Jai Sixth!

6th Queen Elizabeth's own Gurkha Rifles 1817–1994

James Lunt

• Publisher: Leo Cooper
• Year: 1994
• ISBN:
  9781473815605
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Modern History
• Index: History

This is the story of the 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles from the Regiment raising in 1817 as the Cuttack Legion in the service of the Honourable East India Company until it's amalgamation with the 2nd King Edward VII's Gurkha Rifles ( The Sirmoor Rifles) to form the First Battalion of The Royal Gurkha Rifles in 1994. In the course of its 177 years' existence the Regiment has had many changes of title, acquiring its present one in 1959 when it became 'Queen Elizabeths Own'. In the days of the empire when men of many different races and religions served under the British Crown it was probably the Gurkha soldier who most captured the imagination of the British people, partially on account of his outstanding courage in battle, and partially because of his loyalty and sheer good humour. Prior to Independence in 1947 the former Indian Army contained ten regiments of Gurkha Rifles, each of two battalions. In 1948 four of these, of which the 6th Gurkha's was one, were transferred to the British Army. The others remained in the Indian Army. During the First World War the 6th greatly distinguished themselves at Gallipoli, and later Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Salonika and Afghanistan. In the Second World War the Regiment fought in all the main theatres except North-West Europe, particularly in Burma where the Third Battalion was awarded two Vcs in one battle when serving with Wingate's Chindits. After the war the Regiment played a prominent part in Malaya during the Emergency, and later in Borneo during the confrontation with Indonesia. As will be evident to the reader of this book, wherever they served the 6th lived up to the Gurkha philosophy that is is 'Better to doe then live a coward. The book also bears out the assertion that Field Marshal Viscount Slim, himself an officer of the 6th, that the Gurkha is 'the ideal infantryman'. Although it is sad that, owing to the reduction in strength of the British Army the 6th Gurkhas are being required to amalgamate with the equally distinguished 2nd Gurkhas, it is at least comforting that there will be Gurkhas serving in the Crown, as there have been since 1815. Long may they continue to do so, but no longer will the stirring cry 'Jai Sixth! (Go Sixth) be heard on the battlefield or sports ground. Royalties from sales of this book have been donated by the author to the 6th Gurkha's Benevolent Fund.

CONTENTS

Foreword by the Colonel of the Regiment

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter

1. The Early Years

2. The Great War

3. Between The Wars

4. The 1/6th and 4/6th in Burma

5. Chindits

6. Italy

7. The Emergency in Malaya

8. The Confrontation in Borneo

9. ‘The Hawk’ and Amalgamation

10. ‘The Great and the Good’

11. ‘Johnny Gurkha’

12. The Last Twelve Years: 1982–1994

13. The 175th Anniversay

Epilogue

Glossary

Appendix I – The Victoria Cross

Appendix II – Colonels of the Regiment 1904–1994

Appendix III – Commanding Officers

Appendix IV – Gurkha Majors 1948–1994

Appendix V – A Jungle Patrol

Appendix VI – The Royal Gurkha Rifles

Bibliography

Index

FOREWORD

by

Major General R. A. Pett, MBE
Colonel, 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles

THIS book tells the story of the 6th Gurkhas from their raising as the Cuttack Legion in 1817 to the merger with the other British Army regiments of Gurkha Rifles in 1994. It is an adventure story to rank with any in fact or fiction, here superbly told by James Lunt, who has captured that unique spirit of the 6th Gurkhas.

A curtain of mystique surrounds the fierce hillmen of Nepal. This book lifts a corner of that curtain and illuminates the stoicism and heroism of both the Gurkha riflemen and their exceptional officers, British and Gurkha alike. It tells, for example, the story of the 1st Battalion at Gallipoli, where they alone succeeded in reaching the heights of Sari Bair, but at the cost of every British officer dead or wounded, save only the Medical Officer. Equally enthralling is the account of the 2nd Battalion’s hard slogging alongside the 14th/20th King’s Hussars in Italy in the Second World War, and the award of two VCs in the Chindit campaign, to Captain Michael Allmand and Rifleman Tulbahadur Pun of the 3rd Battalion.

But this book also fills in the periods in between the big wars – on the North-West Frontier; in the jungles of Malaya, Borneo, Brunei or Belize; on the Sino-Hong Kong Border, or the sports field, or the Century Range at Bisley; or just … soldiering. Throughout the book shines that ineluctable spirit of the 6th Gurkhas and the sheer, infectious fun of serving with those “Bravest of brave, most generous of the generous”. For to serve with Gurkhas is not just a privilege. It is, truly, a pleasure. Within these pages are to be found the essence of that privilege and pleasure.

Jai Sixth!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

MY principal acknowledgement must be to Major General Ray Pett, Colonel of the Regiment, for entrusting to me this chronicle of the 6th Gurkhas from their founding year in 1817 until their amalgamation with the 2nd Goorkhas in 1994, to form the First Battalion of The Royal Gurkha Rifles. Since we had never previously met, I am afraid he had to take me very much on trust and I hope I have not let him or the Regiment down. I have done my best to follow the remit he gave me.

