military@cbnews (06/27/91)
From: att!bcr!mruxb!patter < $1 The Gurkha battalions were formed to fight. Period. The first use in WW II of which I'm aware was in North Africa while Britain and Japan were still at peace. I've been told that they also fought in the "great war", but I haven't read much about the ground campaigns in WW I. The Gurkha troops did *very* well in North Africa. They were frequently used as commando troops, being paid bonuses for each pair of ears brought back, and they used to wear piano wire loops around their necks on which to string the ears. For accounts of this, check into books about David Stirling and the "SAS". They did much more poorly later, in Burma, but then, so did everybody. Bill Mauldin, in his book "Up Front", says they used to have a trick of hunting at night. If they found two Germans sleeping together for warmth, they'd cut the throat of one of them and leave the other to wake up with the body in the morning. Mauldin knew one GI who thought this was a neat idea and started doing the same thing.
scw@ollie.SEAS.UCLA.EDU (06/28/91)
From: scw@ollie.SEAS.UCLA.EDU In article <1991Jun27.013943.28703@cbnews.cb.att.com> writes: >From: att!bcr!mruxb!patter >The Gurkha battalions were formed to fight. Period. The first use in >WW II of which I'm aware was in North Africa while Britain and Japan were I strongly recomend the first 2 volumes (of 3) in John Masters' autobiographry \Bugles, and a Tiger/ and \The Road to Mandalay/. Maj. Masters was an officer in the 9th Gurka Rifles (I'll bet that I got that wrong), in addition he was a wonderful story teller. ----- Stephen C. Woods; UCLA SEASNET; 2567 BH;LA CA 90024; (213)-825-8614 UUCP: ...{ibmsupt,ncar!cepu}!ollie}!scw Internet:scw@SEAS.UCLA.EDU