Funny snippet involving a Ghurkha

K

Kmark

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Mar 21, 2000
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I was just surfing around when I found this <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3bba5227461b.htm">site</a> about Ghurkhas and the following snippet:

<blockquote>
I heard that a bunch of Gurka trainees were getting ready to make their first parachute jump. When they were told that they were going to be jumping out of the plane at 1000 feet they were very uneasy and one of the English speaking non-coms told their British commander that they would prefer 500 feet. The British officer told the non-com that they needed to jump at 1000 to make sure that their parachutes opened. Then he said with a very big grin and a relieved voice, "Oh! We're going to have parachutes?"
</blockquote>

I thought that was hilarious, and at the same time showed just how brave these guys are...

There was also an ignorant comment about the Ghurkhas (near the top) that I'll let you guys read and decide what you think of it. Personally, I just wish people like those would get the facts straight before saying stuff like that.

And another thing, ever notice the similarities between the Fremen of Dune (sci-fi classic book by Frank Herbert) and the Ghurkhas of Nepal? Both races are extremely resilient, superb fighters and are the worst nightmare of their enemies. The Fremen Crysknife is also similar to the Ghurkha Khukuri...makes you think, doesn't it? :)
 
Heard one war story while in London that the Argentine recruits facing the British forces during the Falklands conflict were terrified to the point of surrender when they found out that they would be facing Gorkhas. If this was true, all those khukuri stories from WWII probably played a big part in it.

Andrew Limsk
 
IIRC, I heard that British Intelligence also had heard the stories and started posting Gurkhas in the open doors of helicopters flying over the Argentine troops to be seen by them and thus demoralized.

IIRC, I also heard that the Falklands were the last action in which the Sykes - Fairbairn commando knife was issued. Seems at the end at their return to the UK, there were numerous complaints about the scabbards issued with them.

Seems that an amazing number of them ( possibly a majority of those issued ) ended up reported as lost in action due to these faulty scabbards. For some reason or other, the folks in the Quartermaster Corps who had spent the durattion of the war in their home barracks were loathe to call elite battle-hardened returning SAS and Para'a liars to their faces even though they suspected the boys were handing them a story about losing them.
 
During the Falkland war I heard this story from a veteran at speakers corner, I tend to believe it:
The british soldier were brought to a stop by a machine gun on a hill. They tried to kill the man up there but could not move for several days. A 4 man troup of Gorkhas met them on the 3 afternoon and much to the surprise of the regular british soldiers just sat there and rested. When the british soldiers woke up in the morning the enemies were all dead. Not a single shot was fired in the night.
 
A Brit friend who was in the Army told me this joke over a couple of beers:

A Japanese officer ran into a Gorkha during WWII. Both men drew their blades and slashed at each other. The Gorkha grinned and the Japanese officer looking for wounds but finding none yelled "You missed too!" at which point the Gorkha shook his head. The Japanese officers head promptly fell off...

Andrew Limsk
 
Kmark, I just checked out the site that you recomended and I also checked all the threads it had:eek: , there's a lot of reading but it's worth it:) . Those Ghurkas were and are some tuff SOB's. I've heard some stories about them but none as good as I saw there. Lots of good pics to:) :).
 
Thanks all. I know some of these stories are not meant to be funny but somehow almost all of them always make me chuckle.

Do I have a sick sense of humor or is this a common reaction.
 
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