Gurkha: Better to Die than Live a Coward: My Life in the Gurkhas

by Kailash Limbu

  ‘But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to sort out your bed space, Gaaz. For the third time of asking.’

  ‘Yes, guruji. I mean, no, guruji.’ The only time I saw Gaaz lost for words was when I was telling him to tidy up after himself.

  We were hit once more after the tanks left, but the engagement did not have the intensity of the earlier ones and my assessment is that the enemy realised the game was up. There was no way he was going to dislodge us before the battlegroup arrived.

  Our first sight of the incoming troops was just after first light on the morning of 31 July. I was up in Sangar 3 when, out of nowhere, three Chinooks appeared to the south of the DC. They made hardly any noise, as they were flying tactically, and it was only when they landed no more than a few hundred metres away that you would have known anything about them if you weren’t expecting them.

  As it was, we watched delighted as the Paras disembarked and began to patrol towards us.

  ‘Check it out, guruji!’ exclaimed Gaaz. ‘That’s got to be at least a hundred men! There’s gonna be some very worried Talibans round these parts,’ he continued. ‘That’s enough to clear them all the way back to the mountains! Wish I could go with them, guruji. I really do.’

  I knew how he felt. The worst thing about our situation in Now Zad had been not having the manpower to be able to mount fighting patrols. There’s nothing I would have liked more than to go hunting for the enemy. Just to be able to have the chance of seeing them right up close. As it was, 3 PARA were going to have that satisfaction.

  ‘I’d still like to see what they’ve got in that training area,’ said Nagen, as we watched the first of them start to clear the buildings on the edge of town.

  ‘Yeah,’ agreed Gaaz. ‘And I’d like to be able to see what’s left of those rockets after the tanks hit them.’

  After maybe an hour of slow patrolling, the first of the troops entered the compound. In fact I thought they were going to clear all the way out as far as the treeline, but they stopped on reaching the DC. The Para Commanding Officer then came forward. I noticed that he was quite short – Gurkha height – but he had a very impressive bearing. He and Rex sahib spoke together for some time while the sergeant major talked to Corporal Santos. Soon after, I was called down together with Lance Corporal Shree to brief the incoming section commanders.

  On climbing back up into Sangar 3 with some of these NCOs, a bit of a tense atmosphere developed. The incomers didn’t seem that much interested in what I had to say.

  ‘It’s all right,’ said one of the Para section commanders. ‘I’ve been here before. I know the area.’

  I suppose he must have been on Operation Mutay, when 10 Platoon of 2 RGR under Major Murray sahib deployed to Now Zad alongside B Company of 3 PARA.

  Well, you obviously think you’re a top guy, I thought to myself. And indeed you are. But the enemy doesn’t know that.

  ‘Look,’ I said, ‘I’ve done P company too and I’m telling you, you need to get down. There are snipers out there.’

  No sooner were the words out of my mouth than TIKK! – a round embedded itself in one of the wooden arc markers. He got down very fast after that and started paying much closer attention to what I was saying as I pointed out the arcs of fire and the various places we had identified as enemy fire positions.

  But the atmosphere was still a bit uneasy, and as we came down off the sangar, one of the Para sergeants pointed to a pee bottle lying on the ground and demanded to know what it was. I suppose it must have been kicked over the side during one of the contacts and lain there unnoticed until this moment. Normally we took them down with us and threw them in the latrine. When I told him, he exploded.

  ‘You don’t fucking piss in the sangar area! You should know better than that.’

  ‘Listen,’ I said to the Paras. ‘We haven’t peed except lying down for the last three weeks. We haven’t been able to move out of the sangars all day from dawn to dusk.’

  But this guy just ignored me.

  ‘Dirty bastards,’ said one of the other Paras under his breath.

  This was a bit insulting but I decided to ignore it. He’d find out soon enough the reality of the situation.

  Meanwhile, Rex sahib was busy showing the Commanding Officer and the Platoon Commanders round the position. I noticed that he took care to point out the strikes on the two .50-cals and to show them Nabin’s helmet where it had been struck. Also the CWS broken by a round in Sangar 3 and the many ammo boxes that had been hit.

