THE SCHOOL OF INFANTRY WARMINSTER

Historically I think the defining event in 1967 which had ramifications for the future was the Six Day War when Israel took on Syria , Jordan , Lebanon , Iraq and Egypt capturing the West Bank , Old Jerusalem , the Golan Heights and Sinai . It has ever since left the Arabs with a deep inferiority complex . It certainly had a deep affect on those Arab students we had at Warminster at the time ; they simply could not believe Israel had knocked out all their air forces on the ground .

For Alan Elliott Thompson I took my third oath of allegiance , this time "till death us do part ! " and became a Dad as Douglas launched himself into the World on 30th of September in Bradford on Avon .

My tour at Oswestry was cut short by about eight months so I could take up this new appointment as a captain instructor on the Platoon Commanders Division (PCD) . Newly commissioned infantry officers out of Sandhurst were meant to complete a course with PCD within six months commissioning .

As an instructor one was responsible for a syndicate of ten students which you looked after throughout the course but also for certain exercises , lectures , syndicate discussions and TEWTS usually linked to core subjects . I for example was responsible for : gaining intelligence , tracking , chemical warfare and air photography . In addition to having a captain instructor each syndicate also had an NCO from the Small Arms School Corps (SASC) . Many year years later I became responsible for this small Corps .

In order to make sure we were up to date on our teaching this took me on visits to the RAF School of Photography , School of Military Intelligence and the Royal Army Veterinary Corps . Much of the knowledge I gained put me in good stead in subsequent appointments .As an intelligence officer in Londonderry I was able to establish a good rapport with the RAF photo interpretation unit at RAF Aldergrove . Combat Tracker Teams were formed in Borneo combining the skills of visual trackers and tracker and pointer dogs. Over the years dogs have taken on many more tasks in detecting drugs and mines .

Instructors came from different regiments but we also had a Royal Marine and an Australian major . Although the youngest instructor I think I had a degree of credibility with the students having been in Borneo and Aden . Basil Hobbs who was our boss still lives in Warminster and must be in his 90s . Others were not so fortunate , Ian Corden Lloyd was a 10th Gurkha , transferred to the Green Jackets and then got killed in a helicopter crash in Northern Ireland as a commanding officer.

Most of our exercises took place on Salisbury Plain but the final exercise was held in Wales in Sennybridge . This could be pretty miserable in the winter . I remember trying to persuade one Arab student to complete the course by offering to give him a £1 for each day he stuck it out , potential outlay of £3 !  This student listened intently but went on to explain his father was worth £3m . He jacked it in before nightfall .

I kept up parachuting at Netheravon for a bit and played rugby for Bath ( Fourth Team ) .

What else was going on in 1967 ? In Mar Stalin's daughter Stevlana requested asylum in the USA .Aug saw British troops pull out of Aden . In Canada De Gaulle made his famous speech " Vive Quebec Libre ." and in Oct Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia . In medicine we saw the first heart transplant by Dr Christian Barnard in South Africa .

We spent two years at Warminster in our first Army quarter so that was through to 1968 . In that latter year US troops in Vietnam reached 486,000 . That year also saw the assassination of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King . The Russians invaded Czechoslovakia and in Northern Ireland the first indications of trouble were on the horizon , a conflict which was to last thirty years .

Two years at Warminster gave me a solid foundation on many aspects which included co-operating with other arms , armour and artillery . I also started learning how to be a Dad !

INFANTRY JUNIOR LEADERS BATTALION

On return from Aden I led a pretty nomadic life for the next six months which took me to Somerset , Isle of Wight , Scotland , Suffolk , Kent , Wiltshire and then Shropshire .

It was strange having to do these basic courses alongside newly commissioned officers just out of Sanhurst . The first was at Hythe in Kent on weapons and the second on tactics at the School of Infantry in Warminster . There were gaps in my knowledge I have to admit but I think the great advantage was that it enabled me to return eighteen months later as a captain instructor on the Platoon Commanders Division thus getting promoted two years earlier than normal . I exchanged my little car for a mini van which was convenient as with all these moves you could throw everything in the back .

I have got to confess I was not over the moon about going to the Infantry Junior Leaders Battalion at Oswestry . Training boy soldiers was not my scene or so I thought. I was to change my mind and became a fan . In fact when I was a commanding officer all my company sergeant majors were ex-Junior Leaders .

In the 1960s the Infantry , Armoured Corps , Artillery and Engineers were all running Junior Leader Battalions and the Technical Arms had Apprentice Colleges . In those days the school leaving age was fifteen which meant we could take these young men in at 15 yrs and train them through to 18 yrs when they would become adult soldiers .

The training was by no means all military and the academic side concentrated on the Three Rs but some of the brighter ones went on to take O & A Level Exams . However , when the school leaving age was raised to sixteen the syllabus had to be curtailed . This was unfortunate as with a pupil instructor ratio of 10:1 I am sure the juniors were getting a better education than in many a state school . Then in the 1990s Junior Leader Battalions were disbanded as part of a cost cutting exercise .

I , with my background, was earmarked to go to the Tactics Wing but a Leicester Officer who had been to Oswestry told me the thing to get into was the External Leadership(EL) Wing ( Adventure Training ). Each term the Juniors did an Adventure Training Week and they got progressively got harder as they got older . Activities included : hill walking , caving , rock climbing , abseiling , canoeing and skiing .

I was in for a shock as I was petrified  initially of rock climbing . Somehow I got over it mainly due to two other officers . First Jim Hawkins who was a really climber who dragged me up second on the rope mainly in Snowdonia and then introduced me to leading easier climbs and secondly another officer who was quite a robust character who had fallen off and explained how he had subsequently had nightmares . Somehow this helped knowing I was not the only one who got scared on a rock face .  Climbs are graded : extreme , very severe , severe , very difficult down to the easy end difficult . I never got above leading severe . It is a salutary lesson when one has to face up to ones limitations . One problem in climbing with juniors is that some would not be strong enough to hold you if you came off so in effect you are climbing free , no safety.

The EL Wing was commanded by a Scots Guards captain and the instructors were my vintage from all different regiments . The second in command was Captain Joe  Hillis (Angus's God Father ) ;not a very good one my fault ! Joe was in the Inniskilling Fusiliers . We would spend most of our time away in Snowdonia , Derbyshire and South Wales . I think the things I enjoyed the most was abseiling off Chirk Viaduct near Oswestry and canoeing on the River Severn and Wye .

Nearly all of us were financially stretched in those days as the Army was not well payed so when the Juniors went off on leave at the end of term we got civilian jobs to make ends meet . Hence four of us ventured off to London to help dig the Jubilee Line .

I did along with some others manage to get off on a parachute course at Netheravon where we progressed from static line to 15 second delays .

It was at this time at the weekends I was heading north to Edinburgh to see Miss Paterson .

What of the big Wide World . Robert Menzies retired as Prime Minister of Australia . The number of Australian troops in Vietnam increased to 4,500 . Also Australia went for decimal currency . In China the disastrous Cultural Revolution was gaining momentum .

In South Africa extended Apartheid to Namibia whilst to the north in Rhodesia sanctions were applied to try to isolate Ian Smith's regime .

In Europe France and Britain agree to building the Channel Tunnel .

FAREWELL TO THE BARREN ROCKS OF ADEN

It was not just farewell to  "The Barren Rocks of Aden " (a famous pipe tune ) but to the Leicesters for four years . More significant it was farewell to my platoon who had been with me for three years in Borneo and Aden . I in fact went back to the UK a month ahead of the Battalion as it was decided that I should do these courses at the School of Infantry which I should have done on leaving Sandhurst . Also I was posted to the Junior Leaders Battalion at Oswestry in Shropshire .

I suppose you could say at that stage in life I was an angry young man . Early twenties wondering what was the meaning of life . Wanting to explore different military options like going to the SAS but on the other hand exploring the opposite sex  might be more exciting . Being shot at is exciting but it is also bloody dangerous and I do not think I had a death wish .

What about the big World outside in 1965 . Before we left for Aden we had watched the State Funeral of Winston Churchill on television. In Feb the US bombed North Vietnam and Malcolm X was shot dead in New York . Then in Mar US Marines landed in South Vietnam and Australia decided she would also support the Americans and send troops. BP finds oil in the North Sea .
In Nov Ian  Smith declares Unilateral Independence for Rhodesia which was to last till 1980 .

Things hotted up in Aden after we left and battalions like the Northumberland Fusiliers and the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders had a much more intensive time especially Aden itself .

