Every soldier dreads the prospect of perhaps one day having to drag a colleague out of a battleground.

For Lance Corporal Gajenda Rai of the Second Battalion of the Royal Gurkha Rifles that fear became a reality last year.

He and fellow B company soldier Rifleman Dhan Gurung ran into incoming fire to pull their friend and fellow Gurkha Rfn Yubraj Rai from a fire-fight with Taliban insurgents in November last year.

Rfn Yubraj sadly lost his life hours after being pulled to safety.

It is a day L Cpl Gajenda will never forget.

“On that day the ground was very open and when we were crossing the open ground the enemy opened fire.

“We did not know where it was coming from and we never found out who fired at us.

“When you are contacted in the open everyone lays down and takes cover.

“Myself and the section and platoon commanders made it to a safe point under cover.

“Once we had reached this point we continued firing on what we thought was the likely direction the enemy was firing from. The Taliban firing continued though.

“My colleague Rfn Dhan Gurung and Rfn Yubraj Rai were still laying in the open ground. They tried to run to the safe position, but when Yubraj stood up he was hit by the enemy rounds.

“When I saw Yubraj go down I said “there is a casualty in open ground” then I grabbed my guys and said we had to go to get Yubraj.

“So I ran to the casualty position and myself and Rfn Dhan who was still there started to drag him to safety. As we were doing so, rounds were coming down all around us. I did not know where they were coming from.

“Once we had extracted him from the open ground we were very tired because by that time Yubraj was already unconscious.

“Bullets were still being fired at us and I said to Rfn Dhan we should take off his Osprey body armour.

“We saw he had been hit in the hip. Everyone was in shock at the sight of the blood but I said to everyone 'do not worry he will be extracted from here as soon as possible.'

“We extracted to a compound and waited there for about 30 minutes until the medics could get to us safely.

“Before then Yubraj woke up and said “give me some morphine” in Nepali, but we knew we couldn’t because doing so would send him unconscious again. He asked two or three times for morphine before he lapsed into unconsciousness again. Then our CSM WO2 Ram got to us and took him away with the medics.”

The bravery shown by L Cpl Gajenda was reported in many national papers at the time.

“People said to me that I had been given a second life as the bullets were apparently raining down on me and Rfn Dhan when we went to extract Yubraj.

“To be honest I did not think about my life at the time. I only thought about getting my fellow Gurkha out of there.”

The news that Rfn Yubraj had been killed came as a shock to many of the soldiers.

“Three or four hours after he was taken by the medics he was dead. We all felt devastated at the news.

“I thought he wouldn't die, because the round hit him in the hip. I had been told a round in the body or the head would be fatal, but not in the hip. So it was a big shock to everyone when we found out we had lost him.”

L Cpl Rai continues to serve with 5 Platoon, 1 Section of B Company at Patrol Base Woqab to the north of Musa Qal’eh District Centre in northern Helmand province.

When he has finished his tour he will go home to Shornecliffe near Folkestone to his wife Sarita, 23 and daughter Akcheta, who is just three months old.

The events of his tour on Operation Herrick Nine will not leave him though.

“Whatever happens to me, I will never forget that day” he said.