No sleep but fighting on: Gurkha recruits on their toughest training exercise yet
Gurkha recruits have taken on one of their toughest challenges yet as they enter the final stages of the gruelling nine-month training required to join the elite Brigade of Gurkhas.
Defence Ex in the Yorkshire Dales is all about defending ground from the enemy.
Designed to test how recruits remain resilient while physically and mentally exhausted, it involves the young Gurkhas digging a trench systems for 48 hours, with minimal or no sleep.
"They keep on going because, in reality, no matter what will happen – we'll have no excuse if an enemy is advancing to us," said Captain Dhan Ghale a platoon commander, responsible for 30 recruits.
He added: "If there is a critical timing, we have to meet the timing. That is the main thing, I think, that they will take away from this exercise."
Once defences are built and up to the high standards expected of Gurkhas, the permanent staff hit the recruits with physically demanding tasks.
The men were ordered into a section attack, during which one of the recruits became a casualty who needed to be carried to safety more than a mile away.
The scenario is orchestrated to remind the men, exhausted from digging through the night, that being tired is no excuse to switch off.
In battle, lives depend on their ability to fight – at any time.
"I never thought I would do something like this. We did a lot of hard work, and as you can see, it came out very beautiful, and I'm really proud of myself," said Trainee Rifleman Buddha Lal Muktan, Gurkha Training Company.
Although their training is still not complete, each time they complete an arduous task like this, they are that little bit closer to becoming fully fledged Gurkhas.
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