Smegmalicious said:
While you're here, would you mind educating us on why the Gurkha were important? Were they just badass or what?
They are absolutely fearless and were often given the job of clearing trenches of enemy. They are a formidable fighting force armed with just the kukhri. There are tales of them clearing German trenches in the dark and being trained to feel for the way a boot was laced before deciding what to do next.
I was fortunate enough to know a British Gurkha major (Peter Prentice OBE) for 16 years up until his death. He fought in French Indo China (now Vietnam) against the Japanese. I have the kukhri that his men gave him (officers don't generally carry one), a Japanese surrender sword and a Japanese prayer flag which he gave me. He also had two decorative kuks which were gifts from the Nepalese Royal family, but those were gifted to the British Gurkha museum along with father's Victoria Cross. That reminds me, I have his and his father's dress swords. He was a cantankerous old bar-steward, but I admired him a lot. you could tell he had been to hell and back. He said he managed to get hold of a Thompson sub-machine which was much more reliable in the jungle and more efficient at killing than the British Sten Gun. He had to be careful with ammunition as he could only get it from US troops where he bartered with British rations, especially coffee.
http://www.army.mod.uk/brigade_of_gurkhas/
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
At the outbreak of the First World War the whole of the Nepalese Army was placed at the disposal of the British Crown. Over 16,000 Nepalese troops were subsequently deployed on operations on the North West frontier and as garrison battalions in India to replace troops of the British Indian Army who had gone to fight overseas.
Some one hundred thousand Gurkhas enlisted in regiments of the Gurkha Brigade. They fought and died in France and Flanders, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine and Salonika. A battalion of the 8th Gurkhas greatly distinguished itself at Loos, fighting to the last, and in the words of the Indian Corps Commander, found its Valhalla. The 6th Gurkhas gained immortal fame at Gallipoli during the capture from the Turks of the feature later known as Gurkha Bluff. At Sari Bair they were the only troops in the whole campaign to reach and hold the crest line and look down on the Straits which was the ultimate objective. To quote from Field Marshal Sir William Slims introduction to the second volume of the 6th Gurkhas history:
I first met the 6th Gurkha Rifles in 1915 in Gallipoli. There I was so struck by their bearing in one of the most desperate battles in history that I resolved, should the opportunity come, to try to serve with them. Four years later it came, and I spent many of the happiest, and from a military point of view the most valuable, years of my life in the Regiment.
The original poster should be aware that the Gurkha Regiment was also deployed in the Falklands War.
Edited to add this which has me in tears of laughter!
http://www.himalayan-imports.com/gurkha.html Great history and pictures here too.
Once while His Highness was on annual holiday in England, far removed from political intrigues and palace coups, an uprising was attempted. British military headquarters, then stationed in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, was alerted and quickly flew a company of Gurkhas the short distance up the coast. Landing at Brunei airport, the little brown men double-timed into Bruneitown and soon came in view of the rioters.
Forming a thin khaki line across the lone main street, they unsheathed their kukris and stood facing the howling mob. Looking at that silent row of men, their knives sparkling in the sun, the insurgents had some fast second thoughts and slowly began to disband. The troops smartly about-faced, trotted back to the airfield and flew home to Kuching. Elapsed time to crush a rebellion-under two hours.
