Re: Ghurkas

>I would believe either variant.  I also heard a story of a time that a
>British officer, feeling superior, hughtily instructed a Gurkha Sgt.
heading
>out on patrol to bring him a German officer's watch.  reportedly the
Gurkha
>complied, but the watch was still on a wrist.

I've heard the "I.D. by shoelace knot" story as well. I also recall my
father talking about his days as an RA gunner in the desert campaign (on
25pdrs at Alamein!) and mentioning serving with Gurkha units at various
times - even our own troops were (respectfully) scared stiff of the
little
blighters, especially after rumours that they were bringing Jerry heads
back with them from patrols....

Jon (GZG)
>
>Brian
>
>"The Irish are the only race of people on Earth for which
psychoanalysis is
>of no use."
>
>				  - S. Freud
>
>
>>From: Oerjan Ohlson <oerjan.ohlson@telia.com>
>>Reply-To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
>>To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
>>Subject: Re: Ghurkas
>>Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2001 07:01:30 +0100
>>
>>Brian Bilderback wrote:
>>
>>>I once heard an apocryphal story about a Gurkha game in WW2,
involving
>>>slitting an enemy sentry's bootlaces without alerting him to your
>>>presence.
>>>Can your acquaintance confirm/deny such?
>>
>>The variant I've heard had the Allied troops ordered to tie their
bootlaces
>>with a special knot so the Gurkhas would recognize them as friendly
(by
>>feeling the knot in pitch dark) and refrain from slitting their
*throats*
>>(or, more likely, push a kukri up their groins) :-/
>>
>>Later,
>>
>>Oerjan
>>oerjan.ohlson@telia.com
>>
>>"Life is like a sewer.
>>  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
>>-Hen3ry
>>
>
>
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