ANZAC Day 25 Apr 2025 : An ode to 2/Lt Arun Khetrapal

True leaders find their sea- legs a long time before they are actually tested

They tend to be well rounded, curious and dedicated to their craft

They are resolute in war and defiant in defeat

Standing extreme right ….Arun Khetrapal

PARAM VIR

Later this month ANZAC day will be celebrated in Australia and New Zealand to honour the sacrifice of the men and women from the many armies of WW1 friend and foe alike, who gave their lives at Gallipoli 1915. All of whom fought and died with honour.

In addition to the Australian and the New Zealand Armed Forces, the British and the Irish, the Indian Army served with great honour at Gallipoli. Nearly 15000 Indian troops including the pioneer and logistics cadres were in the fight.

The 14 Sikh battalion of the famed Sikh Regiment and the 1/5 Gurkha Rifles of the 5th Gurkha Rifles Frontier Force were deployed with the ANZACs and suffered heavy casualties. Both battalions fought alongside the ANZACS at the battles of Krithia, Chinook Bair and Sari Bair suffering horrendous casualties.

14 Sikh lost all but 2 of its officers and 369 men in the first charge itself. Only 2 officers and 27 men of the original batallion finally returned.

1/5 GR lost 129 men within 2 hours of landing at Anzac cove. They were the last soldiers to leave Gallipoli covering the retreat of the ANZACs and the entire allied British force. They will be honored at the Cambridge New Zealand Cenotaph.

On a personal level It is customary on Anzac Day to dedicate a small prayer to a person one has loved or admired or looked up to. This year I have chosen to honour 2 LT Arun Khetarpal who was a senior cadet in the NDA whilst I was there and who gave his life at the Battle off Basanter fighting overwhelming odds for which he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra. I enclose a photograph of him as a cadet in the NDA.

Cadet Arun Khetarpal 38th NDA playing the Clarinet with his Beat Group THE STAR GAZERS in circa 1968

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.

Haul down the bridge, Sir Consul,

With all the speed ye may ;

I, with two more to help me,

Will hold the foe in play.

In you Strait path a thousand

May well be stopped by three.

Now who will stand on either hand,

And keep the bridge with me ?

With weeping and with laughter

Still the story is told,

How well Horatius kept the bridge

In the brave Days of old.

The Las of Ancient Rome …Lord Macaulay – an excerpt

He was our own Horatius of Rome, and much like Horatius defending the bridge on the Tiber, 2LT Khetarpal met his destiny defending our forces against a Pakistani armoured spearhead at the Basanter Canal, with his troops of tree tanks.

I quote a small excerpt of a poem

“For the fallen” by Laurence Binyon which is the anthem for the fallen “ they shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,

We will remember them

We will remember them.”

Jai Hind

Allan Rodrigues

Cambridge New Zealand