Having reread sections of a book Douglas sent me , Looking for Trouble by General Sir Peter De La Billiere , one bit is worth repeating ." Yet in all our occupation we had behaved in a deplorably self- centered fashion :concentrating on our own trade , we had done almost nothing for the local people. We had never built a tarmac road outside the town and although we had set up a loose up-country administration and some rather feeble attempts at schools , we had never brought the warring tribes together to create a unified state, or introduced significant improvements to their primitive way of life . The result was that the Arabs never developed any particular loyalty to us ; and the only effective way we had  by bribing of keeping the rulers on our side was bribing them with arms ammunition and money .British control of the hinterland was always fragile, and when the Communist-inspired challenge came down from the north , it began to crack up . "

As I left my platoon presented me with a watch and I bid farwell to B Coy but when I got to the airport I was turned away and another platoon commander in B Coy who had just been sacked had priority over me . Nothing for it but another night in that grotty tent . I headed down to the Officers' Club and bbid a second farewell to my favourite nurse .

GETTING THE JINX

Every now and then a soldier, regardless of rank , gets the jinks . It is usually associated with returning to some place where he has courted disaster or death . This happened to me in the Radfan but first let me introduce you to another character , Geordie Taska .

Taska had been a trooper in A Sqn , 22SAS , the same Squadron I worked with in Borneo . In 1964 A Sqn was deployed to the Radfan . Taska was part of a 12 man patrol commanded by a Captain Robin Edwards which was tasked with infiltrating into the mountains to lay out a landing zone for the Parachute Regiment . Things went wrong early on as the signaller  Trooper Warburton took ill and as a result they did not make their planned objective by first light and had to hide up in a stone goat pen . They were then discovered by an Arab goat herd who they had to shoot . This alerted the local tribesmen who started to move in . They were held off by calling in RAF Fighter Jets  throughout the next day but come last light the RAF could not operate . There was no option but to try and break out . Unfortunately in the process Captain Edwards and his signaller Warburton were killed . They were subsequently decapitated by the Arabs and their heads displayed in Taiz in the Yemen . The rest the patrol managed to break contact and get to Thumier . Georgie Taska was one of them . By the time I met him he had been posted back to us as a corporal in the Transport Platoon but was attached to us at Monksfield .

About a couple of days after the incident in which Ryder got hit intelligence came which indicated the dissidents were going to attack us at Monksfield that night . The Company Commander ( Heggie ) wanted to send two patrols out to intercept any Arab groups coming in . I was to take one patrol to the Wadi Lahamaran and Geordie Taska was to go to the area where his SAS patrol had met with disaster . Neither Taska or I were keen to go to the locations allocated and we suggested we might do a swap . However , Heggie would not agree on the basis both of us should go back to areas we were familiar with. Being good soldiers we did as we were told .

Once again in this familiar wadi my patrol settled down to a long night . It must have been about one in the morning when we heard the noise of someone coming . We slipped of our safety catches off , patted the grenades in front of us and waited . Then sauntering down the wadi came a stray goat . I think Shakespeare might term this comic relief .

Well shortly after this a booming voice came over the radio " THIS IS SUNRAY MARY'S HAD A BOY " ( Sunray is the appointment title used by commanders on the radio ie Heggie ) Mary , John Heggs wife had been pregnant with their second child when we left for Aden .

This was great news as there might just be a party in the offing and I might be allowed to pull out early . I remember suggesting that my mortar section might just fire off a few rounds in celebration . Well not only did they start firing but also a troop of artillery we had with us with their howitzers . I did not pull out early but as I made my way back with my patrol the Arabian sky was ablaze with star shells . We must have spent a fortune on ammunition .

When I got back Heggie , David Hickman (2ic) , Company Sergeant Major and Colour Sergeant were well into a bottle of whisky or two but they had left some for me .

Next morning I had a chat with Geordie Taska . His patrol had been uneventful . I told him about the goat . We smiled , nodded : I think we had got over the jinx !

THE RADFAN MOUNTAINS

Having spent some time on Google trying to refresh my memory I am amazed at the amount of information available . Almost tempting to copy screeds of it to show how knowledgeable I am .
Also what amazes me is how little we knew at a junior level as to the intricacies of Arab politics.

Down at platoon level there were the " gollies " and us . Some gollies were trying to  kill us and we were trying to kill them so lets keep it simple . The term Wog was banned but the substitute golly was definitely counterproductive . However , it is difficult to prevent this language creeping in when the Police have been infiltrated ; you have a mutiny in the embryonic Federal Army (Arab) and NLF and FLOSY are killing each other.

The caravan route from Aden to Mecca passed through the Radfan . The tribes in the area made a living out of robbing caravans or put it another way imposing a toll . When an end to this was imposed there was a major uprising and in 1964 a major operation was mounted to dominate the caravan route . This involved the Royal Marines , 3 Para  , 1R Anglian , A Sqn SAS ,artillery and engineers supported by RAF Hunter jets .

By the time we got there the major battle had been won for the time being but attacks still continued . As far as we were concerned some tribes were friendly , some were unfriendly and others were friendly by day but would attack you at night . In these conflicts experiences tend to be personal or at a low level and one sort of assumes those higher up know what they are doing .This was rather undermined by the fact that we had declared we were withdrawing so why get your Bol---ks shot away .

Our first deployment was to Thumier where there was quite a good airstrip . The deployment north was a major exercise with all trucks sandbagged as a means of protection from mines , armoured cars acted as escorts , defiles picketed and aircraft on patrol above .

Before we left I had chalked my name on the lead truck of my little packet of vehicles. We all arrived safely without incident but three days later I saw my truck or rather the wreck which had been destroyed by a mine . My name was still chalked on the front : bit sobering .

Operating in the mountains was almost the complete opposite from the jungle . In the jungle contacts could be as close as 20 yds . Little went on at night as it was too difficult to move and mortars and artillery were less effective . In the mountains it was different as you could be sniped at from 900yds and even with old fashioned rifles the Arabs were good shots . Most activity went on at night and you did not go on patrol outside the range of your own artillery .

For platoon commanders we tended to sleep by day and go on patrol at night . As we were in and out on the same night we tended to load up with stacks of ammunition . A new belted machine gun (GPMG) had just been issued replacing the Bren Gun but unfortunately we did not have claymore mines . Also I had done my Support Weapons Course on the new 81mm mortar and the Wombat anti tank gun but when we got to Aden we were issued with the old weapons , the 3" mortar and the Mobat . This was annoying as the Marines had the new weapons .

We took over from the Marines who tended to think they were better . However , they were vulnerable to teasing because in 1964 they had been deployed from Aden to Tanganyika to put down a revolt by the Kings African Rifles . Their RSM had loaded the wrong ammo ie 303 instead of 7.62 so when they got to Africa they had to scrounge old 303 rifles off the Navy . I had always wondered when reading the papers that the RM had used rocket launchers ; now I new why . That said they were pretty professional especially the NCOs. It was as late as 1965 or later that we started centralised training at Brecon for Sergeants .

One was always learning something new . How to deal with camels and their drivers . It soon became apparent that the number of mortar bombs you could get on a camel was directly proportional to what you payed the driver. In fact I came to the conclusion it was better to put spare water on the camels and get every soldier to carry two bombs because if you came under fire the camels would bolt and you would be in trouble .

One person who tended to know what was happening was a Pioneer Sergeant who ran the laundry service because if his Arab staff went absent that meant you would be mortared that night .

We did in those days have a mortar locating radar (Green Archer) which the Arabs thought was an evil eye . Some soldiers managed to persuade them that a paludrine tablet was an anti Green Archer pill and also a contraceptive. They could get two Maria Theresa dollars for a pill . Bit naughty but they were the ones who were friendly by day and attack you at night .

That first tour went without a major incident and I am sure we had no casualties . On return one got thing Heggie got B Coy to do was climb the Jebel Shamsan as superstition had it that if  you did not climb this Jebel you would return to Aden . I think we did it three times just for safety .

B Coy were again deployed to the Radfan but this time under command of the Coldstream Guards . We were separate in the Danabah Basin at a place called Monksfield. The Basin was about 3 miles wide and 9 miles long and surrounded by Jebel peaks rising to 6,000 ft. Some of these features had been captured in the operation I mentioned took place in 1964 .

Similar to the other deployment all activity tended to happen at night . One Wadi which is embedded in my mind is the Lahamaran . I had taken a patrol twelve strong to set up an ambush . Having found a bend in the wadi I got one group of four to cover down the wadi and I with my group the other direction . My old friend Danny Dance was rear protection with his group . I suppose we had been in position about an hour and a half when my GPMG gunner opened up as he had spotted a group of four running down the wadi . I suspected they were about 20 ft below us lying still so we threw grenades down to try to flush them out . I also called down artillery fire to try to block off escape routes . Quite scary calling down artillery fire in the dark you wonder have I got my own position right .When you hear that whistle as the shell passes over there is a great relief .

