10 Mind-Blowing Feats Performed By Gurkhas

4. Jitbahadur Rai’s First Battle With German Soldiers

A soldier from the company of Gurkhas that is to fly out to Bosnia shortly, in their first operational deployment since the Falklands conflict, trains at their base of Church Cookham in Hampshire today (Friday). The advance party of the Nepalese troops wi
AP
This is a more apocryphal tale of a former mess orderly namedĀ Jitbahadur Rai who eventually joined up with the Gurkha forces during the Second World War, but that doesn't make it any less impressive.

As the story goes, Rai was considered to be a little on the slight side for a Gurkha, but that didn't stop him from demonstrating all of the hallmarks of bravery that the group is known for.

In his first battle he is reputed to have leapt through the smoke of burning grass to take on two German soldiers in close combat with his Kukri, which is the knife that all Gurkhas carry with them.

Having cut both fighters down, Rai found himself in the unfortunate position of having both collapse on top of him as a third gunner advanced on his position.

Clearly believing that he was heading in for the kill, the third gunner came a little too close to Rai, who had managed to free his arm and used his Kukri to almost sever the arm of his assailant.

He was apparently seen later on escorting the injured German gunner on his stretcher, explaining to him that he had no intention of finishing the job.

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Lee Price is a writer for 411mania.com and Starburst Magazine, which is published in the UK. He is currently working as a freelance writer. He hopes to one day fund his addiction to video games by writing about video games, and he maintains a sporadically updated blog at leesrandombulls*it.wordpress.com