[lit-ideas] Farwell on the Gurkhas
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:12:09 -0800
The following will be from 1984 book, The Gurkhas by Byron Farwell, pp
288-292. Byron's book was highly laudatory of the Gurkhas as I recall and
this section on the Falklands war is no exception. I hate to be quoting
from this anti-Argie writer after JL has been subjected to so much recent
humiliation from the Lit-Ideas Autocracy. He may recall that I resisted
looking for this material on the Gurkhas. The author "served as a captain
of engineers attached to the Mediterranean Allied Air Force in the British
Army during the Second World War. . . he is a fellow of the MacDowell
Colony, the Royal Society of Literature, and the Royal Geographical Society.
During 1978-80 he was the Wallerstein Fellow of the Institute of Government
at the University of Virginia. . . Farwell is the author of seven books, the
most recent being Mr. Kipling's Army." :
"When Britain decided to recapture the Falkland Islands in 1982, the army
sent in its first team, its finest, which included, of course, a battalion
of Gurkhas - the First Battalion of Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles,
which was on duty in England at the time. The 1/7th formed part of 5
Brigade with a battalion each of Scots Guards and the Welsh Guards, all
under the command of Brigadier M. J. A. ('Tony') Wilson.
"It was Wilson who, leading his men cautiously toward Port Stanley, hit upon
a novel time-saving notion. He had reached Swan Inlet, a small hamlet about
thirty miles from Port Stanley, and had found that the telephone lines were
still operational. He stopped at a house and telephoned ahead to Fitzroy,
the next Hamlet. 'Any Argies there?' he asked. Ron Binnie, a farmer, told
him that the Argentines had been there but had gone. 'In that case,' said
Wilson, 'I think I'll join you.' Mr Binnie assured him that he would be
welcome. Wilson then swiftly pushed a hundred of his soldiers ahead in
helicopters.
"Argentine troops were apprehensive about the Gurkhas, and they had many
misconceptions about them, some of which were encouraged by the locals. An
Argentine captain inquired about the Gurkhas of Eric Goss of Goose Green:
'What do you pay them?' 'Oh, a handful of rice a day,' said Goss. 'We will
pay them three handsful if they will fight for us,' said the Captain.
"A general on Buenos Aires television reported that his men were eager to
come to grips with these famous fighters. However, at one point in the
fighting some three hundred Argentines were retreating before the Scots
Guards when they encountered an advanced patrol of the Gurkhas. They at
once reversed direction and surrendered to the Scots Guards.
"It was widely believed by the Argentines that the Gurkhas killed their own
wounded. Father Vicenter Martinez, an Argentine chaplain, was reported as
saying that Gurkhas had slit the throats of some forty Argentine soldiers at
a place called Moody Brook, near Port Stanley. These false stories of their
prowess amused the Gurkhas, who delighted in their bloodthirsty reputation.
'They knew we were coming and they feared us,' said Lieutenant-Colonel David
Morgan, Commandant of the 1/7th Gurkha Rifles. 'Of course, I think they had
every ground to fear us,' he added."
". . . So it was in the early morning light that the Gurkhas moved forward
on a six-and-a-half-kilometer march along the northern slope of Tumbledown.
"The first objective of the 1/7th was easily taken: there were no Argentines
there. As the Gurkhas were deploying for an assault on the second
objective, the enemy suddenly bolted for Port Stanley, leaving behind their
guns and throwing away their rifles. The 1/7th rapidly advanced and
captured Mount William, finding only three live Argentine soldiers there.
It was an easy victory, but during the approach march the Gurkhas were
shelled by accurate enemy artillery fire and suffered eight men wounded, two
seriously. There was a further loss of two more men wounded to make a total
of fourteen: all recovered.
"The Argentines fled when they realized that they were being outflanked and
that those outflanking them were Gurkhas. In a letter to the author,
Lieutenant-Colonel Morgan, who strode through the entire campaigned armed
only with a silver-headed rattan cane which his grandfather had carried in
the Boxer Rebellion in China, wrote that 'it was desperately frustrating and
exasperating for us to find no enemy on an objective, but when all is said
and done, if we can win by reputation, who wants to kill people?'
"The only Gurkha killed by the Argentines was twenty-four-year-old
Lance-Corporal Buddhaprasad Limbu, a signaler in the 1/7th. He was killed
after the battle while engaged in removing the many mines which the 'Argies'
had indiscriminately laid in the area. Many civilians attended his funeral
in the local cemetery at Darwin, some coming in on tractors and Land Rovers
to mark their appreciation of his sacrifice."
Comment: Farwell has nothing to say about any Argentine casualties, or for
that matter any casualties in the other two battalions.
I was already familiar with the idea that Spartan wives urged their husbands
to come back with their shields or on them and I thought that just had to do
with fighting to the death if necessary, but I learned that a fully armed
and armoured hoplite carried 70 pounds of gear. No hoplite could be part of
a disordered rout and save his gear. If he wanted to flee, he divested
himself of those 70 encumbering pounds. Thus, he would be returning to his
wife without his shield.
If memory serves me, Henry Fleming in The Red Badge of Courage threw his
rifle away.
Spartan Hoplites could engage in an ordered retreat where they remained
together protecting each other with their shields and moving away from the
enemy, but it was unacceptable for a Spartan to "lose his shield." I
remember in boot camp hearing that often. A Marine does not lose his rifle.
Lawrence Helm
San Jacinto
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