• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

Monte Cassino, Italy

Funny ! I read this yesterday, and last night the Belgian TV had a documentary on the Battle of Monte Cassino !

But no FS buildings that I know of... am looking to build the 'hotel' Musolini was held captive myself...... :)
 
Thanks for the link.
My father was there with the Canadians under <st1:City><st1:place>Montgomery</st1:place></st1:City> when they took Casino. He told me about the Gurkha troops he had met there. They would climb up the mount at night and kill unwary German troops then remove their ears. They received extra pay for every pair they returned. There was always the question if all the ears were genuine German ears. My father asked one Gurkha troopers if he could see his knife. The Gurkha pulled the knife out and when my father reached for it the Gurkha cut his hand then gave it to him to examine. When my father asked why he cut him the Gurkha explained that he was forbidden to expose the blade without drawing blood be it his own or another's and he preffered it be others.
 
My father was a Royal Marine Commando during WWII and fought alongside the Gurkha Regiment many times. He always claimed they were the fiercest troops he had ever met and they much preferred to get up close and personal especially at night. They had a knack for moving silently and could enter an enemy location undetected with apparent ease.

He had the same stories about the kukri's too with regard to drawing blood and said that if you looked at a Gurkha's index finger it was covered in small scars where they had drawn their own blood before sheathing the knife again.

I have always wanted a genuine Gurkha kukri (they come as a set of three in the same sheath, the main knife, a smaller knife and a sharpening hone) as they are a classic example of the knife-maker's art. It is somewhat amazing that such a fine quality knife traditionally starts out as an old vehicle leaf spring!
 
My father trained with the Royal Marine Commandos while in <st1:country-region><st1:place>England</st1:place></st1:country-region>. My most prized possession is his swagger stick which is permanently stained with his perspiration.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top