Raised as a levy at Fatehgarh in 1817, 9 Gorkha Rifles won VCs on the Tigris, in Burma and at San Marino, and held Hangman's Hill at Cassino in 1944.
Hangman's Hill
The third battle of Monte Cassino began on 15 March 1944 after heavy Allied bombing. C Company of 1/9 Gurkha Rifles, under Captain M.R. Drinkhall, got through to Hangman's Hill, the high point south-west of the monastery. Once word of this came back, the 4th Indian Division sent what it had to support them, and much of the rest of the battalion fought its way up over the next two days.
The Gurkha Museum records that the battalion held the hill for nine days against continuous German attack and was forced off by shortage of ammunition and supplies. Other accounts count ten days. Hangman's Hill and Cassino I are both among the regiment's honours from Italy.
San Marino, September 1944
Six months later the same battalion attacked a sector of the Gothic Line near San Marino. On the night of 18/19 September Rifleman Sher Bahadur Thapa, a Bren gunner who had come out as a replacement after the losses at Cassino, went in with his section commander against a German strongpoint and helped overcome a machine-gun post. He stayed in the open under heavy fire, silencing other machine guns and holding up the German advance.
When his company was ordered back he covered the withdrawal alone until his ammunition ran out. He then went forward and brought back two wounded men, and machine-gun fire killed him at point-blank range on the second trip. No photograph of him is known to exist. His Victoria Cross is held by the regiment, and a monument to him stands in San Marino.
The Fatehgarh Levy
The regiment was raised in 1817 as an infantry levy at Fatehgarh, soon took the name of Mainpuri, and became a regular unit of the Bengal Native Infantry in 1823. It fought at Bharatpur, and at Sobraon in the First Anglo-Sikh War. After 1857 it was the 9th Bengal Native Infantry, with one company of Gorkhas and other hill men. It was wholly Gorkha by 1893 and took the title of 9th Gurkha Rifles in 1903. Its Nepali recruits have come mainly from the Chhetri and Thakuri, and domiciled Indian Gorkhas make up about 20 percent of the regiment.
In April 1919 soldiers of the regiment were part of the force under Brigadier General Reginald Dyer that fired on the crowd at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar.
Shumran and Taungni
Two other officers won the Victoria Cross with the regiment. At about 5.30 am on 23 February 1917, during the Second Battle of Kut, Major George Campbell Wheeler led a company of 2/9 across the Tigris by ferry at the Shumran Bend. His citation says he and a small party "rushed the enemy's trench in the face of very heavy fire". Counter-attacked by bombers, he led a charge that drove them off and took a severe bayonet wound to the head. By nightfall two divisions had crossed. The Ottomans abandoned Kut the next day, and Baghdad fell on 11 March.
Temporary Major Frank Blaker of the Highland Light Infantry, attached to 3/9, won the other on 9 July 1944 with the Chindits in Burma, on a hill overlooking Taungni. His company had been sent on a wide flanking move against machine guns holding up the battalion. Wounded in the arm by a grenade, he charged the main machine-gun position alone and was hit, and went on calling his men forward as they took the hill. He died of his wounds during evacuation. The London Gazette published the award on 26 September.
Namka Chu and After
The regiment came to India under the Tripartite Agreement of 1947. Havildar Lal Bahadur Khattri of 3/9 won both the Maha Vir Chakra and the Vir Chakra in two separate actions at Poonch in 1947-48.
In 1962, 1/9 fought on the Namka Chu in NEFA, now Arunachal Pradesh, and won two Maha Vir Chakras among its awards. Three battle honours came from the wars with Pakistan: 5/9 won Phillora in 1965, 2/9 won Kumarkhali in East Pakistan in 1971, and 1/9 won Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab the same year. Bharat Rakshak records five Maha Vir Chakras, 17 Vir Chakras, one Ashoka Chakra, three Kirti Chakras and seven Shaurya Chakras since Independence.
At a glance
- Raised: 1817, as a levy at Fatehgarh
- Regimental centre: 39 Gorkha Training Centre, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
- War cry: Ayo Gorkhali