The Gurkhas or Gorkhas are Nepalese soldiers who serve in the armies of other nations in a
similar manner to the French Foreign Legion, which we covered in a recent video. You've
almost certainly heard of the Gurkhas and their vicious forward-curving knives before, but it's
possible you're unfamiliar with the extent of their involvement in the Second World War.
In this video, we're going to provide you with an overview of the theatres the infamous
Gurkhas fought in, and pepper in the stories of some Victoria-Cross-winning Gurkhas as we go.
During World War II, the Gurkhas served under the British Indian Army.
This was a relationship rooted in history. During the Anglo-Nepalese War, waged between the British
East India Company and the Gurkha Kingdom of Nepal from 1814 to 1816, the Company took
thousands of soldiers who had defected from the Gurkha Army under its wing. It was during this
time that the terms "Gurkha" and "Gurkha unit" were born. This trend of Gurkhas fighting for
the Company continued until the Indian Rebellion of 1857, after which the British Crown took the
reins from the Company and created the British Indian Army. Now the Gurkhas fought for the Crown
in distinct units, cementing their reputation as fierce warriors in a number of conflicts,
including the Great War. From 1914 to 1918, some 200,000 Gurkhas fought for the British in
33 Gurkha battalions, sustaining 20,000 casualties and earning around 2,000 military awards.
It was only natural that the British Indian Army employed them in the Second World War as well.
At their peak during the Second World War, 40 Gurkhas battalions were mobilised, amounting to
250,000 kukri-wielding maniacs and their British officers. Around 8,900 were killed in action or
went MIA, while a further 23,600 were wounded. Of note, Gurkha units served in North Africa,
the Middle East, Italy, Greece, India, Malaya, Singapore, and, of course, Borneo.
The Gurkhas fought in many of the North African campaign’s major battles, including the June
1942 Fall of Tobruk in Libya. Here, the 2nd Battalions of the 4th and 7th Gurkha Rifles
fought alongside the British and South Africans against an overwhelming German and Italian Force.
The result of the battle was the capture of some 33,000 Allied soldiers, including the
2nd Battalion. But they were among the last to raise the white flag, fighting the enemy
to their last bullet in the surrounding hills. Unfortunately, many of them died in captivity.
Northeast of Libya in Tunisia, a Gurkha of the 2nd Gurkha Rifles earned a VC while attacking a
treacherous land feature known as Rass-Ez-Zouai. His name was Lalbahadur Thapa Magar, and he was
in command of D Company, tasked with clearing a winding pathway up a narrow cleft riddled with
enemy machine-guns and anti-tank gun positions. Lalbahadur Thapa led his unit head-first into
enemy fire, slaying at least four men with his kukri and another two with his revolver.
His own men mopped up the rest. A section of Lalbahadur Thapa's VC citation read:
"There is no doubt that the capture of this objective was entirely due to this act of
unsurpassed bravery The ruthless determination of this Gurkha officer to reach his objective and
kill his enemy had a decisive effect on the success of the whole operation."
Like all the Allied forces in the Battle of Monte Cassino, between January and May 1944,
the Gurkhas had it rough. On the night of the 17th of February, the 1st Battalions of the 2nd and 9th
Gurkha Rifles attacked the German-held monastery, with the men of the 2nd assaulting it head-on
and the men of the 9th attempting to seize Point 444. Despite the Gurkha's proficiency in mountain
combat, the attack was undone. The 2nd lost 96 men, while the 9th lost 149. In the third stage
of the Battle of Monte Cassino, in mid-March, the remnants of the 1st Battalion of the 9th Gurkha
Rifles seized Point 435, known more commonly as Hangman's point. This position was within just 230
meters of the monastery and came under constant attack by the Germans. They held out for nine
days, at which point they had spent almost all of their ammunition and supplies, and withdrew.
Of course, Monte Cassino wasn't the only place the Gurkhas fought and died in Italy, nor the
only mountain. On the 10th of November 1944, Thamung Gurung, a soldier in the 1st Battalion
of the 5th Gurkha Rifles, was out on a patrol mission with one other scout at Monte San Bartolo,
north of Monte Cassino. Going ahead of their section, they ascended the mountain and spotted a
German machine-gun nest about to open fire on the section. Thamung Gurung sprung out of hiding and
rushed the Germans without firing a round. Taken by surprise, they surrendered. With his Tommy gun,
Thamung Gurung mowed down a group of Germans preparing to throw grenades at his section,
then proceeded to run along the mountain, firing on the Germans until he'd run out of bullets,
at which point he started lobbing grenades. When his platoon came under heavy fire
later in the fight, Thaman Gurung picked up a Bren gun and stood in full view of the enemy
until he'd emptied two magazines on them. He was shot dead soon after,
but the distraction allowed his fellow Gurkhas to withdraw to safety, regroup, and capture
the German position a few days later. For his bravery, Thaman Gurung received a posthumous VC.
