He and his men were surrounded by the enemy from three sides and his company sustained heavy casualties because they were outnumbered by the enemy.
He realized that if he and his men left that post then it would be easy for the enemy to capture Srinagar airport and Srinagar city.
He then told his boys to fight till last the blood was spilt. They were outnumbered seven to one by the enemy, but he and his company were not ready to surrender and he kept on urging his men to fight bravely. Major Sharma soon realized that heavy casualties affected firing power.
So although his right hand was in plaster, he took upon himself the task of filling the magazines and issuing them to men and he himself took charge of the light machine guns.
While he was busy fighting the enemy, a mortar shell exploded on the ammunition near him and killed him, his last voice message to brigade HQ was, “the enemies were just 50 yards from us and that we are heavily outnumbered and we shall not withdraw an inch but we will fight to our last man and last round”.
The leadership and courage which he showed resulted in the enemy being delayed for six hours, thus buying time to get the reinforcements.
For his leadership and the bravery which he showed during the war, he received India's first Param Vir Chakra (posthumous).
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