The Gurkha Stand at Mokpalin - The Matrix Games version of Rising Sun

21 February, 1942
Mokpalin/Sittang, Burma: After being shattered at the Bilin River, on February 19th, the 17th Indian Divison scrambled away, northwest, toward the Sittang River where the ferry and railroad bridge there allowed passage, west across the Sittang, toward Rangoon. The Japanese 33rd Division's pursuit along the main road northwest was sufficiently delayed, by rearguard actions, to allow the Commonwealth forces to reach the bridge and begin crossing toward the next defensive line at Pegu. The Japanese 55th Division, meanwhile, departed Bilin and dissappeared north into the jungle to approach Sittang from the east. On the 21st, 17th Indian Division's HQ elements reached the bridge and took up positions at the eastern bridgehead, utilizing the 3rd Burma Rifles as a bridgehead guard. On the main road, south of Sittang, at Mokpalin, three Gurkha battalions were deploying as a blocking force to keep the road open to allow the mass of streaming Allied refugees to reach haven, west, across the river. Elements of the Japanese 33rd Division came up and in typical style mounted a hasty attack to test the defenses and with any luck reach the bridge by a coup de main. The Gurkhas began "fighting off ferocious Japanese attacks" which lasted for most of the day. There was no other choice, they had to hold the road open as two brigades of the division had not yet passed. At Rangoon, the Allied high command could still not accept the fact that the Japanese advance into Burma was more than a probe and continued to blame the relentless advance on a lack of fighting spirit in the Allied troops and mainly their commanders. Today the Gurkhas were to give another, forgotten, example of the inaccuaracy of that sentiment.