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Old 18-02-21, 09:38 AM
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Default 10th Gurkhas and the Sumatran Yetis !

I've recently acquired a copy of the Bugle and Kukri The Journal of The 10th Gurkha Rifles Regimental Association - (2003) - and came across an article by James McDonald 1/10GR about an extraordinary incident in 1953 when the Regt was involved in the campaign against the Communist Terrorists (CT's) . I thought I'd share part of it with you as it ranks right at the top of my list of strangest things found in a Regimental Journal !

" I had an extraordinary wireless chat two days later with 4 Platoon Commander WOII (later Lieutenant) Aitabahadur Limbu MC. His ambush was on the game trail leading over the crest of Bukit Tininyau, 5050 feet, the tree covered slopes on either side steep. He reported an unusual visitation. The ambush NCO had beckoned him forward "Sano toli ayechha!" - small group coming up! Spotted at a distance climbing towards them, the toli approached in the usual single file. Initially he counted five walking well apart, with others he thought farther back, but with overhanging trees it was not possible to be certain.

They did not wear the khaki uniforms of the "regular" CT, Aitabahadur said but black, and he thought they must be Min Yuen, the CT administrative arm, who usually lived in the villages and often wore black coolie clothes. Unusually for travellers in the forest they carried nothing, no packs or weapons that he could see, though Min Yuen he knew often carried pistols. Studying the lead man, Aitabahadur described him as seeming to have on his head a loose hood of black cloth. Our ambush party was carefully concealed and certainly had not put a foot forward of their position. There was nothing to give them away - but as they watched the visitors stopped, looking up along the crest line towards them. Then the lead man put up his hands, pulled aside the loose black hood shading his eyes - and Aitabahadur saw it was not cloth but hair and the rest of his black clothing also hair. Then the whole lot dived over the edge. "Sahib" said Aitabahadur later when we met up, "they hadn't seen us, they couldn't have. They smelt us".

So who were they? They were certainly not the aboriginal Sakai of Malaya, we had long experience of them and in any case Sakai hair was short, almost negroid. I could only assume they were the kind of beings the university team were searching for in Sumattra, their "Yetis" -They had hoped to find one. Not quite 50 years earlier, however 4 Platoon had seen a whole "toli". These innocent beings we thought sadly, had probably lived peacefully in Perak's forested mountain for thousands of years, till GHQ in Kuala Lumpur decided that the way to catch CT's was to bomb and blast."


The article had been prompted by McDonald reading a report of a scientific expedition " British Scientists Seek Sumatran Yeti" - in the Times. This team from English universities were following up reports of the existence in Sumatran hill forest of a mysterious and elusive man like creature. Reports of the creature had been documented for centuries although the expedition were unsuccessful in finding any definitive proof.

I must confess that I'd never heard of the Sumatran Yeti - but a quick google search and there's quite a lot of articles about the creature - interestingly there is no reference to the 10GR encounter which must rank as one of the more well documented and reliable sightings - but then there's an interesting footnote to the MacDonald article. Realising the potential scientific importance of the sighting he wrote to the Curator of the National History Museum in Singapore - giving date, time, grid references and a detailed description of the creatures. " I heard nothing from him, no acknowledgement of interest or thanks, for the simple reason that he sent my letter to the MOD stating that it was quite disgraceful of a British officer to give away military secrets in this way! "

Given the source material and the reaction of the museum - you can see why the incident slipped under the radar of the crypto zoologists - but the sighting must be unique in that there were multiple observers who were trained, experienced and reliable and whose very lives depended on their alertness. Tim
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Old 18-02-21, 10:11 AM
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Interesting.

Chris
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Old 18-02-21, 11:18 AM
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Yes, Interesting, but are you sure this was in Sumatra (Indonesia) and not somewhere in Malaya?
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Old 18-02-21, 01:04 PM
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Hi Henk - I think the term "Sumatran Yeti " has been used by crypto zoologists to describe "an elusive man like creature that was reported to live in the forested regions of South East Asia" - certainly the Thai/Malayan peninsular is the "hot spot" for them and not just the island of Sumatra. Given the supposed nature of these creatures I doubt if they respected or understood national borders! Interestingly I've just been reading "Journeys Hazardous" - about the Gurkhas "Claret" operations in the undeclared war between Britain and Indonesia in the mid 60's - where the Gurkhas operated deep into Indonesian territory using the same tactics that they'd employed in Malaya. - Highly recommend the book by the way. Tim
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Old 18-02-21, 01:22 PM
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Maybe the creatures are called Sumatran Yeti, but the Gurkha patrol certainly was not in Sumatra.

The action as presented here, was for sure somewhere in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960).

This is not related to the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation with Indonesia (1963-1966) that took place on the island of Borneo. That includes Operation Claret.

Neither of these ever spread to Sumatra (Indonesia).

Certainly the Sumatran Yetis are good swimmers then, spreading from Sumatra to Malaya or vv.
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Old 18-02-21, 02:50 PM
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Hi Henk - yes the full article makes it very clear that the incident took place in the Perak forest in Malaya in 1953 - sorry if my extract confused the issue.
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Old 18-02-21, 03:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gurkharifles View Post
Hi Henk - yes the full article makes it very clear that the incident took place in the Perak forest in Malaya in 1953 - sorry if my extract confused the issue.
And I should have read more carefully. All the details are there. I was confused by the Sumatran in the title, but that is also correct as these folks are known as such as you explain.

In any case a nice story. Those Nepali must have felt as being at home seeing Yetis
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Old 19-02-21, 10:05 AM
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The beginning of the article does reference the different names that the Yeti ( a Tibetan word that is used by European journalists as a blanket term for any strange man like creature ) - are called by the Gurkhas and other people of the Himalayas. I didn't include the full article as I realised I ran the risk of hijacking the "other military topics" page into a crypto zoologist one ! I'm sure there will be some RAF journals with reports of UFO's!
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