大象传媒

Because I was travelling as an individual, I had to report to the troopship 3 days before sailing, to become a troop-deck Sergeant. This meant that I was responsible for all the troops on a particular deck for the duration of the voyage. I had to familiarise myself with all the aspects of the ship so that when the men came on board I could give them all the information they would need. The ship was Her Majesty鈥檚 Troopship 鈥淒unera鈥�. She was on old troopship that was used exclusively on the Far East run. The journey took 6 weeks, and we were only allowed ashore once in all that time and that was at Columbo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). On arrival at Singapore, I was not able to enjoy the sights of the city, as I was taken from the ship to the Railway Station to join a train that was travelling the length of the Malay Peninsula.
My final destination, was the city of Ipoh, the capital of Perak State in the North of Malaya. I was met at the station by a miserable Sergeant who just told me to put my kit in the back of the truck and get in myself. When the vehicle arrived at the headquarters camp of the 1st Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment, all he said was 鈥淭he Sergeants Quarters are over there鈥�. He made no attempt to help me with my kit. After I had found where I was to be billeted, I went over to the Sergeants Mess building. Entering the mess I discovered the reason for the unhappiness, the Regimental Sergeant-Major who I had known in Egypt was thoroughly disliked by all members.
The next day I had an interview with the Commanding Officer/ He welcomed me to the Battalion and explained why we were in Malaya and what our duties were, he then asked me if I had anything to say. Every newcomer to Malaya had to do a 2 week acclimatisation period before leaving camp. This was usually done at Bn. H.Q.. I asked the C.O. if I could do my period with the company I was to join. He thought that this was a strange request but never the less he granted it. The next morning I was taken by armoured truck to the town of Sungei Siput, where I joined 鈥楢鈥� Company. To my surprise, I found that the Company Sergeant-Major was an old friend of mine from my Egypt days. He had been Maurice鈥檚 C.S.M..
The camp consisted of the Government Rest House which had become the Officers and Sergeants Messes. At the rear of the building which had been the accommodation for the servants of the guest house, was now the Quartermasters stores and the Company Kitchen. To one side, there were 10 tents which could each house 10 men. The Rest House was at one end of the Padang (Village Green), along one of the sides and adjacent to our camp, was the Chinese School. At this point, I will say that I shall probably speak at length about this period in my career, as it turned out to be the most enjoyable, rewarding and interesting time.
After the end of the 39-45 war, the Chinese communists were trying to take over as much of the Far East as they could. Malaya being rich in Rubber and Tin was a prime target for them. The British who were the governing nation, resisted this take over, and so thousands of troops were sent to counter the threat. The Chinese had been the main stay of the resistance to the Japanese, and so were armed and in a good situation to take over. At first the British tried the tactic of letting everyone live where they wanted, so the C.T鈥檚 (Communist Terrorists) were able to threaten the population to supply them with food and provisions. A British General came up with the idea of building Kampongs (Villages) to house the population and for these to be guarded be natives who could be trusted. This proved very successful and the C.T鈥檚 were now confined to the jungle and were thus deprived of their sources of supply.
My new Company Commander told me that I was to be Platoon Sergeant of No 1 Platoon. The platoon officer was a Lieutenant P.G.Dunne who was the senior Lieutenant of the Battalion and as such was to be sent on all sorts of tasks. This meant that I was virtually in command of the platoon. If my memory is correct, I don鈥檛 think he ever took out a patrol all the while I was in Malaya. At the time I joined the platoon, he was in Borneo recruiting Dyak trackers for the British Army. The State of Perak consisted mainly of Dense Jungle with some rubber plantations, and a few tin mines.
Our task was to patrol in order to find and destroy any C.T. Camps that we could find. The patrols duration was of anything from 1 day to 28 days, mainly they were either 1 or 5 days. To do a 5 day patrol, we had to carry all the supplies that we would need, consequently on setting out we were really overloaded, it meant that we would set up a base camp, somewhere near the centre of the patrol area. Each day we would search a different sector.
