HEROES OF THE VICTORIA CROSS ALI HAIDAR

In WWII's final weeks, this British Indian Army sepoy was severely wounded in Italy while silencing multiple German machine gun nests

- LOUIS HARDIMAN

For three days, Pashtun Sepoy Ali Haidar waited under the clear blue skies of northern Italy. He knew the order to attack across the Senio River would come soon. The rumble of Allied artillery, a constant during the build-up, was beginning to reach a crescendo as gunners worked around the clock to crack the robust German defences on both banks of the river. The bombardment reached its peak during the afternoon and evening of 9 April: 825 heavy bombers dropped fragmentation ordnance behind the main defences, shells screamed across the Senio from every artillery piece in the sector and Allied fighter bombers made precision strikes. Meanwhile, Haidar was among the British Indian Army's 13th Frontier Force Rifles slowly advancing to the river's south bank, supported by tanks. As the afternoon turned to dusk and the bombardment ceased, Haidar was about to find out how successful all those explosives had been.

Born to Pashtun parents belonging to the Bangash tribe in Kohat, Haidar had joined the Sixth Battalion 13th Frontier Force Rifles of the British Indian Army at the outbreak of the war. His regiment had been involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. Once back in Dover, his battalion was merged into the other 13th Frontier Force Rifles battalions and stationed in Brighton. While most of Haidar's Indian comrades served in Burma and Malaya, his battalion saw action against the Italian and German armies in Ethiopia, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria during the Africa campaign. After the Italian surrender in September 1943, Haidar underwent further training in Casablanca before landing in Italy in April 1944.