Next I threw a white phosphorous grenade into some scrub below us . An Arab jumped out he looked as if he was alight but somehow managed to throw a grenade back at us . I fired at him from the hip and so did the gunner but we missed . Next thing I heard was a clunk , spun round and saw the fuse burning in a grenade . I screamed grenade and must have sprung like a cat to get away from it . Four of us must have been within feet of this grenade and only one got hit , the signaller Pte Ryder . He was in agony so I gave him morphine and then got Danny Dance's group to carry him out . We remained in position and got reinforced by another patrol .

A Fleet Air Arm helicopter managed to get in to Monksfield in the dark and got Ryder out : he survived . The next morning we found the anti tank mines they had been carrying and several blood trails but no bodies .

I thought twenty two, two lives gone, seven to go .

ADEN

Aden , or at least the district called Crater, was once described as  " That Unfortunately Extinct Volcano . " It played a part in the scheme of things in the British Empire by being a Coaling Station at the Southern end of the Red Sea servicing ships en route to India . British interest was really only in the port of Aden but in order to protect it we had various treaty arrangements with  Arab tribes to the north and west ; hence the term Aden Protectorate. Later there was a large oil refinery in Little Aden and on Perim Island a Cable & Wireless Station.


 After India got independence in 1947 and we started to withdraw from our Colonial Empire in the Fareast ( Except Hong Kong ) , Aden lost its strategic importance . We, around 1964/65, declared our intention to withdraw but hung on for about another three years ostensibly to hand over to a stable government . This was never going to happen as the Arabs were not only fighting us they were fighting each other in a power struggle as to whom would take over when we withdrew . The two main factions were NLF & FLOSY .  In the Yemen to the north a war was going on between the Royalist and Republicans , the latter being supported by Egypt's President Nasser . Our SAS helped to supply the Royalists with weapons .

Also around this time Communism was trying to fill the vacuum created by the collapse of European Empires . Hence Indochina as the French withdrew and a new struggle in Africa as Belgium and Portuguese colonies got independence .

A State of Emergency was declared in Aden in Apr 1964 and the Leicesters deployed in Jan 1965 . Our home for the next seven months was a tented camp at the end of the runway .Strange but it was at that airport that Jack's Great Grandfather was killed when dissidents blew up his aircraft . However , we in B Coy had two sessions up in the Radfan Mountains .

Our company commander from Somerset managed to break his leg getting off the plane in Aden and had to be sent back . This was just as well as he would not have coped physically with the tour . Captain John Heggs now took over the company . He was 6ft 2in and three ft wide , an aggressive rugby player who had been in command of B Coy in Borneo for some of the time . If you had an argument with John you usually got thumped followed by now lets go and have a beer . Now and again we subalterns would try to get our own back by humming a tune sung by Johnny Cash :

He stood 6ft 6 , weighed 245
Kind of broad at the shoulders , narrow at the hip .
And everybody knew you didn't give lip to Big John
Big bad John .

The soldiers had another favourite Country and Western : King of the Road . They adopted this as they spent a lot of time on vehicle patrols .

About this time the Army had another reorganisation , The Forester Brigade was disbanded and The Royal Leistershire Regiment became The 4th Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment . We changed cap badges and lost our rather special stable belt ( red ,pearl grey and black ) . Still unlike the other three battalions we had never been amalgamated and considered ourselves to be still Leicesters .

In Aden we had 1 R Anglian , and in Little Aden 45 Commando Royal Marines . Also in Theatre were artillery and sappers .

Life broke down into routine between : guard company where you guarded key points like ammunition dumps, the Governor's Residence , the interrogation centre etc . Then you were patrol company based on HMS Sheba and did foot and vehicle patrols , road blocks and the like . After a days work you would return to your tent and find the sheets covered in sand . If you ventured to the toilet well that was just another experience , best to wear a respirator .

I did have an interesting break by going on an exercise with the Royal Marines on HMS Bulwark which was a Helicopter Carrier . Although being Army I have always thought that when it comes to being an Island Nation with an aspiration to project force World Wide the Navy is crucial . The Falklands saga later proved the point .

Operations  sometimes had there interesting aspects . Intelligence indicated that the Arabs intended to blow up a mini viaduct on the coastal road . B Coy was given the task to thwart this aspiration . John Heggs ( Heggie ) had this cunning plan which entailed my platoon sunbathing on the beach with their weapons hidden in holdalls and then at night we would change into uniform and ambush the viaduct . One problem was that at some stage the soldiers would have to pull back to HMS Sheba , get some rest and be fed . Heggie's solution to the problem was that each night I would pick up an RAF Nurse from the Hospital and sit under the bridge pretending to be a courting couple . I had no objections to this plan : seemed quite novel and with some prospects .

As it came to pass I was issued with a civilian Mini , reported to the Hospital and collected a nurse . I then drove to the beach , lined the mini up so if I put the lights on high beam it would illuminate the viaduct. There I was with a sub machine and four magazines , two grenades , a pistol , radio on the back seat , a nurse and after the second night a flask of gin and tonic contemplating how I was going to spend the next four hours . This sure was different from sitting in ambush in Borneo picking leaches off ones body : I was going to war with Channel No 5 ! 

What happened next? Well about midnight I had to hand over the nurse to Heggie at the Officers' Club and then go back to HMS Sheba , change into uniform and then spend the rest of the night underneath that viaduct with half of my platoon . In fact on the first night one soldier broke his ankle jumping off the truck . We could not compromise the operation so he had to stay with us all night in a degree of pain although a shot of morphine helped .

Later I went to see one of these nurses in the RAF Hospital . Diana was her name and she had been hit by a grenade . She had gone to a guest night and as the last course was being cleared the Arab waiters suddenly disappeared and the next thing served up was a grenade . The officer next to Diana had the sense as he dived under the table to pull the legs of Diana's chair .  However , as she fell backwards she picked up some grenade fragments . As Diana explained there were several officers trying to stop the bleeding with their napkins but what she was more concerned about was the amount of her underwear being exposed . Fortunately she was not badly injured but it was a close run thing .

Another incident which illustrates the soldiers humour was when one of my platoon jumped off the back of a truck at night on a cordon and search operation only to find he was straddled between the two humps of a camel . The camel stood up and by the time I got out of the front cab and round the back my entire platoon were in fits of laughter .

In Aden we had little contact with the local population and had been given no language training . There was not much love lost between the Arabs and the Somalia elements of the population . The Somali women were tall and elegant wearing highly colourful clothes which was in stark contrast to the Arab women who tended to be short and dressed in black .

During our time there were no riots the main threat was from grenades and Belindiscise Rockets a forerunner of the RPG 7 .

Up country in the Radfan things could not be more different compared to the urban port of Aden requiring different skills and a change of mind set .

1964

Having spent six months sleeping in a hammock there were certain advantages in returning to Somerset . A comfortable bed , hot shower in the morning and fresh food would be high on my list .

However , after the vibrancy of my experiences in Hong Kong , Malaya , Singapore and Borneo it took a bit of adjusting to soldiering back in UK especially when the new adjutant , Niel Crumbie , announced he was going to make life hell for subalterns .

I had a new sense of freedom as I had bought my first car for the grand sum of £ 220 (six months savings from Borneo ) . It was ;like having that bicycle all over again . No longer those hideous train journeys with trunks and drunks . At long last I could have a regular girlfriend .

In B Company we had a new company commander who came to us from the Essex Regiment I think . He was a nice guy but was really passed it . He had got the MC during the Emergency in Malaya but had been badly shot up in the process and I don't think ever really recovered .

One could  say 1964 was rather a dull year compared to others . I suppose the highlights were : I went to Buckingham Palace and saw the Queen ; Dorothy graduated as a doctor and I got promoted to lieutenant . It was the year I first met Miss Paterson ( Feb ) !

Historical markers would be : Labour came to power in elections that year : things starting to hot up for the Americans in Vietnam ; PLO founded; Khruschev opens Aswan Dam in Egypt but later replaced by Brezhnev ; problems in Rhodesia with Ian Smith and civil rights gaining momentum in America . It was also the  Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Meanwhile we uncultured subalterns listened to the Beatles , Cilla Black and Roy Orbison ." That Was The Week That Was" ended.

I went on one long coursee to be trained on anti-tank weapons and mortars .

My social life did improve mainly due to being mobile but that was all to end when in 1965 we deployed to Aden .

THE LAST LAP

If it had not been for the last six weeks I think the Leicesters tour in Borneo would have been described as fairly average for an infantry battalion . However , things did hot on that last lap
with much of it emanating from Ba Kelalan and my key source Sara Dakong .

As I mentioned earlier I had no written orders but on that initial briefing at the Haunted House CSM Smith had stated that we were not allowed within three miles of the border .

