[akv]

Dusty,

FWIW the best Gurkha books I read were by John Masters, Bugles and a Tiger, and The Road Past Mandalay.

The former is about fighting in Afghanistan and the latter in Burma, by a British officer in a Gurkha regiment. There are all sorts of stories about Gurkhas, a few of my favorites...

A young British officer assigned to the Gurkhas in India was engaged in the bushes one night with a young lady when a Gurkha Regiment marched past them. The young man made the decision to stand up and salute them anyway in the raw. They said they liked to think he made General someday.

In Burma, the Brass visited a Gurkha regiment asking for volunteers for an airborne unit, men who would jump out of planes to fight. This was briefly explained to the Gurkhas and half of them stepped forward to volunteer. The General was miffed, commenting I thought given their reputation more would volunteer. The Gurkha officers struggling to maintain composure replied, Sir they don't know what parachutes are.

A Gurkha patrol, near El Alamain returned from a patrol into German lines claiming 38 enemy kills. The intelligence officer debriefing them chastised them for embellishing body counts, at dawn they returned throwing a sack full of bloody ears on to his desk. The Gurkhas were said to creep into foxholes in the dark with one hand on the kukri and the other feeling for the ridge on German helmets, if they felt the ridge they took the head, this tended to demoralize the Africa Corps.

An Italian POW was quoted as saying, " a pack of little grinning men coming at you with knives is scarier than big men."

An Indian doctor treating a gravely wounded Gurkha told his officer, he will not make it unless he has the will to live. The British officer went to the bedside and ordered the Gurkha to live. He did.

Hope this helps.