  ‘I reckon those Paras think they’re coming in to sort things out because we couldn’t handle it, guruji,’ said Gaaz later. ‘Well good luck to them is all I can say.’

  I agreed.

  ‘Sometimes people have to learn the hard way.’

  We were in Now Zad for exactly thirty days. According to the official report, we were in contact twenty-eight times over just eleven days, during which time we expended in the region of 30,000 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition, 17,000 rounds of 7.62, more than 2000 rounds of 12.7 mm (.50-cal), threw 21 grenades and fired three ILAWs – not to mention all the air ordnance. It is uncertain how many enemy we killed for only one of our men wounded, but the figure usually given is around a hundred, and this seems realistic to me. It was to all intents and purposes an old-fashioned siege – not unlike the siege of Kalunga, where British troops first encountered Gurkha soldiers back in 1814.

  Looking back, there are moments when I am amazed we survived – let alone that we took no significant losses. One breach of the compound wall would have been enough to have turned it into a disaster zone. As it was, my big memories are just of the time spent up in the sangar positions, waiting and watching – long periods of anxiety broken up by prolonged periods of intense, accurate enemy fire and wondering how we could possibly get the initiative back and survive to fight another day. But above all this, I remember the sahibs, the gurujis and the bhais who I fought the Taliban insurgency alongside. Each of them was, in my view, a hero, a warrior in the true Gurkha tradition. So when, as I occasionally do, I ask myself whether I could face another operation like the one we fought over those four weeks back in July 2006, I answer:

  So long as I am with the officers and men from the Brigade of Gurkhas my answer is yes, I would. Any time.

  Epilogue: After Now Zad

  The Paras stayed in Now Zad just thirty-six hours before handing over to the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. 3 PARA themselves went on to Sangin and Musa Qala, where they had a very rough time of things and took quite a few casualties. As for myself, I was back in Nepal just a few weeks later. The subsequent days I spent with my newborn son were among the happiest of my life. Now I had a boy I could bring up and teach to be a man. Hopefully he will carry on the traditions of our family and do something good for his people.

  My Army career since Now Zad has been one of steady progress. After Op Herrick 4, I returned again to Afghanistan in 2008–9 on Op Herrick 9 and again in 2011 for Op Herrick 14. Each of these were hard tours, very kinetic, and we lost men on both of them.

  By the time of Op Herrick 14, I was a Platoon Sergeant in Tamandu Company. At the time of writing I am a Colour Sergeant. I hope eventually to become a late entry officer.

  As to the other men, Nagen went to the Gurkha demonstration company at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, where he remains. Baren continues to serve in the first battalion RGR and is presently based in Brunei. Cookie, as I mentioned, recovered and has now left the Army. Nani has also left the Army, made redundant a few years back. He is living and working in the UK. Lance Corporal Shree was promoted Corporal and went to Catterick as an instructor of Gurkha recruits. Corporal Santos is now also a Colour Sergeant, presently instructing at the infantry school in Warminster.

  Of the officers, Mathers sahib first became Adjutant and is now serving as a Major. The OC, Rex sahib, later became an equerry to Her Majesty the Queen. He is now a Lieutenant-Colonel and is Station Commander at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

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nbsp; And then there is Gaaz. At the time of the Now Zad tour, Gaaz was a member of 12 Platoon, having come into my section as a recruit. After returning to Shorncliffe he got an attachment with the Yorkshire Regiment in Germany. After some time, he came out to Brunei, where I, as a newly promoted platoon sergeant, was on the staff during his Junior Leader Cadre for promotion to lance corporal. It was so good to see him again and I was really pleased he did well. He got his promotion soon after returning to the Yorkshires in Germany. He was just twenty-one, exactly as he hoped he would be. I later heard that Gaaz so impressed his platoon commander that he was being considered for entry to Sandhurst and possible commission as a regular officer. Of course it wasn’t just his great sense of humour and his intelligence but his enthusiasm and forcefulness in command that people noticed.