This had to be taken with a pinch of salt as in Ba Kelalan the airstrip was only 3km from the border . On the patrols I went on with the SAS we never crossed the border .

When I tasked my own sections I kept them well back from the border unless I was leading them myself . Sometime in Dec 63 whilst on patrol just on the border I located a vacated Indonesian observation post . There were three bashas and up a tree an observation platform .I climbed the ladder up to this observation post ( OP) and using my binoculars could see to the north our little fort by the airstrip . This felt pretty annoying like having a "peeping tom" on your doorstep . We thought we were secure in our fort yet all the time we were being observed .I did not know how long this OP had been in place or when it had been last used .We could not have been engaged by direct fire weapons from this location as the range was too great but the OP could have been used for directing artillery .  Before leaving I booby -trapped the three bashas using 36 grenades . This can be a bit scary as once armed you tip toe back hoping your vibration will not trigger the grenade . Early on in the tour we almost had a serious accident when a soldier forgot to take out the fuse before he did the striker test . He ended up with grenade smouldering in his hand . I was standing next to him and yelled throw it which he did over the wire . Nobody was hurt but it was a close run thing .

Remember years later in 1973 interviewing a young IRA bomber who we had caught in Londonderry. I asked him if he ever got scared making bombs ? He then told me how he had been making this bomb on his bed at home and before inserting the detonator he thought he would check his circuits using a torch bulb .It lit up, he had not wired his bomb correctly and if the detonator had been in he would have gone to his maker. I digress back to the story .

A short time later Sara Dakong came to me to tell me he had located a position where the Indonesians had established a medium machine gun (MMG) position near the border . I took him on patrol and from an adjacent ridge I could see this MMG mounted on a tripod . I had to climb a tree to get a good look . I think the next day my own commanding officer , Peter Badger , came in on I think his second visit . I told him I had located this MMG and did he want me to take it out . I did stress is was probably on the other side of the border . His response was if it is a well planned attack I will back you up which when you think about it was kind of funny . However I took it as a YES .

On the 1st of Jan 1964 I set off with six men and one of my Sarawak Ranger trackers . Just the other side of the border we located the MMG . I left five of the patrol on top of a ridge and went forward with the tracker and Pte Danny Dance. We did a series of hooks through the jungle to get closer to the gun coming back to the ridge track to check our position .As we were making  quite a lot of noise I decided to drop the tracker off and go forward with just Dance . We got within about 50 m of the gun which had a cover over it when an Indonesian came up took the cover off , fiddled about and then replaced the cover . He then headed directly towards us. With the lay of the land he would disappear and then reappear . I got in a position to shoot but he must have stopped for a pee and went back . I got out a small camera and took some photographs . Then I looked across the track & saw Dance lying on his back smoking a cigarette . He was a cool customer who had been in the Israeli Army and the French Foreign Legion . I indicated to Dance that smoking was bad for our health ! I then indicated that we would walk down the track .I think Dance now started to flap a bit because he did enquire in stage whispers whether I had cocked my rifle and did I know what the hell I was doing . I responded affirmative . What I had failed to inform him was that I new the Indonesians were having an inter platoon football match and a sort of stand down day it being New Years Day .

We moved down the track which sort of dipped and then I heard these voices above us. I popped my head up and spotted four Indonesians in a basha lying on their backs . I indicated to Dance four fingers . He had a grenade out ready to throw it : I gave him thumbs down as I thought fragments would come back on us . By means of hand signals I indicated I would jump up and that he would go round the other side . We worked well together somehow Dance and I were instinctively on net . I jumped up and they sure were surprised. The problem was I was not sure what to do next manily due to lack of linguistic skills .Events took over as the second in dived for his weapon ; I shot him and the two furthest away from me dived out the other side only to be shot in the head by Dance . I shot the fourth and then we instinctively knew it was time to get the hell out of it so started to run up the track on this spur towards the MMG. Dance got there first and started taking the  off the cover whilst I stopped two throw a couple of grenades back the way we had come. As we could not unlock the MMG from its tripod we decided to abandon it and get out . We had only about 400m to go to get to safety over a crest line. But suddenly the bullets came whistling over our heads from another machine gun we had not located . We both dived off the track and landed on top of each other. Strangely we both thought we had heard someone say I am hit and started examining each other for wounds . Neither of us had been hit . I said to Dance lets check our magazines . They were both empty ! Our only form of escape was to cross this narrow ravine which was about 18 ft deep and the bottom was covered in what could best be described as bramble bushes . A large fallen tree straddled this ravine . We both gingerly crossed over on this log . If we had fallen off that would have been end game ,the Indonesians in pursuit would have executed us entangled at the bottom of the ravine . We ran for about 15min just get away from the area and then stopped for a breather . We then had a bit of an argument as to which was the best way back . Sense prevailed and we relied on the compass . In theory if we went north for 30 min and then due east we should end up in the Ba Kelalan valley .It worked but what a relief when we hit the home run .

Back at base the next relief was that the rest of the patrol had made their own way back and were safe but the tracker was missing . It would be dark soon but I started to organise a fresh patrol to go and find him . Then we spotted him; the tracker was jauntily making his way back having stopped at several longhouses to celebrate . I sure was glad to see him as all were home safely.

That night we slept in our trenches just as a precaution . That is except for Dance : I got Sergeant Rankin to give him a bottle of rum and he deservedly retired to his hammock .

Because it was dark it was too late to get though to battalion headquarters on the radio and I was unable to give them any details till the next morning . Sergeant Rankin had informed them he had heard firing but knew no details . Now certainly for me things seemed to get difficult because I got no messages back from battalion headquarters for about 36 hours . I did get a signal from the commanding officer of 22 SAS saying well done.( Lt Col John Woodhouse ) .

Later another officer told me that my CO had gone loopy and threatened to Court Martial me but changed his mind when the Brigadier thought it was ok . Later Peter Badger was to claim that when he was questioned by Admiral Sir Varyl Begg ( Commander Fareast ) to the effect " Did he not have control of his own officers " he Badger had responded : " Nelson was famed for turning a blind eye ." Again I am not sure if this story is true .

It is only many years later when Nick van der Bijl was researching for his book Confrontation did I discover that my attack was quoted as an example of what could be done and helped to persuade Dennis Healey , the then Labour Minister of Defence, to sanction Operation Claret whereby cross border attacks of up to company strength to a depth of 10 km were authorised (big change from two ).

I did feel pretty nervous for next few days : bit of shock settling in . It did cross my mind a cat has nine lives , I am 21 and have lost one--eight more to go .

Dance and I were flown up to Long Semado to meet the then Conservative Secretary of State for Defence, Peter Thorneycroft . However , before I went I got a letter from the John Parsons , my first  company commander who was now second in command of the battalion . In it he told me to make it clear to Thorneycroft that the MMG had been on our side of the border . Often wonder how many second lieutenants have been instructed to " fib " to senior politicians ! In the photograph from left to right in the foreground is : Bill Brown my fifth company commander ; Peter Thorneycroft : my commanding officer Peter Badger with the map and me .

Dance and I only spent one night in Long Semado and then flew back to Ba Kelalan . Helicopters played an important in the campaign in Borneo . They were mainly Whirlwinds and Wessex flown by the RAF and Feet Air Arm . The RAF did have a twin rotor helicopter called the Belvedere but it kept crashing and was nicknamed the flying widow . What we really wanted was the American Chinook but it was 20 years later   that the first ones came into service with the RAF. One pilot who was a great favourite with the infantry was Chunky Lord not just because he was a good RAF pilot but he really under understood what it was like for the infantry on the ground . In the back of his helicopter he always had fresh eggs and bread . Also he had a guitar and if grounded because of bad weather would entertain the troops with his folk music .

When the Beverly's came over to give us our weekly airdrop we would throw colour smoke to give them wind direction . Our location was tricky as after ejecting the shutes they had to make a steep turn to avoid crossing the border . We could speak to the pilots on the radio using a special crystal. I remember congratulating one pilot as everything had landed on the airstrip . The reply came back in a strong Australian accent "Glad to be of service mate ." During Confrontation the Australian Air Force and SAS were involved . One Australian SAS patrol had a fatal contact with a rogue elephant . Elephants were not indigenous to Borneo but had been brought in by the Japanese for logging and at the end of the war had gone wild .

Sara Dakong was to turn up trumps again for he was able to tell me that a group of 40 had left Pa Bawn four days ago . They were a mixture of Regular Indonesian Troops (TNI) and ex rebels (TNKU). Their target was Pensiangan which was another of our platoon bases . Based on this information a battalion operation was mounted and assisted by the SAS Mike Peel , another platoon commander in B Coy , caught up with this group and attacked them .

