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Auction: 23111 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 461

General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, S. E. Asia 1945-46 (89537 Rfn. Lalbahadur Gurung, 1-8 G.R.), very fine

In November 1945, 1st Battalion, 8th Gurkha Rifles (1/8GR), as part of 36th Indian Infantry Brigade, was ordered to move to Java. The Brigade arrived in Java in late December 1945 where it reinforced 23rd Indian Infantry Division.
The initial task allotted to the 36th Indian Infantry Brigade was to restore law and order, to protect some 8,000 R.A.P.W.I. (Released Allied Prisoners of War and Internees), and to concentrate and disarm all Japanese in the Buitenzorg area, some thirty miles to the south of Batavia in the foothills of the central mountain range. Several Battalion operations were carried out - searches for "wanted" Indonesians, the discovery of a local arms factory which turned iron piping into primitive grenades and the recapture and defence of the waterworks which supplied Batavia. Law and order was gradually restored in Buitenzorg before the Battalion was redeployed in February to Batavia, described as a city of filth, squalor and desolation. However, a subsequent move up-country changed the scene, and it was in a beautiful lush green country in the highlands of Java that the Battalion assumed responsibility for the protection of communications between Batavia and Bandoeng. At the end of March, the Battalion resumed road protection duties with a series of picquets and patrols in the North-West Frontier manner, and a close escort company with each convoy as protection from sniping and ambushes.
At the beginning of May 1946, 36th Indian Infantry Brigade, to included 1/8GR, sailed for Madras from where the Battalion moved to Kohat on the North West Frontier of India; life of the Cantonment had returned. During its short tour in Java, the Battalion sustained 1 Killed in Action and a further 11 Wounded, which represented 5% of the Battalion's casualties during the Second World War.


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Sold for
£80

Starting price
£40