MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Gurkha soldier remembers terror of Argentines
It has long been a legend of the Falklands War that the Argentines defending Stanley were so terrified of the Gurkhas, Nepalese soldiers fighting for the British, that they ran from their positions before the small but ferocious Gurkhas were able to make contact.
Talking yesterday on BBC World Services' Calling the Falklands programme, 19 years after the Argentine surrender, Nermail Rai, a Falklands veteran who still serves in the British Army with the rank of Captain, confirmed that the Argentines were terrified.
After taking some injuries from an Argentine artillery barrage, his battalion was tasked to capture one side of Tumbledown Mountain, but as they advanced on the well defended feature the Argentines left their defences and retreated rapidly towards Stanley. In contrast, at the other end of the ridge, the Argentine defenders had been taken on by the Scots Guards, and apparently without the same degree of fear, fought hard.
Captain Rai was asked if the Gurkhas ferocious reputation is deserved. He replied, "I think yes."
He went on to recall that as he and his comrades moved through the largely abandoned Argentine positions on Tumbledown, they found several Argentine medical troops who may have remained behind to care for wounded. The men were taken prisoner and the Gurkhas unsheathed their huge curved "kukri" knives. The incident is Captain Rai's most abiding memory of the war. He said: "The Argies were terrified that we were going to chop off their heads. In fact we had drawn the kukris to cut up shoe laces to tie them up with."
The Ghurkhas had to reassure their prisoners they were not going to be murdered with the fearsome knives, and a few hours later they were relieved to be in a prisoner of war compound.
Source: BBC/CTF
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