My father spent 6 years in the army far east, 4 of them behind jap lines in Burma with the Chindits in a unit that was 50% Gurkhas.
On gaurd duty hes felt the blade against the side of his neck & a laughing voice say "your dead Johny" as the gurkhas liked to test thier creeping skills the sentry.
He said when you went to swing at the first touch you found one of then had already got a hand on your rifle.
He maintained they would go for neck shot when taking jap sentrys, from the side aiming for decapatation or sometimes a straight blow to top of head , with what would usualy be a mk.2 kukri. {24 oz average.}
i have heard this from many other sources as well.
Both strikes of which are CNS takeouts, much quicker than suffocation or blood loss even from neck artieries.
& after all if the first touch is instant death why risk grabbing someone first? It slower & less effective.
Large kukris are also rather tricky for throat cutting, it also is not the Nepali way,, they dont even cut a chickens or pigs throat, its off with the head evry time.
But sadley today I am told the brit army teaches throat cutting with the little bas.its not realy man enough for the cns oneshotstops. In ww1 it was usual to cut the heads of sleeping germans on night trench raids. {I think cutting was the probably the operative word here.}
Gurkhas have a long history of decapitation both in battle & after as trophys, proof of head count or to identify known terroist , guerrilas etc. { the brits were doing this stuff in Afghanistan & Burma 100+ years ago.}
Spiral
