Raised as the Kumaon Battalion in 1815, 3 Gorkha Rifles produced the first Gurkha Victoria Cross, won by Rifleman Kulbir Thapa at Fauquissart in 1915.
Kulbir Thapa at Fauquissart
On 25 September 1915 Rifleman Kulbir Thapa of 2/3 Gurkha Rifles went into the German trenches near Fauquissart with the attack that opened the fighting at Loos on that part of the line. By the Gurkha Museum's account he was the last survivor of his party, and he was already wounded. Behind the German front line he found a badly wounded soldier of the 2nd Leicestershire Regiment, who told him to save himself. Kulbir stayed with the man for the rest of the day and through the night.
The next morning, under cover of mist, he carried the Leicester back through the German wire. He then went back twice more for two wounded Gurkhas and brought them out one at a time. Finally, in broad daylight and under fire, he returned for the British soldier and carried him all the way to the British lines. He was the first Gurkha to receive the Victoria Cross, a decoration Indian Army soldiers had become eligible for only four years earlier. The award was gazetted on 18 November 1915.
The same battalion won the regiment's second VC during the Palestine campaign. At El Kefr on 10 April 1918, Rifleman Karanbahadur Rana, aged 19, crept forward with a small party and a Lewis gun to deal with an enemy machine gun. When the gunner was killed he took over the weapon under heavy fire, silenced the enemy crew and kept the gun working through its faults. He survived the war and died in Nepal in 1973.
The Kumaon Battalion
The regiment began on 24 April 1815, during the Gurkha War, as the Kumaon Battalion under Sir Robert Colquhoun. It first drew men from Kumaon and Garhwal as well as Gurkhas. It still has a link to its founder: the pipes and drums wear the Colquhoun tartan. The title changed to the 3rd Gurkha (The Kumaon) Regiment in 1861, and in 1908 to the 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles. The Indian spelling came in with the Republic in 1950. A second battalion raised in 1887 from Garhwalis was split off in 1890 as the 39th (Garhwal) Regiment. Recruitment today is mainly Magars and Gurungs.
Its first honour was Delhi 1857, followed by Ahmad Khel in the Second Afghan War, where on 19 April 1880 the regiment formed square against Afghan tribesmen. It then fought in Burma, and in the Tirah in October 1897, when the Dargai Heights were stormed. On the Western Front, 2/3 served with the Garhwal Brigade of the Meerut Division at La Bassee, Festubert, Neuve Chapelle and Aubers before moving to Egypt in December 1915. Bharat Rakshak credits the regiment with 18 battle honours in the First World War. The Second World War took battalions to North Africa, Italy and Burma, and added Sittang, Imphal, Bishenpur and Meiktila to the list.
The Convoy Near Mokokchung
The regiment's Ashoka Chakra belongs to its commanding officer in the Naga Hills. On 14 June 1956 Lt Col Jagannath Raoji Chitnis of 1/3 Gorkha Rifles and Subedar Major Nain Singh were moving the battalion's pay from Mokokchung in a convoy of eight jeeps with a platoon as escort. Near the 21st kilometre about 100 Naga rebels fired on the middle jeep and cut off three vehicles. Chitnis stopped the other five, was wounded in the leg, and led a counter-attack on the bunkers, killing one rebel with a bayonet. A light machine gun then opened up from the flank. He charged it and was critically wounded in the stomach, and he went on directing the platoon from where he fell until he died. He was 37.
Pir Kanthi and Hathi Matha
Allotted to India in 1947, the regiment earned its first post-Independence battle honour in the Uri sector. On 26 June 1948, 2/3 Gorkha Rifles captured Pir Kanthi, an 11,000-foot massif on the Uri-Domel road.
The second came in the 1971 war in the Kargil sector, where 5/3 took Hathi Matha, a 14,000-foot peak, and 13 picquets overlooking the line of communication to Leh. The honour is Shingo River Valley. In the same war 1/3 carried out an amphibious landing to cut off retreating Pakistani troops, which Bharat Rakshak records as the first by a battalion after Independence. Bharat Rakshak's tally of the regiment's awards includes one Ashoka Chakra, one Kirti Chakra, five Vir Chakras and five Shaurya Chakras.
At a glance
- Raised: 24 April 1815, as the Kumaon Battalion
- Regimental centre: Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
- War cry: Ayo Gorkhali