on march 17th 1944 1st battalion of 9th Gurkha rifles, 4th indian division captured hangmans hill during the battle for cassino, they held out there for 16 days with odd men from 1/4 essex and 1/6 rajputana rifles who could get through to them, wounded coming down and ammunition going up could only be done at night by volenteers who had to carry everything up on their backs,through german roadblocks men from regiments of 4th indian not in the battle and men from the artillery units volenteered for this hard task . after 16 days of battle of the gurkhas 177 men and 8 officers walked off the hill. http://www.milhist.net/mto/19gurkha.html This year probably in june (national parks authorities idea) myself, redrat, oggy and barry are going to do a sponsored climb/hike up helvelyn in the lake district in wartime uniforms and carrying ammo boxes in homage to the gurkhas and the men who kept them supplied. we will be raising funds to donate to the gurkha welfare trust http://www.gwt.org.uk/ anyone wishing to join us offer support or donate can contact us,we hope to have a definite date soon as when we approached the national parks authority they said they would like to get their press officer involved.
July 21st 2007 well we did it, 8 people set out to climb the 3000 foot high Helvellyn in the Lake District carrying the ammo boxes. what started as a small idea for our group to do something swelled with time into something larger than we expected, we had a target of £600 to raise for the Gurkha Welfare Trust. when we asked the trust for permission to raise funds in their name they were intrigued by what we awere going to do and gave permission and asked for more details. the result was that we set up a base camp which was manned by re-enactors along with 3 serving Gurkhas who were sent along by the Brigade of Gurkhas when they were told what we were doing, also at base camp to set us off and see us return was Peter Wood, a veteran officer of 1st field regiment Royal Artillery, 5th Brigade, 4th Indian Division and not olnly a vet of Cassino but also officer in charge at 5 brig hq the night they brought the gurkhas off the hill. a fantastic day was had by all, but non more so than the Gurkhas who couldnt believe the generousity of the people they met who donated freely and every one that came wanted to shake their hands. 8 people started the climb and 7 made it to the top including an 11 year old boy who came along with his father, we set out to raise £600 and the total stands at the moment with a week for sponsors to reach me at just over £1000. already plans are afoot to do it again next year but this time in fighting/marching order. the local newspaper covered it well too :- News & Star even a hiking and climbing magazine were impressed with what we did and are going to do a little something about it in their next issue so i will be watching out for trail magazine for sure
Cograts, And sounds like fun was had by all. 1st I have read of battle I will have to do more reading. Thanks for the great pictures as well. The Omega
it was a waif and straif we press ganged into climbing once we had convinced him it was only a little hill
A great experience. I would have loved to be part of it. It must have been thrilling reliving those moments. The burden must have been heavy too. It's a great an original tribute.
It will be re-run next year if you would like to join in. The format might be slightly different. The more the merrier and all for a great cause.
Stefan i am sure we could kit you out, already plans for next years event have expanded, now we are talking of doing two re-enactments, the night before the climb plans are afoot to pay homage to the cockleshell heroes by canooing across 1 mile of the lake up the river to patterdale then hiking the 1 mile t the camping area that the rest of the climbers will be using.
Canoeing eh? Sounds fantastic, let me know when things are kicking off and I'll do my best to join you folks.
Just to let anyone interested know, the 2008 Hangmans Hill to Helvellyn event is penciled in for the 26th of June 2008, thier is also a re-enactment of the cockleshell heroes on the friday evening when 10 chaps will canoe along lake Ullswater to Patterdale, then break up into each two man crew and hike back to the travellers rest pub in Glenridding, anyone interested in climbing a mountain in ww2 clothing (repro or original it's up to you) or paddling across a lake then please feel free to contact me, again we will be raising sponsorship in aid of the Gurkha Welfare Trust and the 2008 theme will be a fighting patrol on Monte Cassino so we will be carrying bren guns and the like up the mountain.
The 2008 hangmans Hill to Helvellyn event is scheduled for June 21st 2008, it will be taking the shape of a fighting patrol which gives everyone the chance to lug their weapons up a mountain (i think i will be taking the bren gun), again it will be a sponsored event with the hiker/climbers raising funds fot the Gurkha Welfare Trust. the event is open to anyone and they can decide what uniform they want to wear, for instance if Stefan can make it and wants to climb in his russian uniform in order to get a feel for what russian soldiers went through themselves in their battles then that is ok with us, all we ask is that anyone wanting to do it in german uniform contacts us and ok's it first. as well as the climb on the evening of the 20th will be a homage to the cockleshell hero's with 5 canoe's crossing the lake and their occupants hiking back to the camp site, spaces for this are also available at the minute and i am sure clive will post a link to the website for the mission, if anyone wishes to make a donation to this years event then please contact me for details of how to. your help and support is much appreciated and i will keep updating as we get nearer and more infor becomes available. steve
I'll have to see how that fits in with TA commitments but yeah, may give it a bash. Can't wait to see the blisters my soviet boots give me are like after.
Hi All, Plans are now well advanced for these events and so far we have about 20 climbers going to do it in uniforms this year, not just allied but axis too with 7 FJ re-enactors wanting to do it as well as some whermacht re-enactors, should make it an interesting and fun weekend. if anyone wished to make a donation they can now at this page, it donates straight to the Gurkha Welfare Trust but is accredited to us for the climb. Justgiving - stephen Driver's Fundraising Page steve
