good Gurkha book

John Powell

John Powell

Joined
Mar 9, 1999
Messages
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There is a new book called "The Gurkhas" by John Parker.
Published in the UK (www.headline.co.uk).

It is very complete, dispenses some new stories and gets into details about recruiting and training that has been only touched on before. It also is the most up to date for dispositions of units and numbers of serving Gurkha soldiers.

He also gets deeper into the inequities of the Gurkha pensions. An example to ponder:
a Nepalese widow receives about 7.5% of what the equivalent British widow would get.

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JP
 
John,

Thanks for the info- I have been looking for a reliable book on these exceptional people.

Finn
 
Yep, picked that up a couple of weeks ago, but haven't had a chance to start reading it yet. It also has a few photos in there as well.

JD
 
Bill,
Publishing info says the book was first published in 1999, but it didn't hit the stands in the UK till spring and may still be hard to get here.

Finn, there are some other comprehensive books I would reccomend:
Imperial Warriors by Tony Gould
The Gurkhas by Byron Farwell
Valour-a history of the Gurkhas by E.D. Smith

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JP
 
Chapters, the Canadian equivalent to Amazon.com, has the Parker and Gould books and possibly others as well.

To purchase it, go to
http://www.chapters.ca/

Harry

[This message has been edited by Kozak (edited 07-17-2000).]
 
John,

Again thanks. One of these days I'll actually come up with some great information for YOU.

Finn
 
The book is presently available from both Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. I just recently ordered a copy.
 
By the way, John Parker also wrote a book titled "Inside the Foreign Legion." It's a very interesting and detailed study of the French Foreign Legion.
 
Sorry, Uncle Bill, about the delay in responding to your question, it just slipped my mind. (Senility is an ugly thing.) The book traces the Legion's history from its creation, in 1831, to its 1997 involvemnet in the Congo. Being so comprehensive a history, the book doesn't go into a great deal of detail regarding Legion activity in Vietnam, but it does provide some information (a half-dozen or so pages). It truly is an outstanding book and I highly recommend it. The French Foreign Legion is definitely among the world's elite fighting forces.
 
Thanks John and everyone. Here are some books I have but did not read fully yet. "THE GURKHAS" by Mike Chappell, --- "VALOUR" by E.D.Smith --- "GURKHA" by Christopher Chant ---and "BUGLES AND A TIGER" John Masters.
 
:
Well I was gonna tell y'all about a couple of books I liked about some of the U.S.military in Nam before the French left out completely.

I went to look them up so I could give y'all the authors name, but couldn't find them right off.
( It will be nice to get our room back when the g'kid gets her own apartment.
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)
All I can remember at the present time is that one of them was, "The Devil's Brigade." If I remember right the 2nd one dealt wth the same guys going into Cambodia.

I enjoyed both books and they're supposed to be true stories.
I can't vouch for that, but there were some interesting tactics deployed.
smile.gif


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>>>>---¥vsa---->®

"There's no trick in being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you."

...............Will Rogers......

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My pal had been in the Legion during WWII (German POW and later "liberated" by the Russians) and was in Nam very early on and while there felt there was little chance of success.

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Blessings from the computer shack in Reno.

Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ
 
And your friend was obviously right, Uncle Bill. I think Vietnam clearly illlustrates what happens when politicians try to be generals. Lyndon Johnson once bragged that not even an outhouse could be bombed in Vietnam without his approval. Little did he know that his statement showed him to be more of a buffoon than than the military strategist he considered himself to be. Of course, I freely admit to being a tad bitter about the Vietnam thing -- I lost some friends over there (as I suspect a lot of other forumited did), and for what?!
 
If I recall correctly the "Devil's brigade" was what the German's called the First Special Force. It was a highly trained unit specializing in Arctic warefare. The unit consisted of Canadian and American soldiers. Most of the equipment and weapons were American. It fought with distiction in Italy and disabanded before the war ended. The American commader went on to become a Major Genreral and one of the most famous airborne commanders of WWII.

There is a movie about them as well. I saw the movie and probably read the book also.

Will
 
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