My platoon was not involved and our only scare near the end was when an Indonesian fighter ( Mustang ) flew over the border and headed for an RAF Beverly en route to Bario . Fortunately it veered off and and went back .

It was now the end of Jan 64 and getting time to hand over to 2/7 GR . Somehow I have found that near the end of tours things can not necessary go askew but the balance of equilibrium changes . An SAS four man patrol arrived and I was not sure what their task was to be . The Gurkha platoon commander arrived and somehow went off my interpreter Musa . I never got to the bottom of it . However , the villagers organised a great feast for my platoon and I was presented with that hat .

We flew out to B Coy base at  Limbang where the rest of the Coy had been for the bulk of the tour. I linked up with the trunk I had left behind in Hong Kong . Nobody had bothered to open it and air my clothes most of which were covered in mildew including my smart light weight suit .

That night after supper I sat on the veranda of the Officers' & Sergeants Mess and felt a great weight had been taken off my shoulders . I got very drunk with C/Sgt Hill .The next morning we had a proper muster parade with all four platoons present . No 5 platoon had not done drill for five months .

My last task was to go to Brunei and settle our NAFFI account with the Paymaster . This entailed a two hour trip in a long narrow log boat . As I watched the alligators slip into the water I appreciated we had all gone through a different set of experiences . Ba Kelalan was to become a Company Base with its own artillery . I was lucky that it had been a platoon base .

Things moved quickly as we staged through Brunei and then by river to Labuan Island and the large airport. Then about 48 hrs later we arrived at Stanstead in the rain . My last visual memory of Borneo was of the Golden Mosque . Back in UK it was as if one had moved from a technicolour word into a black & white one.

Customs were not worried about the soldiers' pangas and blow pipes but did get twitchy about the poison for the darts .

It would be thirty years before I returned to Borneo . One thing that did shock us was the news that President Kennedy had been assasinated in Dallas .

GAINING INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence is usually referred to as being Background or Current . Background is everything about a country or area : history , geography , politics , economy , religion , customs etc . Today it is amazing what you can ascertain on Google or the CIA Web Site . Current intelligence is something you can act on ie Where is Bin Laden . Compared with the 1960 s there has been a technological revolution . Although , I presume that in Borneo we were listening to Indonesian radio traffic intelligence in the main was acquired from human sources .

In my area you had to turn the clock back to the War against the Japanese . An SAS officer , Tom Harrison , and his team were parachuted into Bario to make contact with the Kelabits who were harbouring downed American aircrew and protecting them from capture by the Japanese . The SAS also organised them to ambush Jap patrols using their blowpipes . In some longhouses you  still see the shrunken heads of Japanese soldiers . At the end of the War Tom Harrison stayed on in Sarawak and became the curator of the Museum in Kuching  ,the capital . However , in 1963 he came out of retirement and helped mobilise his old mates the Kelabits to intercept the rebels fleeing from Brunei after their failed revolt . He also passed onto the SAS some of his old contacts amongst both Kelabits and Muruts .

One of these contacts was Sara Dakung who lived near the border in Ba Kelalan. I had met  him through CSM Smith and it was eventually information from him that led to Mike Peel and I getting the MC indifferent contacts .

The bonding between Brits and these highland tribes during the War was to pay dividends eighteen years later . However , one thing was clear to me and that was that the local women were off limits and I stressed this to my platoon. If they had established relationships it would have upset the local bucks and intelligence would dry up. It was important to respect peoples customs. The Muruts were exceptionally polite people and saying please and thank you in their language was important , respecting women and giving them privacy when they bathed in the river , not swearing , all these little things were important .Perhaps another thing in our favour was that the Indonesian troops opposite were from Java and were Muslim.

Indonesia is a vast conglomerate and identity is complex. Where we were Muruts lived on both sides of the border. One amusing story is of a tribe who lived in Indonesia ( Kalimantan ) who approached a Political Official in Sarawak and indicated they wanted to live in Sarawak . He stressed how difficult it would be with visas etc . They responded you have got it all wrong we do not want to move we want you to move the border .

The Border Scouts were of some concern . I had inherited 20 from the SAS . They came from different kampongs up and down the valley and varied in age from fifteen to forty . They were not really soldiers but were a source of intelligence .Only about five were any good in the jungle .

This is where another character comes into the picture . The big chief General WC Walker had put a bachelor British Gurkha Lieutenant Colonel John Cross in charge of the Borer Scouts . He was an eccentric character and spoke thirteen different languages . Well I was told he was coming to see me and expected him to arrive by helicopter . Well one of my sentries spotted these two figures coming down the valley : it was John Cross with his Gurkha orderly who had walked from Long Semado two days away . He stayed overnight and we had long talks . Having not talked to another officer for some time it was like a health tonic . I explained  my concerns about the Border Scouts and one fear was that living near the border could easily be kidnapped by the Indonesians . In the end we concocted a plan whereby we got the Border Scouts to burn their uniforms : leaked to the Indonesians we had had a mutiny but continued to use the Scouts as a covert source of information . Not sure how it really worked in the end as we then handed over to 2/7 GR.

When the SAS left the Sqn Comd ,Bill Dodd came in and stressed my job was to gain intelligence. He did not really explain how you did it so I had to start working it out for myself . I wished that after the Jungle Warfare Course I had been sent on a Malay language course , that sure would have helped . I was concerned that an Indonesian Intelligence Sergeant , Paul Padan , had been through my area and gone as far north as Long Semado posing as a trader .

My first move was to get all the headman together and explain it was crucial I be informed of any strangers entering the valley and that they were to use the Border Scouts as runners. I then made contact with Sara Dakong to establish a relationship . He would come in now and again to get ammunition for the pump shotgun the SAS had given him .

Whilst over time informants increased Sara Dakong remained our most valuable source . The Indonesian Paul Padan tried to cultivate our medical dresser but he reported all contact to me . Near the end we did have a girl Mikel Ganang who did the laundry for my opposite number in the Indonesian Army .

We did spend a lot of time on patrol .Some of this was high visibility going from kampong to kampong which was to boost confidence and be part of deterrence but we also climbed up onto the hills which flanked the valley to check for any signs of infiltration . Half way through the tour I was given two Iban trackers from the Sarawak Rangers .These guys were fantastic . I know all the theory about tracking but am frankly quite useless. These trackers could provide you with the most incredible information. In the end I never went anywhere without one .

The key in some ways was you had 800 eyes and ears in the valley and you had to keep them on side.Hearts and Minds was the great cry . Not all my schemes worked. I had arranged for the RAF to drop a 40 gallon drum of kerosene as a Christmas present for the locals but the parachute drifted and landed in a paddy field , split open and ruined all the rice . I then got into the issue of compensation . How much is a paddy field worth : they did not teach you that at Sandhurst .

BEING A PLATOON COMMANDER IN BORNEO

Despite two years at Sandhurst I suppose it does cross the mind of many a second lieutenant  that simple question " will soldiers be prepared to follow me ?" It might sound arrogant but I never really felt I had a problem . Several factors were in my favour . By the time my platoon arrived in Borneo I had been a platoon commander for a year. I had the Jungle Warfare Course behind me and having been out six weeks ahead of the battalion my background knowledge was considerable . Also if you exclude the platoon sergeant and the section commanders I was , despite being only twenty one , two to three years older than the average soldier . In Ba Kelalan I do not think the soldiers were scared but perhaps apprehensive about what lay ahead . There was certainly that feeling of isolation but providing you gave positive direction and applied common sense they were more than happy to follow you : sometimes leadership can be easy .

I , however, was to get a shock when my platoon arrived . In Somerset and Hong Konk I had got on well with the CSM , David Groves , who had been in Korea . As he seemed to control new  recruits when they arrived I tended to get the best ones . Also over the space of a year I had managed to get my best corporal promoted to sergeant and wangled into the platoon good section commanders . In my absence the new company commander, John Heggs, had reorganised the whole company . The 5 platoon that  arrived at Ba Kelalan I hardly recognised . The new platoon sergeant had been in Korea and was frankly passed his sell buy date . Dear old Cpl Crutchley, who had been in Korea, was one of those NCOs who would never make sergeant and had been made the permanent orderly corporal assisting the CSM was now in the front line rather than relaxing back in Company HQ . Harry Rankin the platoon sergeant could drive the soldiers nuts . After an airdrop the soldiers would go to him to get new socks : he would give them one each ! He was however very good at field defences (Korean experience ) much more knowledgeable than me so over time we came to an arrangement on who did what. I never let him go on patrol and excluded him from any dealings with the locals . One had to keep ones anxieties to oneself and start from almost scratch building a new team . Most of the soldiers came from Leicestershire but I had some from Southern Ireland and even Glasgow . These were guys who had gone to Leicester to seek employment and ended up in the Army .

