Raised on 4 August 1768 as Bombay Sepoys and centred at Belagavi, the regiment won two Victoria Crosses in Italy and fought at Jamalpur in 1971.
The Senio Floodbank
On the evening of 9 April 1945, a company of the 1st Battalion, 5th Mahratta Light Infantry assaulted across the Senio River in Italy, near S. Polito. The river was about 15 feet wide, between floodbanks 30 to 35 feet high. On the east bank nearly the whole party was killed or wounded.
Sepoy Namdeo Jadav, a company runner, carried two wounded men back through deep water and up the steep bank through a mine belt, making two trips under mortar and machine gun fire. He then crossed the exposed bank a third time and silenced one machine gun post with his Tommy gun. When a wound in the hand stopped him using it, he threw grenades and destroyed two more. He then climbed on to the bank under mortar fire and signalled the remaining companies across. The London Gazette published his Victoria Cross on 15 June 1945.
He was the regiment's second of the campaign. On 10 July 1944, in the upper Tiber Valley, Naik Yeshwant Ghadge's rifle section came under machine gun fire at close range, and everyone but him was killed or wounded. He charged the gun alone, knocked it out with a grenade, shot one of the crew with his Tommy gun and, with no time to change magazines, beat two more to death with the weapon. Snipers then shot him dead. His Victoria Cross was posthumous.
Jangi Paltan, 1768
The regiment dates itself from 4 August 1768, when the 2nd Battalion, Bombay Sepoys was raised to protect the East India Company's possessions on the islands of Bombay. That battalion is now the 1st, known as Jangi Paltan, the fighting unit. The 2nd Battalion, Kali Panchwin, was raised the same year as the 3rd Bombay Sepoys and was made light infantry in 1841 for the siege of Kahun and the defence of Dadar in the First Anglo-Afghan War.
The centre at Belagavi, there since 1922, descends from the 114th Mahrattas, which traces its origin to 1800. At Sharqat in Mesopotamia in 1918 that battalion received 28 gallantry awards, recorded as the most for any unit in a single action. The 117th Mahrattas, now the 5th Battalion, were made a Royal battalion for their part in the 146-day siege of Kut-el-Amara. As of 2000, Marathas made up 86 per cent of recruits.
Battalions of the regiment also served in other formations. 4/5 Mahratta formed the rearguard when 50 Parachute Brigade broke out of Sangshak in March 1944, and about 100 of its men were captured.
Naushera and the Parachute Battalion
After Independence, the regiment took the honours Naushera and Jhangar in 1948. Its 3rd Battalion was then a parachute unit with 50 Parachute Brigade. Three of its men received the Maha Vir Chakra in that war: Lt Col Harbans Singh Virk, Major A. K. Ramaswamy and Major Satyapal Chopra. In 1952 the battalion passed to the new Parachute Regiment as 2 Para, and in December 1971 it dropped at Tangail. Two of the regiment's battle honours came in 1965, Burki and Hussainiwala, the second to the 2nd Battalion. Another battalion, 20 Maratha, went to the Mechanised Infantry and is now 10 Mech.
Jamalpur, 1971
In December 1971, 1 Maratha under Lt Col K. S. Brar came down from the Tura sector with 95 Mountain Brigade. It took Bakshiganj on an outflanking march and by first light on 9 December had set up a block on the Jamalpur to Tangail road. Brigadier H. S. Kler visited by helicopter. A surrender note went into Jamalpur through a freedom fighter, Zohal Haq Munshi, and the garrison commander, Colonel Sultan Ahmed of 31 Baluch, rejected it.
Around midnight on 10/11 December the garrison tried to break out towards Tangail and ran into the block. At dawn about 60 Pakistani soldiers surrendered, and 234 dead were counted in front of the position. Major Satish Nambiar's Y Company then entered Jamalpur and took the surrender of 3 officers, 10 JCOs and 372 other ranks. The battalion lost 13 killed and 8 wounded. On 12 December it linked up with 2 Para at Tangail, once a battalion of its own regiment, and on 16 December its headquarters and Y Company entered Dhaka around 3 pm. Jamalpur became a battle honour of the battalion. Five Vir Chakras went to Brar, Nambiar, Captain R. S. V. Dafle, Havildar Krishna Gurav and Lance Havildar Laxman Rane, the last posthumously.
Burj
On the western front, 15 Maratha held positions north-east of Amritsar. BSF posts and platoon screens in front of it were attacked on the nights of 3 and 4 December. Captain Dilip Kute's patrol surprised and captured the mortar platoon of 43 Baluch with its equipment. In the attack on Burj, the second-in-command, Major Ranbir Singh, was wounded and carried on. Sepoy Pandurang Salunke fought hand to hand, took a rocket launcher from a Pakistani soldier and was killed by enemy fire. He received the Maha Vir Chakra posthumously, and the battalion the battle honour Burj.
In the east, 5 Maratha took Suadih on 4 December for its own honour. On 16 December at 3.30 pm, Maj Gen M. A. Ansari, commanding the Pakistani 9 Infantry Division, surrendered at that battalion's headquarters.
At a glance
- Raised: 4 August 1768
- Regimental centre: Belagavi (Belgaum), Karnataka
- Motto: Duty, Honour, Courage
- War cry: Bola Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Ki Jai