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 .