A Connecticut Yankee in the 8th Gurkha Rifles: A Burma Memoir

by Scott Gilmore, Patrick Davis

America was still neutral when, in the fall of 1941, a tall, solid thirty-year-old advertising executive from Connecticut volunteered to serve as an American Field Service ambulance driver in the British Army. It was the start of an adventure that took Scott Gilmore to Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, India, and, finally, to the jungles of Burma.

After an exciting and dangerous year in North Africa, where he witnessed the fall of Tobruk and the battle of El Alamein, Gilmore was accepted for training as an officer in the elite Indian Army. This was the old Indian Army of the British Raj, a fighting force of unflappable English officers, hardy Indians, and the legendary Gurkhas of Nepal. It was an army at the apogee of its skills and about to inflict on the Japanese their greatest defeat on land. With dry, offbeat humor, Gilmore describes his challenging months at the Officers Training School and with his new unit, the 8th Gurkha Rifles. As he endures the assault courses and marches, confronts the arcane rituals of the officers' mess, and learns the language and customs of his diminutive fellow soldiers, Gilmore's adaptability and good nature is notable, and his American viewpoint on the mix of cultures refreshing. Moreover, like generations of Britons, he learns to love and respect the assault courses and marches, confronts the arcane rituals of the officers’ mess, and learns the language and customs of his diminutive fellow soldiers, Gilmore’s adaptability and good nature is notable, and his American viewpoint on the mix of cultures refreshing. Moreover, like generations of Britons, he learns to love and respect the kukri knife-wielding Gurkha warriors. .

When Gilmore’s 4th Battalion is finally deemed ready to be put to the test as part of General Bill Slim’s Fourteenth Army, it plunges into battle in the jungle-covered mountains of the Indo-Burmese border. He and his comrades fight their way across the dry plains of central Burma, execute a dangerous crossing of the mile-wide Irrawaddy River, and press on to Rangoon, enduring a hostile climate and tenacious Japanese opposition. As Gilmore moves up in responsibility to company commander and engages in night reconnaissance patrols and set-piece attacks, his experiences give a forceful picture of the fighting in one of the most difficult and remote theaters of World War II.

A Connecticut Yankee in the 8th Gurkha Rifles is a war memoir unlike any other. It is a fast-moving story of a quietly witty and observant young American serving with a band of legendary Asian fighting men during some of the days of Britain’s greatest glory. Scott Gilmore's war is one you will not soon forget.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1995

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall this was a good introduction into the amount of ground fighting that occurred in eastern India and Burma during WWII. The author, an American, was looking back many years after his unique personal experience in the war and as an officer in the British Army leading a unit of the 8th Gurkha Rifles. The flow of the book is rather light, which probably reflects the attitude of a young, well educated and successful person who was looking for adventure prior to America's entry into the war. I believe he came away from this youthful adventure with an objective, positive and balanced view of his experience and he presented it well.

[Ray A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent memoir of a Yank's time in the India Army during WWII. Well written with a great narrative style. Interesting insights on the units and services that became USAF Special Operations Command (AFSOC)