Presented with this situation one has just to get on with it and start building up a new team . It did mean assessing the strengths and weakness of those I had. One new addition was a 3" mortar team commanded by a fiery Southern Irish corporal . I also got two good signallers from the signal platoon .What I should also have been given was an Army Catering cook but that never happened .

When my platoon arrived by light aircraft they appeared in a state of shock . Probably about forty eight hours previously they had their last fling downtown in Kowloon with the Chinese Bar Girls and here they were in the middle of nowhere . Some had not been careful and got some STD on their last fling . I kept my initial brief fairly simple like : this is Ba Kelalan ; this is your home ; that is the airstrip ; the people are Muruts ; we get an airdrop each week ; the borer is that way and we have an SAS troop with us .My aim was to pass on as much as I knew in digestible chunks. Some SAS troopers were hovering around I suppose curious to have a look at these virgin soldiers .

The immediate priority was to allocate the soldiers accommodation inside our bamboo hut and then allocate them to trenches so they knew where to go if we got attacked . That done we could have a meal.

 We developed set routines standing to in our trenches

 at dawn and dusk . After stand down in the morning it would be tea with a paludrine tablet , clean weapons and then breakfast . In the evening I would brief everyone on the priorities for the next day . Early on I started some basic language training . I got our interpreter , Musa , to start with the basics : good morning , good evening , please and thank you and counting to ten. The soldiers would then repeat these phrases five times . They quickly picked up berapa kati which means how much .

In that first month our priority was to improve the field defences . I had more soldiers than the Gurkhas so we needed to expand . As the Gurkhas were much shorter than us their trenches were too shallow so we had to dig  deeper but hit a water table so had to build up with sandbags . We had problems with dogs coming through the wire and setting off our trip flares so we built a second fence and laced the gap between with a belt of panji bamboo stakes made by the Border Scouts . Then we linked the trenches with communication trenches . Later when I was reinforced with other sections we built another fort on the other side of the airfield . I suppose after two months we were pretty pleased with our efforts that is till the torrential monsoon rains arrived and played havoc with all our good work .

Being at 3,000ft was much healthier than operating a lower levels especially mangrove swamp . We , however, were not immune from malaria , scrub typhus and leptospirosis . Malaria is passed on by the mosquito and it was essential to take paludrine ; scrub typhus was transmitted by mites and the best thing was to spray the seams of your clothes with mite repellent and leptospirosis is linked to rats so avoid crossing rivers near kampongs . Early on I had one case of scrub typhus and the commanding officer threatened to sack me if I had another . Well in the last five airdrop demands I had asked for mite repellent and never got any. Egged on by CSM Smith (SAS) I sent a snaughty signal back ending " appreciate cooperation ." Bit risky for a second lieutenant but mite repellent came in the next airdrop . I did end up in hospital for a week with a fever but ended up discharging myself and hitching a helicopter ride back to Ba Kelalan .I was at  one stage reinforced by a section from the Drums but when I checked them out the whites of their eyes were yellow . They had jaundice and had to be evacuated .

We of course were a curiosity for the locals . They had got used to the Gurkhas many of whom had picked up Malay but they had not encountered a Brit Bn and had never seen a black soldier . I had just one whose nickname was "Sunny."

The large white parachutes which we accumulated had to be returned if and when a helicopter came in but mail would frequently be dropped with small parachutes  every colour of the rainbow. These were a prize commodity as we made hammocks and sleeping bags out of them . They were also used for barter with the locals . Then an edict came out that these small parachutes must be returned . Shortly after I had a rare visit from the Brigadier . As he landed he was surrounded by children and by far the prettiest girl was wearing a dress which consisted of three different colours of parachute . He just smiled and besides I would have blamed the Gurkhas .

I have mentioned that airdrop day was the highlight of the week but it was not just the fresh rations . Mail from home was a key factor and seeing a copy of the Leicester There were no mobile telephones in those days . I think one of the most difficult things I had to do was tell  corporal his mother had died .

Soldiers adopted pets and we had a pet monkey and a cub clouded leopard . Think the soldiers were convinced the platoon sergeant had trained the monkey to steal cigarettes . The monkey used to tease the leopard till one day he was not fast enough and the leopard got him by the throat.

Not all my schemes worked. Early on we kept hens so we could have fresh eggs but they lived in the rafters and crapped all over the place . I ordered a feast but one , Henrieta , was reprieved execution as she deposited like clockwork an egg on Cpl Collins bed every day.

When the SAS moved out things changed as we had to take on more patrols and I was responsible for gaining intelligence . But more of that later .

BA KELALAN

Ba Kelalan was in the 5th Division of Sarawak in the interior highlands at 3,000 ft above sea level and about 4 km from the Indonesian border . In fact just at the convergence of the boundaries of Indonesia , Sarawak and Sabah . It was to be my home for the next six months .

The valley through which the River Ba Kelalan flowed was about fifteen miles long and flanked on either side by jungle covered mountains . The valley itself was cultivated with wet paddy fields . Scattered up and down the valley were about nine kampongs which consisted of two to three long houses .These longhouses were substantial wooden constructions with corrugated iron roofs. There would be up to eight families living in a longhouse The people in the valley were Muruts ,whilst in the adjacent valley in Bario they were Kelabits . I doubt if the people had much sense of a national identity towards Sarawak as as far as they were concerned they were Muruts , Kelabits , Ibans or Dayaks etc.The population of the valley was about 800 to 1,000. The majority would spend their entire life in the valley without leaving it.

In many ways it was like going back in time as there were no roads , no electricity ,no telephones and the Ba Kelalan River was not navigable so no boats . The only way in was to walk or by light aircraft .

Our little fort was a bamboo construction and like everything else on stilts . It overlooked a grass airstrip which was vital to the community . Surrounding the airstrip were a couple of longhouses , a school, small administrative building and a church . The Muruts had been converted to Christianity by an Australian Evangelical Church.

Each kampong had a headman and the chief in the valley was the Pengulu . However , I was to discover he was not necessary the most powerful person in the valley . Tribal politics can get quite complicated.There was a Government Representative or Administrator , three Sarawak Police Field Force and a medical dresser (male nurse ) and that was the basic infrastructure but one had to take into account : the Pengulu , a cabal of kampong headmen , the school teacher and the Murut Evangelical Minister . Even then there were other sub structures and unless you spoke Malaya they could be difficult to penetrate .I did not really trust the Police Field Force and was glad when they were withdrawn .

Even at school one had read about the wild men of Borneo and head hunters . The Muruts were essentially passive hill farmers and if headhunting had gone on it was a thing of the past .Some did go hunting in the jungle with blowpipes and dogs but they tended to be of the older generation. Most were content to cultivate their rice fields with the help of domesticated water buffalo. Their diet would be supplemented by pig meat, fresh eggs and a variety of vegetables . 

I have looked up Ba Kelalan on Google and it is amazing to see how it has developed . It still remains pretty isolated although they are trying to develop a tourist industry based on jungle treks.  However, one of the images was of a crashed light aircraft . In my day it was one of the trickiest strips to land on for Army Air Corps pilots . One new development is an annual Apple Festival .

As the British Gurkha officer left shortly after I arrived my little force of two sections of Gurkhas (2/6 GR ) , a Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC ) corporal (SRN qualified ) and a seventeen year old male interpreter (Musa ).

The SAS troop who were commanded by CSM Lawerence Smith opted to live in a nearby re entrant in the jungle . Ba Kelalan was as I have said in the TAOR of A Sqn  22SAS .Although as a second lieutenant I was senior to a CSM he was really the boss and I was , certainly happy to defer to him as he was a veteran of the campaign in Malaya . Many in the troop had been in Malaya and some on that famous operation in Oman to capture the Jebel Akhdar . However , for some Borneo was their first operational tour . When my own platoon arrived our first month was spent improving our field defences but later I got them to go out with the SAS on patrol , initially  day patrols but later for seven days at a time . This was ideal and my soldiers learnt a lot from these more experienced soldiers.

The SAS were structured to gain intelligence . One of the most valuable members of their patrols would be the medic especially if he could speak Malay . Extract a rotten tooth from a Mutut which has been causing him agony and you have a friend for life .

The SAS were designed to operate behind enemy lines but in 1963 cross border operations had not been authorised. After about two months it was decided to pull this SAS troop out and for the remainder of our tour I was in charge of Ba Kelalan. CSM Smith got involved in many other operations and was awarded the MC . Although , the SAS troop had pulled out I was still technically under command of A Sqn . The Sqn Comd was Bill Dodd who much later was my commanding officer in Belfast . Over my time in Borneo I had five different company commanders but due to the lack of helicopters I seldom saw them and really worked direct to battalion headquarters.

The strange thing I did not really have any written directive as to what I was meant to do .This did not really worry me as my task was pretty  obvious : deter-detect-destroy .

