Couldn't let this pass

From over at the Command Post:The Gurkhas Have Arrived

They are in Iraq, some of the most legendary fighters in history.

I can highly recommend Byron Farwell's The Gurkhas as an entertaining and informative history.

George MacDonald Fraser, in Quartered Safe Out Here, talks about them as a soldier who fought side by side with them.


but having tea with the Gurkhas is something special, for they radiate a cheer and good-fellowship that has to be experienced, and once you have, you understand why British soldiers have always held them in an affection that is pretty close to love."
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"No one would have dreamed of taking offense [at their pranks]; it would have been downright cruel, for the Gurkha was as eager to please as a playful grandchild. The thought of quarreling with one of them never even occurred-- for one thing, you'd be better picking a fight with a king cobra.
That was a thing that was often hard to remember: that this delightful little man, with his ungainly walk and protruding backside and impish grin, who barely came up to your shoulder and was one of nature's born comedians, was also probably the most fatal fighting man on earth. Their reckless courage was legendary.
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I was once privileged to watch, from a distance, a company of them attacking a Japanese position. There was a Highland unit on their left....and I was profoundly glad that I was not Japanese. One of the Highlanders told me later that when they came out again they found the ground before the position littered with Gurkha rifles: most of them had gone in with kukris alone.


During the Falkland War, i remember reading about a journalist who asked a Gurkha officer why they were sharpening their kukris (heavy, curved fighting knives) before battle. His reply-- because we don't have time to sharpen them during battle.