3rd Gurkha Rifle Regiment

The emblem of the regiment is two crossed kukri knives with the concave side up. Above the intersection, between the blades, there is a six-pointed star with the number 3 in the center. Above the star is the emblem of India in the form of “Ashoka's Lion Capital”.

The unit’s motto is “Better to die than live like a coward.” The battle cry is “Ayo are bitter!” (“ Gurkhas are here!”).

From the first days of its existence, the regiment wore a green uniform. A distinctive feature of the 3rd Gurkh form was the green cloth triangles sewn on both sides of the Gurkha turban. In 1904, the regiment became the first unit to participate in the parade in shorts ^[1] .

British India

On April 24, 1815, the Kumaon Local Battalion was formed in Almore . Subsequently, the battalion was transformed into the 18th Bengal regiment of the native infantry, which then (in 1861) was named the 3rd Gurkh (Kumaon) regiment.

During the first four decades of its existence, the battalion, and then the regiment, served on the Nepalese border, and in 1857 participated in the assault on Delhi during the suppression of the sepoy uprising . At the end of 1864, during the Anglo-Bhutan war , the regiment was thrown at Bucks Fort in Bhutan and successfully captured it, returning to permanent apartments in Almore in April 1866 . The first long campaign with the participation of the 3rd Gurkh regiment was the second Anglo-Afghan war , when for 21 months the regiment conducted military operations in the areas of Kandahar , Kabul and Ghazni . The regiment proved itself to be the best in the battle of Ahmed Khel , having received the first combat distinction. In the mid-1880s, the 3rd Gurkha participated in the suppression of the partisan movement during the 3rd Anglo-Burmese War , returning to Almora in May 1887 ^[2] .

In 1887, the second battalion was introduced into the regiment. The new part was equipped with Garhwal and housed in Lansdowne . In 1889, 100 soldiers of the new battalion, along with the same number of soldiers of the 1st battalion, were sent to an intelligence raid on the border with Tibet, where military fortifications were allegedly being built. Although the construction data turned out to be false, the regiment’s fighters went down in history as a regular military unit that visited the highest altitude (during the course of the assignment, they crossed a mountain pass at an altitude of about 5.5 km) ^[3] . Soon, however, the 39th Garhwal Bengal Infantry Regiment (later the 39th Garhwal Rifle Regiment) was formed on the basis of the 2nd Battalion, and in 1891 the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Gurkha Regiment was re-created in Lansdowne. In 1897, both 3rd Gurkh battalions took part in border operations in Peshawar , Tirah and Punjab , receiving three military distinctions. In 1907, as a sign of royal appreciation, the regiment received a new name - Queen Alexandra’s 3rd own Gurkha Rifle Regiment ^[4] .

World Wars

During the First World War , two new battalions were introduced to the 3rd Gurkh regiment, and the 4th battalion was given to him as a result of a bureaucratic error: in documents on the registry of the 1st reserve battalion in June 1917 he received a new number 4 / 3 instead of 3/4. As a result , the 4th Gurkh regiment never received a third battalion, while the 3rd included four ^[5] .

The 1st Battalion of the 3rd Gurkh from November 1917 took part in the Mesopotamian campaign , first against the Turkish troops, and then with the suppression of Kurdish and Arab rebellions. The battalion returned to Kumaon in June 1921 . The 2nd battalion was first transferred to the European theater of operations, where from October 1914 he participated in battles, first at La Couture , and then at Nev Chapelle . It was for actions near Nev-Chapelle in September 1915 that Private Kulbir Thapa received the first Victoria Cross regiment in the history of the regiment (later the rank and file was awarded to Private Private of the 2nd Battalion Karanbakhadur Rana ). In November, the battalion was transferred to Egypt and in 1917, together with the 3rd battalion formed there, took part in the Sinai-Palestinian campaign . In 1919, the 2nd Battalion returned to Bombay, and the 3rd was disbanded in 1920 in Lansdowne. The 4th battalion took a limited part in border operations on the northwestern borders of British India and was disbanded in 1922 ^[5] .

During the Second World War , the 3rd Gurkh regiment took part in hostilities in Burma, Malaya, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, North Africa and Cyprus ^[6] .

Independence Period

After India gained independence, the 3rd Gurkha remained one of the six Gurkha regiments in the Indian army . Having taken part in the 1st and 3rd Indo-Pakistani war , the regiment earned military distinctions for operations in the Uri sector in 1948 and in the Shingo River valley ( Kargil sector) in 1971 . The 1st battalion of the 3rd Gurkh regiment became in 1971 the first army unit of independent India, which carried out an operation to land a naval landing . For heroism during the suppression of separatist uprisings in Nagaland in 1956, an officer of the 3rd Gurkh, Lieutenant Colonel Jagannath Chitnis , was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra , India’s highest military award, given in between wars.

Data are from the book: Sahgal Amrish. Third And Ninth Gorkhas . - New Delhi: Sona Printers, 2003 .-- ISBN 81-7062-290-5 . ^[7]

• 1815 - shock-flint infantry musket "Red Bess"
• 1866 - Anfield's smoothbore musket, model 1853
• 1873 - Anfield rifle .577 caliber model 1867
• 1887/88 - martini henry rifle
• 1902 - Lee-Anfield Store Rifle Model 1
• 1950 - Lee-Anfield rifle, model 5
• 1963 - self-loading rifle 1A1 caliber 7.62 mm
• 1999 - 5.56 mm INSAS automatic rifle

• Sahgal Amrish. Third And Ninth Gorkhas . - New Delhi: Sona Printers, 2003 .-- ISBN 81-7062-290-5 .
• JBR Nicholson. The Gurkha Rifles . - Osprey Publishing, 1974. - ISBN 0-85045-196-5 . (inaccessible link)

• 3rd Gurkha Rifle Regiment on the official website of the Indian Army