  Like the rest of us, Gaaz had several more tours of Afghanistan, returning there for the last time on Op Herrick 15 in the autumn of 2011. Just as at Now Zad, his platoon was sent to take over a compound. They were helicoptered up and then had to patrol in. They were taking a lot of fire on the position, both direct and indirect, and he’d responded by firing UGL. Later on, they were building up the position with sandbags – again just as at Now Zad – when there was a sudden burst of machine-gun fire. Everyone took cover but Gaaz, no doubt remembering the enemy’s tactics, quickly got back up to return fire. He was struck by a single bullet that caught him between the eyes.

  Gaaz died a hero’s death, in the arms of his platoon commander.

  When I think of this, I am filled with sorrow – not just for him, but for each of the Gurkhas who fell during the recent Afghan war, and for all their families and friends. My only comfort is that each and every one who did so died a true Gurkha’s death – full of courage, never failing, good-humoured, resourceful, noble to the end. True warriors all. But as Gaaz was my friend, and is the one I knew best, it is to him that I wish to dedicate this book, the gift of one soldier to the memory of another.

  May his deeds never be forgotten.

  Jai Gurkha!

  Khebang, looking down the valley from our house. (Author photo)

  My home. We moved here when I was five years old. I paid for the new tin roof on my first leave after joining the Gurkhas. (Author photo)

  Aged twelve, with my classmates. I am wearing the white hat. (Author photo)

  Aged fifteen, with my sister Gudiya. (Author photo)

  From the left, my great uncle, my father’s father Nainabahadur, my maternal grandfather and my maternal grandmother. (Author photo)

  At the Gurkha Museum during my recruit training. (Author photo)

  Digging a trench during recruit training, Church Crookham. (Author photo)

  On a local commander’s horse, 2003 tour of Afghanistan. (Author photo)

  D ‘Tamandu’ Company that deployed to Afghanistan on Op Herrick 4, 2006. (Gurkha Brigade Association (GBA))

  Now Zad: Looking at the CT from Sangar 3. The cam net on the right screens the OC’s external command and control point. (GBA)

  ANP quarters with Sangar 1 on the right. Smuggler’s House is the two-storey building in the middle distance – shown here before it was destroyed in an air strike. (GBA)

  This shows Sangar 2 and the main gate. All traffic passed through here. (GBA)

  Myself with Rifleman Nabin about to engage the enemy’s rocket position with the .50 cal. (GBA)

  Sangar 3 is on top of the building. The local police were accommodated below on the right-hand side. The roof of the clinic can be seen just the other side of the perimeter wall. (GBA)

  Sangar 3 under attack. (GBA)

  In Sangar 3, seen here in real time during a day contact, sending a sitrep over the field telephone. (GBA)

  Riflemen Mahesh, Gaj (Gaaz) and Lukesh seen here on the roof of the CT. Sometimes when not on duty on the sangars, they gave support to the command section. (GBA)

  A10 strike seen from ANP Hill. (GBA)

  Local police going out on patrol. We were never quite sure whose side they were on. (GBA)

  After a contact. I am on the left, standing with some of the bhais from Corporal Ramesh’s section. I’m smiling mainly for the benefit of the riflemen. (GBA)

  Major Rex (centre) seen here on deployment on Op Herrick 4. (GBA)

  Looking up at ANP Hill from Sangar 3. (GBA)

  From left to right, Riflemen Gaj (Gaaz), Mahesh and Sanjiv sharing some food during a resupply of ANP Hill. (GBA)

  I am third from left. Rifleman Gaj (Gaaz) is on the far right kneeling, Rifleman Lal is standing behind him on the extreme right, Rifleman Baren is in the front centre wearing a helmet. Behind him, Rifleman Nagen is leaning forward. Lieutenant Mathers is on the back row, centre. Lance Corporal Shree, my section 2 i/c, is seen on the right of Mathers sahib. (GBA)

  With VC Rambahadur Limbu on his visit to Sir John Moore barracks in 2014. (Author photo)

  With my family, my parents and children seated, in Brunei, 2011. (Author photo)

