Orders, Decorations and Medals

A fine Second World War Burma operations M.M. group of five awarded to Sepoy Babu Singh, 1st Battalion, 11th Sikh Regiment, who stripped to a loin cloth to mingle with local villagers and penetrate Japanese lines with a vital message: he was later a recipient of the Vir Chakra

Military Medal, G.VI.R. (24075 Sepoy Babu Singh, Sikh R.), officially impressed naming; 1939-45 Star; Burma Star; War Medal 1939-45; India Service Medal 1939-45, generally good very fine (5) £600-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bahadur Collection of Medals to Sikh Regiments.

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M.M. London Gazette 1 November 1945. The orginal recommendation for an immediate award states:

‘At Abya on the night of 3-4 July 1945, Sepoy Babu Singh was a member of an isolated Platoon in Satthwagyon village, which was heavily attacked throughout the night by approximately 150 enemy. All communications with the Battalion had failed and the position of the Platoon was desperate, as by 0600 hours in the morning only ten rounds of ammunition per man remained.

Sepoy Babu Singh volunteered to take a message to the Battalion some three miles away. To do this, with an interpreter, he divested himself of his clothes and donned a loin cloth. Then, completely submerged, the two men crawled down a nullah out of the position, and through the encircling enemy. They mingled with the local inhabitants who were being cleared by the Japanese, and openly walked past, and within two feet of two Japanese sentries. Once clear of the village, the two men ran for three miles over flooded paddy fields, bearing a written message, to the Battalion position. Thereafter, they led a relieving company back to a position where they could attack the Japanese from a flank, and so relieve the hard-pressed platoon. The gallantry and devotion to duty of these two men was instrumental in saving the Platoon, as owing to the confused situation it was not realised that the Platoon was heavily engaged.’

Babu Singh, who was born in Nath village, near Sangrur in the Punjab in April 1921, was awarded his Vir Chakra in November 1947.