Ghurka story

T

TomFetter

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Dec 6, 2004
Messages
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Was doing some yard work with my 16 1/2" WWII last night, when I stopped to speak with a neighbour. He asked about the knife, and hefted it approvingly. Then proceeded to tell a story.

Seems his uncle fought in a British unit during WWII, and served alongside some Ghurkas. He was on watch one night, peering out into the darkness, when he felt a light tap on his helmet, and heard the words "OK Joe." He turned quickly, but didn't manage to see who had touched him.

It seems that the Ghurkas, at least where he was fighting, would do some night raids themselves. They'd move as silently as a shadow until they came to someone, and in the dark would lightly trace a finger along the soldier's helmet, to determine its shape. If the helmet shape matched one of their allies', the Ghurka would tap it lightly, say "OK Joe," and move on. If the helmet felt like a German's ... there was a different outcome.

Might just be a legend ... but then again, might not.

Tom.
 
That's awesome. legend or not, I'm sure it happened at some point to some one, some where...


Humans are pretty bad ass creatures.


~ b
 
I expect it's true ... but with 2nd hand war stories, one never knows for sure.

What my neighbour said more than once was how much respect his uncle had for the Ghurkas. This was saying something - the man had worked doing special ops himself, in a pre-cursor to the SAS.
 
Sounds like a nepal apache! In that they move like a ghost. wow
th_U_THIN122.gif
 
I once heard a WW II Guhrka story about how they would find a fox hole full of sleeping enemy soldiers, and silently decapitate one of them. :eek:
 
Yeah, i thought i heard of a story where the Ghurkas did a bit of "psychological warfare" by sneaking into an enemy camp and decimating them in the true sense as in killing every tenth soldier while they slept. How would you like to wake up and find that you were number 9 last night? :eek: I don't know if it's true, but it makes a good story:D

Jake
 
A writer who served with the 8th Ghurkas in Burma said they would tie the shoelaces of sleeping Japanese sentries together. On waking, the sentries would go totally hysterical.
 
If memory serves - (and it often doesn't these days) - in The Great War (WWI), the Gurkhas would slip into the German trenches at night and decapitate every fifth sleeping German trooper, then silently return to the British trenches.. .Came the dawn, the Germans would awake and discover what had happened - not positive for morale!
 
Not positive for morale, but I bet it kept the sentries from falling asleep the next night!
 
Not a World War 2 Ghurka story, but a Ghurka story no less. I lived in Hong Kong for a long time and got to know quite a few Ghurkas from the old Garrison before 1997. One of them told me a story that happened to an uncle of his - also a Ghurka. Well they were on patrol in the Jungle (Malay
I think) and there were these two brothers in the unit. At night they set up a patrol base and one of the brothers fell asleep. However a huge apython/darn big snake crept up on the brother who was sleeping and before he knew it he was in its coils, unable to shout loudly for help as it was constricting him. He just managed to grab his SLR and hold it horizontally on his chest and went still. Thinking he was dead, the snake started to consume him from his feet up but when the snake reached the SLR he was unable to get his jaws big enough to swallow the rifle in the horizontal position. The snake squirmed enough that the Ghurka was able to let out a yelp and his brother came rushing to his aid, splitting the snake in half with his kukri. Brother was saved but was paralyzed as his back and legs were crushed by the snake.
Supposedly large pythons to take down full grown cows on a regular basis - however Gurkas seem to be a bit too tough for them. :)
 
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