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Chas, the Gurkhas never served in the Pacific theatre of OPS. They served in the China Burma India Theatre.
A few of the unit histories from the italian campaign make mention of the Germans having a particular fear of the gurkhas and I'm sure they used their kukris to good effect on patrols and in the assualt in Italy as they did in Burma. The Gurkhas distinguished themselves on all fronts that they fought.
Cheers
Al
Actually, there was a significant force of Gurkhas in the Malayan/Singapore campaign.
A quick google search and I see that Burma is not within the official PTO region. Thankyou for your correction in that regard.
No doubt the Gurkhas distinguished themselves wherever they fought. However, I still believe the kukris were put to better combat use in Burma/Malaya. The Gurkhas' brilliance in jungle fighting can be somewhat explained taking into account a number of factors.
-Living conditions in their home country were quite similar to how they lived and operated in the Burmese jungle. What was seen as immense hardship to the British troops was for them, quite normal.
-The Gurkhas were short in stature and could move stealthily through the jungle, beating the Japanese at his own game. As I said before, the terrain was ideal for ambushes, which the Gurkhas excelled at. The kukris were balanced and nimble, the perfect weapon to use in this terrain. I recently saw a wartime video of Gurkhas demonstrating a "prey mantis" ambush technique, among others. It looked astoundingly clever.The video is called "British Campaigns: Burma 1941-1945" MRA Entertainment, for those interested.
I agree with Mick Toal regarding the use of the kukri as a combat weapon in Italy. Due to the terrain being much more open, it would have been suicidal to use the kukri as a primary attack weapon. I'm not saying Gurkha ambushes didn't occur in Italy, but they would have been much less frequent and practical than they were in Burma.
Chas
