enemy soldiers and badly wounded. Army doctors advised that he be sent back to India but my father insisted on staying. After his recovery, he joined his battalion again and continued to supply provisions to Soviet soldiers.” He added that “seeing his dedication towards duty, the Soviet army awarded him the ‘Order of the Red Star’ in July 1944.”