Just once during my time in Malaya, I was to do a 28 day patrol. When the platoon set out we would carry 5 days rations, and on the fourth day we would request an air-drop. This was delivered the next day, and we would immediately move to a new camp site. Whatever we requested to be delivered came as ordered. Those Air-drop Crews were very good, they never failed to find us. One of the items that was always requested was a supply of Navy Rum, as one of the worst medical conditions was pneumonia, the Rum was supposed to arrest it, however I think it helped morale the most.
One day the Company Commander told me that on my next 5 day patrol, I would have a French Officer with me, but I would still be in charge of the patrol. At G.H.Q. it had been decided that there would be an exchange of French Officers from Vietnam with British Officers from Malaya, to gain knowledge of how each country was dealing with the Communist problem. The French Officer when he arrived was a Sous-Captain, who was told that I would be in complete charge of the operation. Before setting out, I kitted him out with all the essentials he would require for the 5 days. When I showed him this pile, he asked who was going to carry them for him. When I explained that we all had to carry our fair share, I could see that he was very unhappy. Setting off, I decide that I would make the first stage as easy as possible for him. He was soon in trouble as he had never carried such a heavy load. Give him credit, he managed to keep up with us, but when I decided to make camp for the night, I could see he was totally exhausted, so I told one of my chaps to assist him to put up his hammock. This was another surprise for him, as he said that in Vietnam, when night approached, they went to the nearest Kampong, turned the villagers out of their huts then used them. It was easy to understand why the Vietnamese hated them so much. Carrying on with the rest of the patrol, he soon got used to the routine and on completion he thanked me for taking care of him.
When on patrol we had to proceed in a orderly uniform fashion, so that everyone knew where to expect the others to be, so that if we were ambushed we could reduce the casualties, and take immediate evasive action. When in jungle country, we usually travelled in single file, whereas in rubber plantations it was mainly in line. The order of March in single file was 2 leading scouts, the patrol commander, then two Dyak trackers, an interpreter, then the rest of the men, making sure that there were two good men at the rear. I鈥檝e told you this because it became very relevant on a couple of occasions.
At one stage in the campaign, it was decided to see if dogs would be any use on patrols. These dogs had been trained at the Jungle Warfare School at Johore Bharu. A dog and handler came to Sungei Siput for a test, and I was chosen to take them out on a 1 day patrol of jungle and rubber plantation. We were taken by trucks to the nearest road position to our patrol area. It started on a logging track which was a 100 yard wide strip cleared of all the trees and a track laid down the centre. On either side of the track there was tapioca growing or long grass. After we had been going for about 1 mile, the dog stopped and pointed to the right of the track. I immediately gave the signal for the platoon to form line on either side of the track. Carrying on for about 500 yards I concluded that it was a false alarm and got on with the rest patrol. Getting back to camp that evening I was informed that a 12 man Malayan police patrol had been ambushed just where the dog had pointed. There is no doubt in my mind that the dog had saved the lives of some of our platoon.
On the second day of a 5 day patrol, we were going through quite open jungle, when one of the trackers stopped, then stepped off the track and with his parang (jungle knife) chopped down a tall sapling, he then cut off the top branches. He then tied a loop of string to the thin end, he thrust this up into a tree, and pulled down a very large lizard, killing it he put it into his back-pack then we resumed our patrol. All of this seemed to take just seconds. That night the dyak cooked the lizard on a open fire. Being the commander, he offered some to me. I knew that if I refused I would be insulting him. However despite my revulsion, it tasted just like meat should taste, I needn鈥檛 have worried.
The Chinese School at Sungei Siput had a very attractive teacher called Miss Limm. She always wore a Chong San dress with a split up the side from her thigh to her toes, as you can imagine every time she crossed the padang, all our camp came to a stand still, because everyone from the officers to the youngest private were gazing at her. One day a touring concert party was entertaining us, and we had invited local dignitaries including Miss Limm to watch them perform. After the show, the entertainers and dignitaries were entertained in the mess. Naturally Miss Limm was the centre of attraction much to the disgust of the entertainers.
Frankie Flood our Company Sergeant-Major had a very fine singing voice, every time the Padre visited the camp, Frankie would round up everyone to take part in a impromptu church service, naturally Frankie would lead the hymn singing with great gusto. In the mess, Frankie would often sing his favourite song which was 鈥淔rankie & Johny were lovers鈥�. This always went down well with everyone. At this time, I also had a fair voice so would often accompany Frankie. When our present Queen Elizabeth 2nd had her coronation, there was a service at Kuala Lumpur Cathedral. Frankie and I tried to lead the hymn singing, but were overshadowed by the female choir who had very high pitched voices singing in descant.
