The COVID-19 lockdown ruminations continue even as news comes in about the Indian military contingent in Moscow at the World War II 75th anniversary Victory Day parade.

History tells us that in the late 6th century BC, during the war between Rome and Clusium, an ancient city of Italy, Publius Horatius Cocles, an officer in the army of the early Roman Republic famously defended the Pons Sublicius, a bridge across the Tiber from the invading army of Etruscan King Lars Porsena of Clusium. 

By defending the narrow end of the bridge, he and his two companions were able to hold off the attacking army long enough to allow other Romans to destroy the bridge behind him, blocking the Etruscans' advance and thus saving the city. As the bridge collapses behind him, Horatius leaps into the cold, freezing waters of the Tiber. He is eventually rescued to the rapturous cheers of the Romans, and lives on, a hero to his people.

Rome, it is said, has never been violated by an invader. The stoic soldier did his duty.

Over 87,000 Indian Army soldiers died in WWII and lie buried or are commemorated in cremation memorials, in the well-tended Commonwealth War Cemeteries administered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Some are unaccounted for and missing to this day. In many cases, their battered and bloodied bodies were collected from where they fell and were disposed of temporarily in the aftermath of the battle, according to the dictates of their faith. They were then re-buried, or commemorated on memorials, in the cemeteries spread around the battlefields of WWII.

In some cases, the more famous battlefields are immortalised in the names of the gentleman cadet companies of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.  Alamein, Meiktila, Sangro, Keren, Cassino. In many others, time and television have taken their toll and short-term public memory has reduced them to what they presently are, just names.

One soldier memorialized on the cenotaph in the Cassino War Cemetery Memorial in the province of Frosinone, Italy, is Naik Yeshwant Ghadge (1921–1944), who served in the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry of the Indian Army. For gallantry against the enemy, Ghadge was awarded the Victoria Cross. His citation reads:

"In Italy, on 10th July 1944, a Company of the 5th Mahratta Light Infantry attacked a position strongly defended by the enemy. During this attack, a rifle section commanded by Naik Yeshwant Ghadge came under heavy machine-gun fire at close range, which killed or wounded all members of the section except the commander. Without hesitation, and well knowing that none were left to accompany him, Naik Yeshwant Ghadge rushed to the machine gun post. He first threw a grenade which knocked out the machine gun and firer, after which he shot one of the gun crew with his Tommy gun. Finally, having no time to change his magazine, he grasped his gun by the barrel and beat to death the remaining two men of the gun crew. Unfortunately, Naik Yeshwant Ghadge was shot in the chest and back by enemy snipers and died in the post which he had captured single-handed."

With no known grave, Ghadge is remembered on the Cassino Memorial.

About 182 Victoria Crosses were awarded to soldiers, sailors and airmen from Britain and the Commonwealth, for acts of extreme bravery, similar to that of Naik Yeshwant Ghadge.  Of these, 27 Victoria Crosses, second in number only to the British were awarded to soldiers of the Indian Army, for actions in battlefields stretched across Burma, now Myanmar, North Africa, Abyssinia, now Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Italy.

To return to the present, on the intervening night of 15/16 Jun 2020, in the cold, wild wastes of the Galwan Valley, in the Himalayas, 20 soldiers of the Indian Army were laid upon brutally by the enemy, bludgeoned to death, and thrown into the freezing waters of the Galwan River.

In a tribute to the heroism of Horatius and his companions, Macaulay in 1838 wrote in his poem Horatius: 
 
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods."

As the span became unstable, Horatius urged Lartius and Herminius to retreat, while he fought on alone. His companions regained the Roman side before the bridge began to collapse, but Horatius could no longer cross to safety, and therefore leaped into the river, still fully armoured.

Macaulay continued ….

No sound of joy or sorrow
Was heard from either bank;
But friends and foes in dumb surprise,
With parted lips and straining eyes,
Stood gazing where he sank:
And when above the surges
They saw his crest appear,
All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry,
And even the ranks of Tuscany
Could scarce forbear to cheer.

Our brave soldiers  did not rise alive from the waters of the Galwan River, like those intrepid Ghadges who  did not rise alive from the numerous battlefields of the world, where they fell, having fought valiantly in the best traditions of the Indian Army.

Lest we forget ….

(The author, a retired Indian Navy officer, can be contacted at viswanathanpk@gmail.com. The views expressed are personal)