We had no maps and made our own. One tended to think on time lines like the the nearest other base was at Long Semado two days to the north.Communications were by means of HF radio but due to the ionosphere you could only get through between 7am and 7 pm.

Our supply chain was air drops . Monday was the highlight of our week -Airdrop Day which meant two days of fresh rations .

MY TIME WITH THE GURKHAS

When India got independence in 1947 some Gurkhas stayed with the Indian Army but four Infantry Regiments came over to the British Army . They were the 2nd , 6th , 7th and 10th Gurkha Rifles. In the 1960s they each had two battalions who were stationed in Hong Kong and Malaya . There was also a Gurkha Engineer Regiment, Signals Regiment and Transport Regiment .

Having originally fought against the Gurkhas we decided it would be a good thing to have the on our side (this was around 1815) and so began a long association . In Borneo we took over from 2/6 GR and handed over to 2/7 GR . During the War there were over a 100,000 Gurkhas in the British Army now they are down to 3,500. They are famed for winning 13 VCs and have a sound reputation which I would not challenge . However , now and again things can go wrong especially if they are not handled properly .

From Singapore I flew to Labuan Island where there was a big logistic base and then made my way by boat to Brunei . Suddenly as you turned a bend in the river there was this magnificent mosque with a golden roof . It was my first and last impression of Borneo . However , I did not spend long there and flew to Sibu in Sarawak where the headquarters of 2/6 GR was located .Shortly afterwards it transpired that there was to be a redeployment so it was not worth sending me up the River Ragang to one of the Gurkha forward companies . As the Gurkhas did not really know what to do with me I mainly ended up collecting visitors from the airport .

As part of decolonisation the British tried to establish Federations in the Caribbean ( Trinidad , Tobago & Jamaica ) ; Africa ( N & S Rhodesia & Malawi ) and in Malaysia ( Malaya , Singapore , Sarawak & Saba). In the end none really worked as conceived . In Malaysia the Sultan of Brunei was not going to join he was not going to share his vast wealth with anyone and Singapore with a predominantly Chinese population decided to go it alone with Lee Kwan Lieu as President .That left Malaya , Sarawak and Sabah . On one of my trips out to the airport I was to encounter a UN Commission which had been sent out to establish if the people of Sarawak wanted to join with Malaya. A large demonstration had been organised primarily by communist Chinese to meet this Commission . At the same time a Gurkha Coy was moving to the airport to redeploy . Hidden behind the airport terminal were two companies of Riot Police. The Gurkhas smiling innocently in their trucks as only Gurkhas can do . The UN group observed this demonstration and then departed. The Riot Police broke cover and the Gurkhas drew their kukris and that was the end of the demonstration.

As part of this redeployment I was pulled back to Brunei Town . This was a fortunate move for me as the other officers in A Coy went off to Tawa in the east I was the only officer left when my own Commanding Officer arrived as part of the advance party . Apart from encountering my first transvite in the OK Bar in Brunei I had kept my nose to what was happening by reading the daily reports from forward locations and studying the map indicating deployments  .I noted there were three independent platoon locations .

When my own CO arrived I went to meet him at the airport and almost forgot to salute him being transfixed by this gorgeous Cathay Pacific air hostess at the top of the steps .

However, about two days later the CO said to me as he was standing next to this large map " Where do you want to go ?" I instantly replied Ba Kelalan. As Ba Kelalan was to be part of the Tactical Area of Operations (TAOR ) of A Sqn SAS  I went to the Haunted House the location of their Headquarters to be briefed . The next day I flew to Ba Ba Kelalan with this SAS troop.

I was lucky to have been in the right place at the right time . My own Coy Comd might not have agreed with the CO preferring to deploy to an independent platoon someone more senior than me. Once ensconced it was going to be difficult to move me . 

JUNGLE WARFARE SCHOOL MALAYA

I went with Capt Bill Brown who was second in command of A Coy and who had done a tour with the Parachute Regiment and Brian Davenport ,a Platoon commander in A Coy, to the Jungle Warfare School in Malacca , Malaya . We were the second tranche of officers/ NCOs to go on the course in preparation for our forthcoming tour in Borneo . The course lasted about six weeks and was mixed with officers and NCOs on the same course . It was truly international with students from : UK , America , Australia , New Zealand , Malaya , Thailand and Sri Lanka .

The only ones I had difficulty with were the Australians ( sorry Kate ) but the officers seemed to have a chip on there shoulder and kept banging on about how they had won the War . On the other hand the Australian NCOs were great .

President Kennedy had just started to get American troops involved in Vietnam , initially Special Forces. The Green Berets had just been formed and deployed ahead of major ground forces . Naturally John Wayne was at the forefront or did that come later ! 
I got on well a Sgt Kelly in the Australian Infantry . I remember we were in the same patrol on this three day navigation exercise . As part of our group was this enormous American in USMC.
He  must have been 6 ft 4 in and belonged to a Recce Unit( presume forerunner of the SEALS ).
He was a really good guy . However , one of the worst types of terrain you can hit are patches of these large ferns that are 10 ft tall. The only way to make progress is for the lead man to raise his rifle above his head and then fall flat. Well whilst negotiating a patch of these ferns this American really got a bad dose of cramps . I looked at Sgt Kelly and he looked at me. Although we did not say a word the thought was crossing our minds "we are going to have to carry this giant out . Well fortunately he recovered but was subsequently killed in Vietnam .

The British a fair amount of residual experience of operating in the jungle with outfits like the Chindits in Burma to the Malayan Emergency . After the War the Chinese Communist who in Malaya who had taken to the jungle and opposed the Japanese expected their reward would be the control of the country even although they were a minority compared with the Malaya population. When this did not happen they went back to the jungle and confrontation lasted till 1958 . It was at this time that the SAS who had been disbanded were reformed to parachute into the jungle and seek them out . Also developed was the Strategic Hamlet concept which the Americans later tried to emulate in Vietnam .

I was really glad I did this course before I went to Borneo.Although ,you cannot learn every thing in six weeks one left with a knowledge of : navigation , tracking , laying ambushes , attacking enemy camps , booby traps etc . It was also my first time away from the battalion after leaving Sandhurst.

What was happening in Blighty whilst I was in the Far east. Britain was refused entry into the EEC ; Kim Philby the MI6 spy escaped to Beirut : there was the Great Train Robbery the Profuma scandal with Christine Keeler . In Iraq General Kassem was assassinated . At Sandhurst the students from Iraq had Kassems photograph on their wall but just in case some of other Generals hidden in their bottom drawer.

In America they closed Alcatraz .

Political correctness was really in vogue then. One officer from Sri Lanka who was reall quite dark and had a waxed moustache said to me " Alan you must appreciate most of my people are Wogs ."

At the end of the course it was not worth sending us back to HK so we stayed in a transit camp in Singapore and awaited being called forward to Borneo . We were to spend six weeks with  2/6 Gurkha Rifles before the Leicesters arrived to take over from them .

HONG KONG

Hong Kong was my first experience of life in a British Colony . It of course had been fostered by those good Christian Scots so they could sell opium produced in India to the Chinese . I think Chinese and European culture are poles apart . We did not really socially have any interface with the Chinese. Madarin is the most spoken language in the World with some1,025 million speakers .
However, in south China including Hong Kong and Macau (the Portugese Colony ) they spoke Cantonese . The Madarin speaking Chinese in the north tend to look down on the Cantonese calling them "monkeys ". I never attempted to learn any Chinese , it is difficult as the same word with a different pronounciation can mean something totally different .

The Officers' Mess Colour Sergeant would have difficulty with pronouncing the names of the Chinese Mess Staff so they would be referred to as No1 , No 2 etc up to No10. However, as he berated them their No would frequently be preceded by F---king . Now Chinese have difficulty with "F" so they would refer to themselves as No Hucking One . I remember as I marched through HK carrying the Regimental Colour I heard some Chinese call out there goes No Hucking One : they obviously thought the guy with the flag was important .

 I would say there was a certain deference on the part of the Chinese towards their Colonial Masters . They had had a rough time during the Japanese occupation . The Japs did reduce TB by bayoneting any Chinese they saw spitting . At the Japanese surrender there was a rush by the Brits to get back as there was some fear the Americans might try to prevent us reoccupying HK . When I went back to HK 25 years later attitudes had changed as handover to China got closer. The HK Chinese wanted stability in an enviornment where they could make money. As that was all about to change there was no need to defer to Europeans.

I had my 21st birthday in Hong Kong . I treated myself to a shave in the Grand Peninsula Hotel, first time ever. The next time was in Edinburgh with Douglas some forty five years later.

One big event in Honk Kong was The Queen's Birthday Parade. The photographss are of me in the Colour Party . I am the one on the right in case you do not recognise Grandpa in his youth .

