NPR News

Excerpt: 'Dangerous Book Of Heroes'

NPR | By Conn Iggulden

Published May 21, 2010 at 1:58 PM EDT

The Gurkhas

The Almighty created in the Gurkha an ideal infantryman, indeed an ideal Rifleman, brave, tough, patient, adaptable, skilled in fieldcraft, intensely proud of his military record and unswerving loyalty. Add to this his honesty in word and deed, his parade perfection, and his unquenchable cheerfulness, then service with the Gurkhas is for any soldier an immense satisfaction.
-- Field Marshal William Slim

The father of the authors of The Dangerous Book of Heroes flew in Bomber Command during World War II and later in the Fleet Air Arm. One of his jobs was training parachutists, and he tells a story of a group of Gurkhas, fresh to England from Nepal to begin their training. The Gurkha soldiers spoke no English, and their senior officer only understood a few words. After a final lecture, they were taken up in a plane for the first practice drop. Even at that late stage, the RAF crew weren't at all sure the soldiers had understood what was going on. One of them went back to the waiting Gurkhas and tried to explain once more.

"We are rising to an altitude of five hundred feet," he said, "at which point, a green light will come on and you and your men will jump." He mimed jumping.

The Gurkha officer looked worried but went back to his men to explain. When he returned, he said: "Five hundred feet is too high. We are willing to try three hundred feet."

The RAF officer went pale. "You don't understand," he said. "At three hundred, your parachute will barely have time to open. You'll hit the ground like a sack of potatoes."

The Gurkha officer beamed at him and went to tell the men. They all beamed as well. They hadn't realized they would be allowed to use the parachutes at that stage of the training.

Now that story must surely seem apocryphal, but it was told at the time and it demonstrates how the British armed forces saw the regiments from Nepal-keen, tough, uncomplaining, and unbelievably courageous. They have always been held in the highest regard, a respect they have earned time and time again in their history.

The Gurkhas have been part of the British army for almost two hundred years, beginning in 1816 when the British East India Company signed the peace treaty of Sugauli with Nepal, which allowed them to recruit local men. Gurkhas had fought them to a bloody standstill on a number of occasions, and the company was very keen to have such a martial race on its side. Lieutenant Frederick Young was one of those fighting the Gurkhas in 1815. His troops ran away, and only he refused to run as he was surrounded. The Gurkhas admired his courage and told him: "We could serve under men like you." He is known as the father of the Brigade of Gurkhas. He later recruited three thousand of them and became the commander of a battalion, later named the Second King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles. They still serve today as part of the Royal Gurkha Rifles.

Gurkhas are drawn from a rugged and inhospitable land, the sort of herdsmen who must once have formed the backbone of Genghis Khan's armies. They are famous for carrying the kukri, a curved knife that, once drawn, must be blooded before it can be sheathed.