He told me that he did not want the conventional kind of regimental history in which the movements of Companies, and sometimes of Platoons, are recounted in considerable detail, accompanied by maps liberally spattered with arrows pointing this way and that, but rather an overall account of the Regiment from its first raising until its disappearance from the Army List in 1994.

Unfortunately, owing to domestic circumstances, I have not been able to visit the Regiment in Brunei. However, I have, from time to time over the years, met the 6th Gurkhas and can number among their officers several old friends. I have also visited Nepal and met the Gurkhas in their native habitat. Lieutenant Colonel ‘Tich’ Harvey, Regimental Secretary in his retirement, has been of enormous assistance and it was a pleasure to meet Lieutenant Colonel Nigel Collett who commanded the Regiment from 1991 to 1993,

I have also to thank General Pett for choosing the illustrations, always a difficult and time-consuming task.

My GOC in Aden from 1961–63, General Jim Robertson, a 6th Gurkha of 6th Gurkhas, has helped to fill in some of the gaps, as has Brigadier Gil Hickey who organized our unforgettable visit to Nepal 26 years ago. Unfortunately ill-health prevented my meeting with General Pat Patterson, an old friend, and likewise Brigadier Brunny Short. However, I was fortunate enough to have a meeting with John Slim, under whose father I had served in Burma in 1942. Michael Calvert, a friend of many years’ standing, has been kind enough to tell me about the 3/6th who served under him as CHINDITS in Burma in 1944 and who covered themselves in glory at Mogaung.

Anne Gonzalez has given me some help on the secretarial side but here my deepest thanks must go to my daughter, Jenny Toyne Sewell, who, despite a terrifyingly busy life, has found the time to type the manuscript in her usual immaculate style and, now and then and from time to time, has corrected my spelling and grammar and improved my punctuation! I am enormously indebted to her.

Finally a word for Lance-Naik Amritbahadur in whatever Gurkha Valhalla he is at present inhabiting. Without his ready aid as my orderly during the retreat from Burma in 1942, I certainly would not have survived to write this book and, to that extent, he must bear some responsibility for what follows. Syabas!

J. D. L.

INTRODUCTION

WHEN I undertook to write this History of the 6th Queen Elizabeth’s Own Gurkha Rifles, it was in a sense in repayment of a long-standing debt I owe to a Gurkha soldier. Lance-Naik Amritbahadur of the 7th Gurkha Rifles was my orderly during the long retreat from Burma in 1942 and, on one occasion certainly, he saved my life. I have never heard of him again and undoubtedly he will have died. He was an old soldier in 1942.

In this history it will be seen how bravely and loyally the Gurkha soldier has served the British Crown for close on 200 years. Whether storming the heights of Sari Bair on Gallipoli in 1915 or charging well dug-in Japanese machine guns through the mud and blood of Mogaung in 1944 in Burma, the 6th Gurkha Rifles have at all times lived up to the Gurkha philosophy that it is ‘better to die than live a coward’. No regiment in the Brigade of Gurkhas has a finer record and I regard it as a great privilege to be asked to tell the Regiment’s story in the pages which follow.

Although I have never served in a Gurkha regiment, I have served with Gurkhas often enough, both in Burma and afterwards. In the 4th Burma Rifles, in which I served from 1939–41, our Band was entirely Gurkha and I have had many dealings with Gurkhas, both officers and riflemen, since those days. I have also visited Nepal and know the homeland of these sturdy hillmen, for whom I have always had both admiration and affection.

One of the outstanding advantages of the Gurkha Brigade of the pre-1947 Indian Army was the similarity of the soldiers. Obviously there were differences between the Magars and Gurungs of Western Nepal, as recruited in the 6th, and the Limbus and Rais from the East, and more so with the higher-caste Chhetris recruited in the 9th Gurkha Rifles. Nevertheless their common characteristics and religious beliefs gave the Gurkha regiments a flexibility not otherwise to be found in the old Indian Army in which Dogras differed greatly from Pathans, as did Sikhs from Madrassis. It made it that much easier to reinforce in war one Gurkha regiment from another Gurkha regiment, regardless of the fierce pride in regiment which was such a feature of the ordinary Gurkha rifleman. What is more it seems to have applied equally to the British officers (BOs). That most famous of all 6th Gurkhas, Field Marshal Lord Slim, commanded a battalion of the 7th Gurkha Rifles, and another distinguished officer of his vintage, Bruce Scott, commanded a battalion of the 8th Gurkha Rifles. There would appear to have been a similar flexibility in the Brigade of Gurkhas since 1948 when the 2nd, 6th, 7th and 10th Gurkha Rifles were incorporated in the British Army.

There already exist three volumes of the History of the 6th Gurkha Rifles, beginning in 1817 and ending in 1982 when the Regiment was about to move from Hong Kong to Brunei, where the 6th are again serving today. In 1969 the 1st and 2nd battalions were amalgamated as a result of the reduction in strength of the Brigade of Gurkhas. Today, once again as a result of the reduction in the strength of the British Army, th...

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