As part of Operation Herrick (the codename under which all British operations in the War in Afghanistan were conducted from 2002 to the end of combat operations in 2014), soldiers from the Gurkha regiment were sent into Now Zad to man a compound housing an Afghan police station and a few members of the ANP Military. Famously named Apocalypse “Now Zad”, this town was the epi-centre of a war of attrition between the murderous Taliban forces and the combined British, Gurkha and Estonian forces. It is located at an altitude of 1221 metres above sea level. Nawzad, is a small town, the centre of Nawzad District in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. However if you are interested in the manner in which the indomitable Gurkhas act in the face of a deadly siege during the course of a particular operation, then this sans any doubt is a perfect primer. If you are looking for an extended and elaborate history of the stellar origins and stupendous achievement of the much admired and feared Gurkha Regiment, then this definitely is not a book. The feeling that stems from a reading of Colour Sergeant Kailash Limbu can at best be described as ambivalent. Kailash’s descriptions of Gurkha training and rituals – including how to use the lethal Kukri knife, which he initially learned as a young boy – are fascinating.“If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gurkha” – Sam Manekshaw He grew up in a place without roads or electricity and didn’t see a car until he was fifteen. Kailash Khebang, who describes himself as an ordinary hill boy from Nepal whose ambition was always to be a Gurkha, recalls the terrifying and exciting details of those thirty-one days – in which they killed an estimated one hundred Taliban fighters – and intersperses them with the story of his own life as a villager from the Himalayas. In the end, he and his men were under siege for thirty-one days – one of the longest such sieges in the whole of the Afghan campaign. He was told to prepare for a forty-eight hour operation. In the summer of 2006, Colour-Sargeant Kailash Khebang’s platoon was sent to relieve and occupy a police compound in the town of Now Zad in Helmand. Better to Die than Live a Coward: My life with the Gurkhas
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