Little incidents come to mind wich seem amusing in retrospect. I recall being ferried round Sai Kung harbour by a little Chinese girl in a sampan going from junk to junk to haggle for the best hire price to take the soldiers to one of the islands for a picnic.  We would anchor off an island swim ashore and hope four hours later they were sober enough to swim back ! We did have a rescue boat .

One amazing thing to watch  were Chinese funerals. They had access through our camp to burial grounds at the end of the peninsula . Professional mourners would be hired . They dressed in white would head the parade wailing as if they were in an LSD trance , all part of their culture .

All the things you would expect went on : lots  of sporting events , swimming at the officers club , cocktail parties etc all part of the British Raj .

Not really sure how long I spent in HK . It could have been as little as four months as the next move was to Malaya to the Jungle Warfare School.

During my time in HK I did get a trip in a light aircraft round the territory . Years later I did a similar trip in a helicopter . The amazing difference was land reclamation .

HONG KONG
British Eagle ( now defunct ) flew us to Hong Kong in Feb 1963 . The flight took us about two days as we stopped at Palermo , Istanbul , Bombay , Bangkok and then eventually HK . It was a propeller driven aircraft. Jet travel was then in the early stages .

The battalion was deployed to to the New Territories in two different camps about three miles apart , Sai Kung & Erskine . I, with B Coy was in Sai Kung which overlooked a Chinese fishing village of the same name .

A Coy had arrived a few days before us and their subalterns had already been down town to explore Kowloon . We were more than happy for them to show us the ropes for they had discovered the bars where the girls were topless . I managed to get separated from the group but did remember the good advice I had been given : " Get in a rickshaw and ask for Steamer Point :  you will find a taxi ; say Sai Kung no see meter  ". That way you got back more cheaply as the taxi driver could pocket the fare . I think I said Sek Kong which was 40 miles in the wrong  direction but the driver twigged and said NO you Leicester you Sai Kung .

One quickly  learned the tricks of the trade . In HK you never agreed with the asking price you simply bargained for everything be it trying to buy a camera or vegetables. That is unless you were a gullible American tourist . In fact later we played this game of seeing what Americans would pay for an item and then trying to get it for half the price . We of course had no intention of buying an ivory tusk on our salary .

Sai Kung was again another of those Nissen hutted camps . The officers mess was one of these big huts but it had a nice patio which overlooked the fishing village. Looking over the harbour you could really capture the atmosphere of HK and the Chinese as the junks with their lanterns came back into port , the sound of Chinese music and just a sense a the industry of the Chinese . When you went into the village and explored the markets with fish stalls well that was just a whole new experience.

Military wise HK was fairly peaceful at that time , no riots . The police were well equipped to deal with riots and if we were deployed it would have got to the shooting stage .Things changed when Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in China but was 1966 . Then there were problems with the Red Guards on the border
One platoon task was to deploy to a police station on the River into China. The station had a flat roof and we observed and logged all the traffic going up and down the river. As the platoon commander you had accomodation on the roof and were only allowed to leave for meals . It would be a long week up there on the roof . However , on one stint I did manage to read all 1,367 pages of Les Miserables . Meanwhile below me a stream of Chinese airhostess would be visiting the HK Police Officers below . Had I joined the wrong outfit !

Looking into China there were paddy fields as far as the eye could see . When I went back twenty five years later there was a complete new city, Shenzhen which is a special economic zone ie China's answer to capitalism .

Think I will continue later as sometimes I seem to press the wrong button and it all vanishes .

THE LEICESTERS IN SOMERSET

About six months before I joined the Tigers they had returned to UK  from Munster in Germany. Doniford Camp was to be their home for the next four years .The Camp had been built during the War and originally housed an artillery unit but became an evacuation centre for casualties returning from D Day in Normandy . The Camp was right on the edge  of the Bristol Channel and in stormy weather at high tide the waves would crash onto the battalion square .

Accommodation for soldiers was pretty spartan with fifteen soldiers to a Nissan hut with a coke stove at either end .Their furnishings consisted of a metal bed and locker and a wooden box for storage. They would have to make their way through the snow to the shower blocks . As Garrison Commander in Tidworth in the 1990s I was involved in the design of new barracks in Tidworth .Soldiers had their own individual rooms with en suite showers : it took us forty years to get to that point . Officers were better off but Doniford Camp was essentially basic . Later it became a Refugee Centre for Asians who were kicked out of Uganda by Idi Amin . It is now a holiday camp .

Like everyone else there was a rank structure but there seemed to be a three tier system when it came to experience : the commanding officer and the company commanders had  been in the World War ; senior captains had been in Korea and junior captains had fought EOKA in Cyprus .We unbemedalled subalterns were aware we were untested .The NCOs were not old  enough to have been in the War but many had been in Korea and Cyprus .

My first company commander , John Parsons, , had been in a cavalry regiment I think but joined No 1 SAS and at 19 was parachuted into France to fight with the Resistance . However , he said he got more involved in fights between the Resistance and the Maquis than fighting the Germans and eventually had to be extracted . He was then dropped into Norway and at the end of the War was involved in sending back to Russia some of their nationals who had fought for the Germans .
The second in command was Tom Hiney who had won an MC in the Congo whilst serving with troops from Ghana. Fortunately for us Tom was a bachelor and had a small car.If it had not been for him we subalterns in B Coy would have had a pretty dull social life .

The Camp was about three miles from a little fishing village called Watchet with a high harbour wall.We were equidistant from two towns :Taunton a market town and Minehead where there was a Butlins Holiday Camp. Officers tended to go to Taunton and the soldiers to Minehead.

The soldiers always manage to sniff out totty but did adopt some strange names for the girls of easy virtue like the Wiveliscombe Witch and the Minehead Mauler .They did not get payed that much but  cider was cheap in Somerset .

Some soldiers did marry Somerset girls but not the officers.Although we were a source of bachelors and did get invited to lots of parties and hunt balls I think the County Set would rather marry a rich farmer who went hunting rather than an impoverished officers.

Not really sure the " swinging sixties " ever got as far west as rural Somerset but we did play Beatles records at parties and knew how to do the latest dance The Twist .

Oct 1962 was the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis . Although , we were aware of this at the time I do not recall being aware of impending Armageddon .We were never put on any special alert . In fact our biggest problem was coping with that severe winter and we were deployed to dig out railway sidings .

One thing that did slightly perturb me was the number of officers who seemed to want to get away. In my first week a captain who had been an instructor at Sandhurst said hullo and goodbye as he was off to join a cavalry regiment having been poached by my company commander at Sandhurst . Another was off to the Parachute Regiment and even Tom Hiney asked me when was I applying for a secondment . This was essentially about young men wanting excitement . Some officers were content to serve in UK  and enjoy Cricket and the local pub but others wanted more. Our own little war somewhere !


I suppose I wanted something more than rural England . Eureka it was all to change and the thing that sparked it off was a revolt against the Sultan in Brunei .

As it turned out the Queens Own Highlanders , Royal Marines and Gurkha's put down the revolt and the rebels fled to Indonesia (Kalimantan ).This eventually led to an undeclared war against Inodonesia which lasted from 1962 to 1964 which is highlighted in that book called Confrontation .

To continue with the Tigers, there we were in Somerset all geared up to go . Some books have  impressed me , one is a book by Adair who talks about three interlocking circles : Task , Team Maintenance and Individual  Needs . Somehow in rural Somerset by suddenly being given a positive task there was magic in the air .Probably different if you were married with two kids and had been to Korea and Cyprus but for us young bachelors this was it .

Now comes an amusing saga . As part of the Indian Army system units had Contactors, under today's jargon they are Facilities Management Companies ( Ask Cheney all about it ). Well these contractors did everything for a unit : Cooks ,cleaners, Mess staff , barber , tailors they even brought tea for the soldiers in bed in the morning.

Well as we sat in Somerset with bayonets fixed ready to deploy the Commanding Officer got a letter from this Indian Contractor : " Honorable Sahib you will remember I looked after you in Hong Kong before you deployed to Korea in 1952 . I understand you are not going immediately to Borneo or Malaya but instead to HK . You will be in Erskine Camp and Sai Kunk Camp and  I will be there to meet you ." Two days later the MOD informed the CO that was the plot .
The system worked well. Eight years later we had the same contractor in Bahrain. This was before the age of computers and these contractors kept their accounts in leather bound ledgers in copperplate writing .  Commanding C Coy the Contractor came to me and said you know Mickey Mouse and Roy Rodger still owe me 8 HK Dollars. Soldiers frequently gave false names when getting credit .

That was it Christmas leave and then off to Hong Kong .Roll on 1963 at least I am no longer a teenager !