On patrol each man carried 1 blanket and a poncho, which was used as a groundsheet and waterproof cape. When stopping for the night, we would join together in threes, that way 1 poncho was used as a tent, 1 as a groundsheet and one to cover over our blanket. Similarly we would have two blankets underneath and one on top of us. One night we had gone to bed and after a while, the man next to me said that he had been bitten on the back of his neck. Shortly afterwards I was bitten. This roused the rest of the men, and when a light was shone, we could see that an army of termite ants were on the move, and were devouring everything in their path. The next morning at first light we could see the path they had taken, eating canvas webbing, clothes, and anything that wasn鈥檛 solid. They had gone diagonally across my map case leaving only the brass buckles and plastic.
After I had been at Sungei Siput for about 12 months, the Battalion was sent down to Selangor. I received the news of the move when I was on a very traumatic patrol for me. My Platoon was on a 5 day patrol, and on the third day I was ordered to remain by the radio to receive further instructions. Not knowing what they were, I decided to send My Corporal with several men to check on a stream for any sign of C.T鈥檚. About 2 hours after they left, I was told over the radio that I was to abandon the patrol and make for the nearest road where I would be met by vehicles. I then told one of my Lance/Corporals to take two men and follow the first party, making every effort to let them know that they were coming. After a while I heard the sound of firing, and immediately thought that the two patrols had met and were firing at each other. Shortly afterwards the L/Cpl and his men returned saying that the firing occurred some way in front of them, so decided that the first patrol had contact with C.T鈥檚.
Some 2 hours later the Corporal returned saying that they had met some C.T鈥檚 but could not catch them so had carried on with the patrol. The interpreter said that this was not right, the Corporal had stumbled and accidentally fired his weapon. At this time it was an offence to have an accidental firing, so he had tried to cover up by saying that there were C.T鈥檚 about. The corporal lost his rank for not being honest, and causing so much stress.
At Selangor my platoon was billeted in a Chinese School (see photo). From there we were to make a large number of 1 day patrols, and when we returned to base we tried to come through a particular piece of cultivated land that had pineapples growing on it. Obviously we couldn鈥檛 resist helping ourselves to those delicious fruit, They were so juicy that I can still recall how the juice ran down our chins. This reminds me of a fruit called a Durian, this was a large fruit that when you took a bite, you had to hold your nose as the smell was terrible, but the taste was delicious. The countryside of Selangor was totally different to Perak in that it was quite swampy, and had been more extensively deforrested. Because of this, we were to make more use of lightweight hammocks. The worst type of land that we had to cross was Mangrove Swamp, and one site that we were to see quite often, was a peninsula that jutted into the Malacca Straits. Just a 100 yard wide strip connected it to the mainland. The whole peninsula was surrounded be a 500 yard wide strip of Mangrove swamp, Intelligence knew that the C.T鈥檚 were living there supported by the local Chinese farmers. The C.T鈥檚 had a sentry at the narrow entrance, so were able to give the alarm whenever we decided to attack them and so went into the mangrove until we moved out. After several attempts, it was decided to go by sea. The Royal Navy provided boats to get us into the Mangrove, but we made so much noise crossing that the C.T鈥檚 escaped yet again.
Our next attempt to catch them was to be done in a novel way, we were to use helicopters. This was probably the first time that they were used on active service by the British Army. At our disposal were 3 Westland Whirlwinds, and 1 Dragonfly. The Whirlwinds could carry 7 troops and the Dragonfly a Light Machine-Gun. The dragonfly would be the first over the operational area, to give covering fire while the Whirlwinds were disgorging their troops. Those old type helicopters took a long time to land, so a system was set up to allow the troops to jump out while the helicopter hovered about 6 feet from the ground. A trial run took place at Port Swettenham Airport, our C.O. was to be the first to jump followed by myself. The trial was completed successfully. Unfortunately on the day of the operation, the C.T鈥檚. were not there.

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