大象传媒

On 3rd December 1942, I was call,d up as a volunteer into the Army, where after 6 weeks basic training, I was posted to the Royal Corps of Signals. I was trained as a Wireless Operator and after qualifying, I was posted to S.O.E. at Fawley Court, Henley on Thames. I spent a few months learning operating procedures to meet S.O.E. requirements, and sometime in October 1943, we embarked on the Strathmore at Liverpool and were transported to Bombay. I was first posted to Meerut, Northern India, then to Columbo. I spent about 12 months in the signal office at Maharagama, then I volunteered for Operations and was transferred to Horana, where we were trained to live behind enemy lines. After training, I was moved to a 'safe house', where I met the officers I was to serve - Colonel Broadhurst who was to be the Group Liaison Officer of 'Guitar' group, responsible for the Selangor area; Flying Officer Robertson, Tsw Ming Tur, the interpreter and myself as operator. There was another group, with Major Hunter, PLO in charge of 'Guitar Blue' Patrol, with Wang Yik Ha, Interpreter and Tong Tsw Shan, operator. On May 1945 full Moon, 2 liberator Bombers flew from Jessore Air Field. The first plane carried Colonel Broadhust, F.O. Robertson, Tsw Ming Tur and Tong Tsw Shan, on the other was Major Hunter, Wang Yik Ha and myself. We did a 'blind drop' into the village of Serendah, but Colonel Broadhurst's plane dropped 9 miles away. That night, we were to have dropped at midnight, but the latitude was not taken into account and we landed an hour late. I landed in a Chinese cemetry. I was instructed to bury my parachute and link up with the Major and Wang Yik Ha, then we had to collect, bury and hide the canisters and packages which were dropped with us. By dawn, we had cleared all we found and were hiding in tall grasses at the end of Serendah village. After a few hours, Wang Yik Ha changed into his well decorated chiang kai chec (officers uniform)and went in search of friendly Chinese. Within an hour, he had returned with a villager, who gave us a meal and guided us on to our next friendly villager. This procedure continued for a few weeks, travelling at night and resting by day. Each day, we tried to communicate to Colombo, mostly successfully, but now and then we had difficulty getting through. When we were able to cross from the west side of the main road and railway line (the plantation side) into the jungle. Trying to cross the road, our group of about 10 to 20 guerillas, were split by a convoy of 3 tonne lorries carrying Japanese troops up north. We all dropped to the ground and I lost my map case, which carried my crystals for the set. That day, our Chinese cook, Ha Chai, had been given a sten gun and was eager to use it, so as the last truck past, he jumped into the road and fired a magazine into the back of it. We moved very quickly across the road into the jungle, where we met up with Colonel Broadhurst and the 'Guitar' group. There I stayed with the Colonel as his operator, while the Major, Wang Yik Ha and Tong Tsw Shan moved off to the Batu Caves area and set up 'Guitar Blue' PLO (Platoon Liaison). The Colonel arranged meetings with groups of Chinese arranging to receive PLO drops and supplies for guerillas. In August 1945, Colonel John Davis, the most experienced officer of the operational staff in Malaya called on Colonel Broadhurst and then they travelled to Kuala Lumpur to arrange the surrender of the Japanese. When they went into the Japanese Intelligence room, they noted that each of our camps and dropping zones were marked down on their maps, but as far as we knew, they had never ventured into the jungle. Later, a Victory Parade in Kuala Lumpur and a mock invasion of Allied troops to Klang was arranged to finish off the operation and the end of the war.

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