  Glossary

  ANP Afghan National Police

  AOI area of interest

  Browning .50-cal heavy machine gun

  casevac casualty evacuation

  casrep casualty report

  CSM Company Sergeant Major

  CT control tower

  CVR(T) combat vehicle reconnaissance (tracked)

  CWS common weapon sight

  DC district centre

  DRO Director Recruiting Officer

  EGD Educated Guard Duty

  FIBUA fighting in a built-up area

  FOO Forward Observation Officer

  FP fire position

  FUP forming-up place

  GPMG general-purpose machine gun

  HLS helicopter landing site

  HMNVS head-mounted night-vision sight

  IA immediate action

  IDF indirect fire

  IED improvised explosive device

  ILAW interim light anti-tank weapon

  IRT Immediate Response Team

  ISAF International Security Assistance Force

  jimpy general-purpose machine gun

  JLC Junior Leaders Cadre

  J Tac tactical air controller

  LSW light support weapon

  MFC mortar fire controller

  MID Mention in Dispatches

  Minimi machine gun

  OC Officer Commanding

  O-group orders group

  pax personnel

  PID positive identification

  PKM Russian 7.62mm machine gun

  PRR personal radio relay

  QBO Quick Battle Order

  QGO Queen’s Gurkha Officer

  QRF Quick Reaction Force

  resupp resupply

  ROE Rules of Engagement

  RPG rocket-propelled grenade

  RPS Recruit Platoon Sergeant

  RRF Royal Regiment of Fusiliers

  sitrep situation report

  SOP standard operating procedure

  UGL underslung grenade launcher

  WMIK Weapons Mount Installation Kit: an armoured Land Rover

  Index

  A-10 aircraft, 120–1, 171–7, 280–1

  Afghan National Police (ANP): on ANP Hill, 186–7, 188; evacuation of casualty, 185–6; firing of random rounds by, 7, 118; hajira hill people in, 76; interception of Taliban signals by, 176, 295–6; in Now Zad compound, 42–3, 44, 49, 73, 74, 76, 85, 89, 90, 123, 247, 322; patrols, 7, 74–5, 156–8, 264, 277–8, 282, 284, 285; suspicion of, 49, 85, 247, 323

  Afghanistan: dietary rules in, 189; earlier conflicts in, 77–8, 95, 143; Helmand province, 2, 30, 37, 55, 84, 90, 246, 288; marriage customs, 123; rich and poor in, 93–4; 2003 tour, 91–6, 203; Op Herrick 4 (2006), 47, 248; Op Herrick 9 (2008–9), 232, 328; Op Herrick 14 (2011), 203, 328; Op Herrick 15 (2011), 330; see also Now Zad compound; Now Zad town and district; Taliban insurgency

  alcohol, 17–18, 19

  Ambika (Gurkha), 29

  ammunition, 57, 81–2, 165–6, 184–5, 219, 278–9
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  Amrit (Gurkha), 29

  Apache helicopter gunships, 45, 76, 186, 221, 271, 273–7, 283, 286, 303

  Atta Muhammad, 92

  B-52 bombers, 131–2

  bagh chal (‘the tiger game’), 88–9, 100, 287

  Baren (Gurkha), 5–6, 7, 10, 70, 98, 101, 268–71, 272, 274, 277, 280; army career since Now Zad, 329; minor injury to, 11, 264–8, 282

  Bedlabh, Captain, 187–9

  Bhutan, 13

  Borneo, 143

  British Army, 140, 144, 230; 3 PARA Battlegroup, 30, 75–6, 90, 190–1, 287–8, 302–3, 323–6, 328; 48 Engineer Squadron, 30; drastic cuts to, 328; Household Cavalry, 316, 319–23; Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, 90, 187, 328; see also Gurkhas

  Brunei: Sultan of, 140; Training Area C in, 180–1, 183

  Buddhism, 13, 65

  Burma, 143, 200

  Camp Bastion, Helmand province, 30–1, 64–5, 189

  chess league, 87–8

  Chinook helicopters, 25–32, 115, 120, 186, 251–3, 282–3, 323–4

  Christianity, 188–9