Miscellaneous

Description: THE POMPADOURS IN THE FAR EAST.

Pat King reminisces.

50 years ago in September 1959 the Advance Party of 1^st Bn 3^rd East Anglian Regiment (16/44^th Foot), predecessors of 3 R Anglian, were undertaking the Jungle Warfare Course at Kota Tinggi in Southern Johore, Malaya. After the cushy life of BAOR it came as rather a jolt to the system to rush around in the jungle; but this we did, and were better people for it. The Main Body arrived and took up residence at Kota Tinggi and the Advance Party passed on their newly attained knowledge. Meanwhile MMG Platoon became the dog section with 16 war dogs, 2 Tracker Teams and also sponsored the Sarawak Rangers Platoon of Iban scouts. The 16 war dog soldiers trained half a mile up the road at the War Dogs Unit, and the two Tracker Teams did another course at the Jungle Warfare School. Our Ibans joined us from 1 Loyals for the course and much to their disgust were put on local rations instead of Brit ones, and went on strike! It was three weeks hard graft again and all the Brits had to learn how to track as well as the techniques of fast follow-up after a contact with Communist Terrorists (CT).

Our first posting was Ipoh in Perak, a lovely town of 30,000 people of all races, Chinese, Malay and Tamil as well as the expats community. It was great for food and for good evenings out. Our camp was made up of large attap bashas as living accommodation and were remarkably cool. Indian Army rules applied and each Platoon had its own servant who made up your bed for inspection, cleaned your gear and kept the place clean. The charwallahs supplied a 24 hour service of tea and wads. You could be shaved in bed, and the barbers were so good at it that they did not wake you up!

We were part of 28^th Commonwealth Brigade serving alongside 2 Royal Australian Regiment (RAR) and 1 NZ Regiment. After a shaky start we all got on well together. The RAR were in Kuala Kangsar and the Kiwis in Taiping with Bde HQ. Look them up on Google Earth! We considered it a real privilege to belong to the Bde. Ops were due to start after Christmas but one came up on 23^rd December and Tracker Team 1 went off to look for some CT with a Section of C Company. Christmas Night was spent listening to the Choir of King’s College Cambridge on our A510 radio set – Aussie – on a one in one slope in the jungle. In the New Year Companies deployed into the jungle for 23 days and had 6 days out. No shaving was allowed and the old soldiers (WW2 and pre-war India) were quite shocked. If you shaved you inevitably got a severe face rash. You carried 5 days rations and clean kit in your pack as well as ammo, the radio (split into two parts), a medical kit carried in Tracker Team 1 by the OC – thank God no one was wounded or taken seriously ill! You got filthy and utterly wet through patrolling from a platoon base camp daily and you took this kit off, washed it in the stream nearby and put on your clean kit for sleeping. Donning sodden kit in the morning made you jump no end. Rations were good and curry was the norm. Resupply was done by bearer parties from HQ Company which did our hearts good, and later on, when ops went into deep jungle, by air drop. The huge excitement in an air drop was that there was always a can of cold beer for each man! DZs had to be cut or blown and I think a lot of us could have earned a crust at the end of the tour by becoming safe crackers!

Each platoon had an Iban scout and the Company HQ had a Junior Chinese Liaison Officer (JCLO) attached to it. Each platoon also had a war dog, either a tracker dog following ground scent or a patrol dog using air scent. Tremendous affection grew up between the dogs and their handlers. Once used to it primary jungle became your friend. You could not patrol at night as it was pitch black, so you stood to at dusk and dawn and had ten hours’ sleep. The terrain in North Malaya was extremely mountainous and we were as high as 4000 feet at times. This was good as over 1500 feet there were no mosquitoes. Rain fell nearly every day and was torrential. Rivers rose three or four feet in a matter of minutes and we did have cases of soldiers being swept away, none losing their lives. In deep jungle insertion could be by helicopter – either an S55 or a Bristol Sycamore. The Sycamores had a Warrant Officer pilot who smoked as he flew! You could also insert by long boat powered by a 45HP Johnson outboard up the Sungei Perak. This took a long time and was rather uncomfortable on your back. Rapids had to be surmounted on the way. Air recces were carried out by Auster AOP9 aircraft. Powered by a London bus engine they were a very useful asset. You flew with no doors on, which was quite hairy. We got caught in a huge squall once, and managed to navigate down the Sungei Perak with pilot the looking out of the side of the aircraft!!

These ops carried on for over a year and then we were stood down prior to our move to a cantonment in Malacca along with the two other Battalions, 2 Regt RA and Bde HQ. It was just like being in Aldershot with Red Caps etc. Entertainment was 14 miles away in Malacca and in no way compared with life in Ipoh. We lost all our servants and char wallahs and had to rely upon NAAFI. Ugh! A good tour which made us better soldiers for it. The National Servicemen were ace and really pulled their weight.