While the Gurkhas' involvement in the 1948 to 1960 Malayan Emergency might be more well known,
they also served in Malaya during World War II, notably in the Battle of Jitra.
Under the 11th Indian Division, the 2nd Battalions of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Gurkha rifles battled
the Japanese 5th Infantry Division at the town of Jitra. The men of the 1st Gurkha rifles positioned
themselves north of Jitra at a village called Asun, on the south bank of a stream. Lacking
anti-tank guns, they set demolition charges on a bridge to blow it up and prevent the
passage of the 5th Infantry Division’s supporting tanks. In the rain on the 11th of December 1941,
the charges failed to go off. Thinking fast, a Gurkha by the name of Manbahadur
Gurung took up an anti-tank rifle and opened fire on two tanks as they reached the bridge,
choking it up. Unfortunately, the Japanese made short work of the stream and captured much of
the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Gurkha Rifles. Only around 200 of the 550 men in the unit
made it out. The battle wasn't looking good for the 11th Indian Division. They withdrew
under the Japanese onslaught, with the men of the 2nd and 9th Gurkha Rifles guarding their retreat.
The men of the 2nd repulsed a Japanese advance on a different bridge at midnight on the 13th,
then successfully blew the bridge up. The men of the 9th staved off another brutal Japanese assault
in the early hours of the morning, allowing the survivors of the Indian division to escape.
The Battle of Imphal in Manipur, India, was one of the two major battles which spelt the
beginning of the end for the Japanese in the Burma campaign. Of the British IV Corps' 49 battalions,
16 of them were composed of Gurkhas. The battle raged from March to July 1944, resulting in
almost 55,000 Japanese wounded or killed, 12,600 Allies wounded or killed, and an Allied victory.
Agansing Rai, an acting Naik or corporal of the 5th Gurkha Rifles, fought in this battle,
claiming a VC for his actions at Mortar Bluff and Water Piquet to the southwest of Imphal on the
26th of June. When his company was pinned down by a machine-gun at Mortar Bluff, Agansing Rai
charged the position under a hail of bullets, killing three of its four crew by himself.
Coming under fire from a .37 millimetre gun from the jungle, Agansing Rai charged again.
All but three of the men in his section were killed, but Agansing Rai managed to
take down a further three Japanese and capture the gun. Assaulting Water Piquet shortly after,
Agansing Rai wielded a Tommy gun in one hand and a grenade in the other. He rushed a Japanese bunker
and ended four more lives. According to his VC's citation, "The enemy, demoralized by this N.C.O's
calm display of courage and complete contempt for danger, now fled before the onslaught."
Of all the places the Gurkhas fought, Burma is where they gained the most fame.
Some 35,000 of them battled the Japanese here, accounting for 27 of their 40 battalions.
Notably, many of these Gurkhas served in Long Range Penetration Groups or Chindits.
They operated deep behind enemy lines in the jungle, with the Gurkhas moving in columns of
about 370 men. So far, we've only covered Nepalese VC winners, but as we said earlier, British
officers often commanded Gurkha units. Among them was Captain Michael Allmand, who commanded
a platoon of the 6th Gurkha Rifles during Chindit operations in Burma. On the 11th of June 1944,
Allmand had been ordered to attack the Pin Hmi Road Bridge. The area surrounding the bridge was
swampy and covered in jungle, and the Japanese had dug in on the banks of the road. As Allmand
approached, the Japanese opened fire, inflicting heavy casualties. While his men took cover,
Allmand charged, lobbing grenades at the Japanese machine-gun positions and slaying three Japanese
with his kukri knife. His men rallied and seized their objective. Over the next few days, taking
charge of his company, Allmand neutralised several more machine-gun positions completely on his own.
On the 23rd, while suffering from trench foot, Allmand rushed one final Japanese machine-gun nest
and was gunned down. All in all, about a third of the VCs awarded in Burma went to Gurkhas.
As Indian Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw put it, "If a man says he is not afraid of dying,
he is either lying or he is a Gurkha." But we're interested to know what you think.
Did you know that the Gurkhas fought in so many theatres during the war? We couldn't find
all that much info about them in the Middle East and Singapore,
but do you know what they got up to there? And lastly, do you know of any other crazy Gurkha
stories from the war? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.