The Gurkhas [Osprey Military] [Elite Series]

Typical Osprey product: great illustrations, finely detailed and based on life, with great captions and covering a variety of time periods, ranks, mission specialties, and real persons. Not a super-in-depth look at the Gurkhas but the best one with illustrations and a pretty good telling of the history and present of soldiers widely considered the best in the world. [two thumbs up]

This Osprey book, well-illustrated with photographs and color plates of Gurkha military uniforms down through history, is an asset for anyone who is interested in the story of this elite corps of fighting men. Gurkhas currently serve as soldiers in four armies: the Nepalese Army (Nepal being their homeland), the Indian Army, the British Army and the Malaysian Army. Gurkhas also serve in a specialized unit of the Singapore Police for that city-state.Mike Chappell's book traces Gurkha military service from the 1800's through the Second World War and up to the late twentieth century.

Detailed. Good illustrations.

The Gurkha's are tough little guys with their Khukri that is practically an axe and a knife all in one. This book was published in 1993, so it is a little outdated and fails to mention the use of Gurkha's in Iraq, as it was published a decade before that war. All in all it is a fantastic book on the Gurkhas and I recommend!

There are few literate people in the world who have not heard of the Gurkhas, the legendary fighting men from Nepal, a steep country of hill people of Asiatic ancestry. For over a century and a half the soldiers recruited from the Himalayas on the southern face of the range overlooking India faithfully served in the British Indian Army and since the independence of India form one of the largest contingents of the Army of India today. They still serve faithfully the British crown but with retrenchment and reductions their units are fading out of existence. This book briefly covers the history of the Gurkhas and reviews the current units in British service. Those units in the Army of India are not. Do not confuse the Army of India (post 1947) with the Indian Army of the British Empire which was divided up in 1947 to form both the Army of India and the Army of Pakistan.Their reputation for fierceness in battle is well deserved as is their cheery disposition and love for the tasks of a soldier. Of course, not being citizens or subjects of the nations they serve, they are characterized as mercenaries. Unfortunately that name has recieved much undeserved opprobium in the last forty some years due to the excesses of those who served in fight for pay units in the Congo and other places in Africa but those persons should more properly be termed "soldiers of fortune" as were those in the early part of the twentieth century. Those men were essentially amoral who killed for a living and put their life on the line for a big payoff in loot or cash so that they could squander it on rioutous libertinous living until the money ran out.A mercenary is really someone who earns his living at soldiering in the service of a nation not his own. No one in the French Foreign Legion ever got rich in the ranks, but they are mercenaries. In the mid millenium there were many such men. Sir John Falstaff, the Shakespearian character in Henry V, was one such. Dutch, Swedish, and Swiss have long been mercenaries. The famous Swiss Guard of the Vatican is a current example.So honor the Gurkhas for the jolly fellows they are and the virtues they personify, loyalty, steadfastness in adversity, and athletic courage, and forget unjust stereotypes of pillage and rapine properly attributed to mercenaries-soldiers of fortune of other times and places.

Great book for reference and research into the history and people who helped shape this highly respected regiment. Describes the individual battalions, formations and honours. Recommend

Great book

VERY INFORMATIVE A GOOD RECORD OF GURKHA HISTORY AND BRITISH LESD GURKHA REGIMENTS

This book is indispensable for those who love gurkhas and the history of the Second World War and want to complete their osprey collection.

Very good book.Lot of information.