Gurkha: Better to Die than Live a Coward: My Life in the Gurkhas by Kailash Limbu & Alexander Norman

Author:Kailash Limbu & Alexander Norman [Limbu, Kailash]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781408705377
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2015-05-20T22:00:00+00:00

11

Target!

The rest of the day and the evening were quiet. We remained stood-to and spent the night in the sangar, taking it in turns to rest. Next morning, some time after first light, Major Rex came up into the sangar and shook each one of us by the hand.

‘Well done, Kailash. Well done, Nagen. Well done, Gaaz. That was outstanding work.’

That was one of the things that made Rex sahib such a good officer. He took the time – and the risk – to come up and talk to us all personally after each action.

‘You especially, Kailash. Firing the ILAW was definitely a turning point.’

I felt very proud to hear him say this. Of course, I was even prouder when, many weeks later, the OC called me to his office.

‘Congratulations, Kailash,’ he began. ‘You’ve been Mentioned in Despatches.’

Apparently, the OC had written about my firing the ILAW in his report to higher command, and it had been picked up for special commendation. That was a big honour for me.

But of course I have never been more proud in my life as the moment when, a few days after that, I received a letter through the post. It was on very thick writing paper and, I realised straight away, obviously from someone extremely important.

‘Dear Corporal Kailash,’ it began, ‘I was so pleased to hear the news of your award of MID for your efforts in Afghanistan and wanted to send you my warmest congratulations.’

The letter was signed by the Colonel in Chief of the regiment, Prince Charles himself.

Yet the strange thing is that, although now I can see that what I did was quite risky, actually at the time, it didn’t seem such a special thing. Anyone else would have done the same in that situation. At least, any Gurkha would.

But all this lay in the future. Shortly after the OC’s visit we were stood down and, after talking to some of the bhais in my section, I managed to get a few hours of proper sleep.

When I next went on duty, I found the riflemen in high spirits.

‘Everything OK, bhai haru?’ I said, climbing back onto the position.

‘Well we haven’t been having as good a time as you have, guruji,’ said Gaaz.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I swear we could hear you earlier.’

‘But I’ve been asleep.’

‘Exactly, guruji. We could hear you sleeping.’

‘You’d better mind what you’re saying, Rifleman Gaaz,’ I replied when I’d caught his meaning. He was implying they could hear me snoring. ‘Or you might just find yourself doing an extra duty!’

I said this good-humouredly, as I don’t mind a bit of joking around from the bhais. You want them to respect you, but not to be so frightened of their seniors that they can’t have a laugh at your expense from time to time. That said, there were a few occasions when extra duties did get handed out. Once, one of the bhais was caught singing a song over the PRR – though that was early on, before the action started.

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