Mandalay Company, Royal Gurkha Rifles

[Rainbow Six]

Afternoon all,

Attached a short stand alone piece intended to provide some background for Gurkha PC's / NPC's in Europe.

Comments / questions welcome...

Cheers

[James Langham]

Really good article.

Some Gurkhas were attached to the Parachute Rgt but I'm not sure of the date.

I'm not sure how many would opt for the SLR as they usually carried the M16 pre-SA80.

Interesting bit of trivia Gurkhas only get one shot at each promotion - if they fail they will never get that rank.

Nice way to include Gurkha characters in BAOR.

[dude_uk]

Cheers for that! Did not realise there was a company attached to the Infantry Battle School as well as Sandhurst. Will slot that in my next orbat revision.

One minor point, Gurkhas are never assigned to Mechanised units, be it Warrior, FV432 or Saxon. It is more likely they would be attached to a light role unit rather than 2nd Grenadier Guards who are in 4th Armoured Division.

5 Airborne or 24 Airmobile could use their expertise. Pathfinders for 24 Airmobile might a good idea?

[Targan]

That was an excellent read, Rainbow Six.

[Fusilier]

Very nice.

I think the Dude's suggestion on having them attached to the Paras or 24 Airmobile is something to consider too.

[simonmark6]

Having the Gurkhas attached to a Para regiment reminds me of a story I've heard. Forgive me if someone has posted it here before.

During WW2 a Gurkha unit was tasked to train as paras to work with the Chindits. Their officer explained to them that they'd start practice jumps at two thousand feet. Uncharacteristically, there was a ripple of unease in the ranks. A senior Rissildar came up to the officer and said, "Sir, the men would be more comfortable with starting at a lower level and working their way up."
The officer replied that any lower than two thousand feet would mean that the parachutes might not open.
At that the NCO beamed happily and said to the troops, "Ah, they're giving us parachutes."

[Canadian Army]

According to Osprey Military Elite Series 49 The Gurkhas; there have been three Gurkha Parachute units 153 (Gurkha) Parachute Battalion; raised in 1941 from volunteers from all the Gurkha regiments; the 154 (Gurkha) Parachute Battalion, which was rasied the following year, was formed by 'converting' the 3rd/7th Gurkhas. A Gurkha Independent Parachute Company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha_Independent_Parachute_Company) was formed from Brigade of Gurkha in the early 1960's and was in existence for about 10 years.

[James Langham]

I'm thinking of a Gurkha company being transferred en masse to one of the Bns of the Parachute Rgt due to a shortage of troops. It has been a regular occurrence in the British army among infantry units.

According to Osprey Military Elite Series 49 The Gurkhas; there have been three Gurkha Parachute units 153 (Gurkha) Parachute Battalion; raised in 1941 from volunteers from all the Gurkha regiments; the 154 (Gurkha) Parachute Battalion, which was rasied the following year, was formed by 'converting' the 3rd/7th Gurkhas. A Gurkha Independent Parachute Company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha_Independent_Parachute_Company) was formed from Brigade of Gurkha in the early 1960's and was in existence for about 10 years.

[Rainbow Six]

The 1st Airborne Brigade (aka the Parachute Regiment) would probably have had a full Gurkha Battalion assigned to it (IRL a Gurkha Battalion was assigned to 5th Airborne Brigade in the late 80's). However as 1st Airborne Brigade was brought back to the UK in August 1998 chances are its Gurkhas would have returned with it (which gives the possibility of Gurkhas in the UK).

The idea behind Mandalay Company was similar to the Gurkha Incremental Companies that James mentioned, i.e. an entire Company transferring en masse. The reason I chose the Grenadiers was because I liked the idea of a mixed group of Gurkhas and Guardsmen as NPC's, however I may have made an error choosing 2nd Grenadiers as they don't appear to be assigned to 4th Division after all (I had to go into work on Good Friday and actually wrote the whole thing at work in around 75 mins).

Using 24 Airmobile is a good idea but as this is intended to be compatible with canon it would have to be 6 Airmobile - either that or 24 Infantry Brigade, which didn't deploy to Germany until August 1997 (which would probably work).

[Adm.Lee]

I like it. One of the more memorable PCs in one of my Poland games was a Gurkha. We never quite worked out how he ended up in the 5th Mech., and didn't much care, either.

[Olefin]

I love it - a Gurkha character sounds like a lot of fun. We had one guy make his character, after agreement with the GM, a full blooded Apache who was a survivor of a Ranger company attached to the 5th.

I would hate to be a Soviet commmander having to deal with a bunch of Gurkhas. One of the few people who if they bring a knife to a gun fight, I would bet on the Gurkha.