Raised at Pithoragarh in 1857, 4 Gorkha Rifles won the honour Bilafond La in 1987, when 3/4 GR held the Siachen pass against repeated Pakistani attacks.
Bilafond La, September 1987
Lance Havildar Nar Bahadur Ale commanded a medium machine gun detachment of 3/4 Gorkha Rifles in the Bilafond La complex on the Siachen Glacier. The Indian Army had taken Quaid Post there in June 1987 and renamed it after Naib Subedar Bana Singh, and Pakistani troops kept trying to get the ground back. On 23 September they attacked after heavy shelling, and Ale's gun helped beat them off.
They came again on the night of 24 September in greater strength, with artillery and missile fire. A direct artillery hit put both of Ale's crew out of action. Severely wounded, he picked up the machine gun and fired it from the hip, breaking the assault about 50 yards short of the post with at least 15 of the enemy dead. He refused evacuation and helped repel two more attacks before dying of his injuries. He received a posthumous Maha Vir Chakra.
Naik Prem Bahadur Gurung of the same battalion, who died on 24 September, also received a posthumous MVC. The third went to Major Krishna Gopal Chatterjee. Five Vir Chakras followed: 2nd Lieutenant A.K. Sharma, Naib Subedar Bhim Bahadur Thapa, Lance Naik Hira Bahadur Thapa (posthumous), Rifleman Sanjeev Gurung (posthumous) and Naik Hom Bahadur Thapa. Fighting at about 20,000 feet, the battalion lost 13 killed and 23 wounded between 20 and 24 September. Bilafond La became a battle honour of the regiment, alongside Punch and Gurais.
The Extra Goorkha Regiment
The regiment was raised on 6 August 1857 at Pithoragarh, with officers and men from the 66th Goorkha Regiment, in the months of the Indian Rebellion. Salute magazine records it as the last regular regiment raised by the East India Company. It was the 19th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry for a short time, then the 4th Goorkha Regiment under the renumbering of 1861. In 1924 it received the title of 4th Prince of Wales's Own Gurkha Rifles, which it held until 1950. Its soldiers have been mainly Magars and Gurungs, and 4/4 was half Gurung and Magar and half Limbu and Rai when it was raised.
The early service was in the Lushai Hills and on the North-West Frontier, with Ali Masjid, Kabul 1879 and Kandahar 1880 among the honours from the Second Afghan War. A contingent went to China in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion.
Walker in Somaliland, Masters in Burma
The regiment's only Victoria Cross went to Captain William George Walker on 22 April 1903 at Daratoleh in British Somaliland. He was serving with camel troops on the Third Somaliland Expedition when the rearguard fell behind the column. Walker, Captain George Rolland and four other men stayed with a badly wounded officer and held the enemy off while one man went for help. Major John Gough arrived and they got the officer onto a camel, but he was hit again and died. All three officers received the VC.
In the First World War, 1/4 served in France at Givenchy, Neuve Chapelle and Ypres, then landed at Gallipoli on 1 September 1915 and left on 19 December. The 2/4 was in Mesopotamia and entered Baghdad on 11 March 1917.
The Second World War produced the regiment's best-known writer. John Masters, a regular officer of the regiment, served as adjutant in Iraq, served in the second Chindit operation and at Mandalay, commanded 3/4 at one point, and later wrote Bugles and a Tiger and The Road Past Mandalay. The 1/4 fought at the Sittang Bridge in February 1942 under Lt Col Joe Lentaigne, who went on to command 111 Brigade and succeeded Orde Wingate as Chindit commander after Wingate's death. On 29 June 1942, 2/4 was overrun at Mersa Matruh. It was rebuilt and fought in Italy, where the honours include Trestina and Monte Cedrone.
Bakloh
The regiment's home for most of its first century was in the Chamba hills. Bakloh was acquired in 1866 from the Raja of Chamba for Rs 5,000. The 2nd Battalion was raised there on 22 April 1886, and the Regimental Centre was formed there on 15 November 1940. The last British commandant, Col R.A.N. Davidson, handed over to Lt Col Rajbir Chopra, the first Indian commandant, on 18 January 1948.
After Independence, 4 Gorkha Rifles fought at Gurais under Maj Gen K.S. Thimayya in 1948, at Khem Karan in 1965 and around Punch in 1971. The centre moved out of Bakloh in 1948 and passed through Dharamshala, Chakrata and Clement Town. In April 1960 it reached Subathu and merged with the 1 Gorkha Rifles centre to form 14 Gorkha Training Centre.
At a glance
- Raised: 6 August 1857, at Pithoragarh, as the Extra Goorkha Regiment
- Regimental centre: 14 Gorkha Training Centre, Subathu, Himachal Pradesh (shared with 1 Gorkha Rifles)
- War cry: Ayo Gorkhali