The Window that Refuses to Shut
by
23153252 Pte White D coy  1st Batt. KOSB

Survival in the jungle is a series of small tasks, one job at a time, all linked. You have to approach the physiology of survival by keeping control of your wits and thoughts. The armchair professionals know ALL the answers, but they won't look you in the eyes and tell you the truth. If you have a high fever, a touch of malaria, a bit delirious, plodding along in a semi dreamlike state, stupefied with a violent throbbing headache caused by the fierce heat, and your senses tell you that you are half in, half out of your body, sweating buckets, being bitten by every insect that ever existed. If you are like this, then sure as there is little monkey's, the squad/platoon leader is in the same bloody position, and he is trying to guide us!!. All of you trying to survive and keep control of your wits and thoughts, wary of every branch and leaf and the hidden dangers that lie beyond..

A war that is not a war ? facts .. what facts ? why ? what is it all about?

My Regiment 1st Battalion The Kings Own Scottish Borderers served in Malaya from August 55 - August 58 initially under the command of 63rd Ghurkha Infantry Brigade in the 17th Ghurkha Division primarily based in the Batu Pahat area of South Johore. The Regiment was also designated the Internal Security Battalion for all of Singapore Island. Our principal enemy in this area was No.4 Regiment of the M.R.L.A. whose commander was a right nasty piece of work who went by the name of Goh Peng Tun.

To tell the story of a rifle company, which marches and fights as a unit, is totally different from relating about the small 5 or 6 man patrols doing different things in different places. The general trend and highlights must be set down but to include every patrol and it's activities can only result in the barest of outlines. Of course, this is dull and repetitive and only adds to the sum total of the whole campaign. The main interest has to be in the manner of its doing, its success and failures, to get inside the very soul of the doers upon which all else depended.

Combat or the threat of it, is a conditional tension to the experienced soldier but this is very difficult to convey to the reader unless he is acquainted with that emotion, and how that feeling can vary from person to person, and its effects on comparatively young men on a war patrol in the world's thickest and densest jungle. For well over 12 years, these eighteen and nineteen year olds thoroughly aided and abetted by a strong regular cadre of professional soldiers, some of whom had been at Dunkirk, North Africa, Normandy, Korea and a few other places in between, had to learn exactly how to take on a very tough and excellent foe who was completely at home in this domain. This long slow war was conducted in a far-off and very beautiful country and overshadowed by greater and larger events surrounding it.

Never a major conflict as such, even though the armed might of the British Military Forces was at this period of time in the mid 50's considered by many to be somewhat awe-inspiring, utilizing the three services, intelligence agencies, police and Special Branch authorities home and abroad, it was a war nonetheless; a shooting war. Governments and politicians, stock markets and brokers, world-wide conglomerates, managers and other un-seen hands ensured that come what may, this little 'side-show would have it's lid kept firmly on!

Way back then one didn't ask awkward questions. It was enough to get through a day and survive. So operational briefings were always greeted with mock groans of fear[ to hide the real fear!] but you couldn't hide the sweat that quickly darkened your shirt, and lighting up of endless cigarettes helped to hide the odd shaking hands. You would look around at your companions and wonder, someday and soon, some of us would not be coming back. These briefings had a bad habit of claiming someone. Some poor sod had to die and you prayed that it was not you. It was best not to have these briefings.

I remember one such briefing, the so called 'Big Raid' in November 1956  - The planning details came to mind later on and the facts and figures came with the benefit of hindsight years later, so that one was able to dispute the well believed  accounts of the actual numbers involved. To put it mildly, the absurd ridiculous figure of 5000 or so Communist terrorists............ was it political cover-up, endgames with the Stock Exchange Market, Insurance rates via war damages- the questions lie there.

The official Malay police force figures at the end of 1956 state...

approx. 3000 policemen killed
approx. Military Forces killed 518 ...
approx. Civilians murdered in excess 3000...
other casualties in the region of 7000

Of the Communists, for the same period 48 - 56
total casualties 11,718
dead 8,678
wounded 2,820
no mention of surrendered or captured

Many wild estimates have circulated as to the real strength of the enemy. Regardless of what is classed as official, these figures dispute this. Only the Communists knew their actual strengths, field manpower and support, then add the Min Yuen, the Killer Squads and political committees. Their mode of operation was such that it ensured that it was highly trained and well motivated. Their benefactors have fought successful campaigns in China, Korea and Indo-China and sought to further that success.
 

The basic fact was they were never actually defeated. They gave up and slipped away to foment greater dissent in Vietnam, and Indonesia. A study of the Vietnam conflict shows that they finally got the tactics right. Bribes, witness protection, resettlement, massive police involvement, home guards [nearly 400,000 alone], forced repatriation of dissident Chinese. All backed up with highly trained regular troops, aircraft , navy patrols and the latest sophisticated equipment. The whole hearted support of the local people, the Federal Army, the Malayan Chinese Special Branch operatives and agents etc., etc., etc.,...   All of that for some 5,000 pyjama clad terrorists!! No wonder it became a long 'forgotten war' . Nobody would ever believe it.

But those of us who had to endure it, have to live with it each and every day. True, some had it worse than others but when you are some 30 to 40 miles deep in the jungle up to your waist in some stinking swamp with a roaring monsoon hammering around your head driving away what little sane thoughts you had left, you did wonder..... Most regiments have their own journals or museums, though sadly many regiments have since been disbanded or amalgamated, archives via newspapers/libraries in regimental areas are also excellent sources.

It must be pointed out however, regarding Malaysia today, history begins with the creation of the Federation in 1963 and everything prior to that date was the responsibility of the British Government.

It is estimated that some 250,000 British National Servicemen were posted to Malaya for a tour of duty lasting almost two years. Perhaps some 50% were involved in some sort of action and just as many again slogged remorselessly, for all of that time, through the most terrifying of jungles that exist on the surface of this planet.

All were returned to civilian life with little or no thanks, trying desperately to pick up the threads of a previous life and to re-integrate themselves back into society, one that couldn't have cared less and seemed indifferent. Many of these veterans suffered a variety of social and personal problems afterwards, characterized by insomnia, acute depression and  nightmares that remain to this very day.

The medical profession now label it 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder'  - back then, it was, ' get a grip, pull yourself together !' Someone once said ... "God will not look you over for medals, titles and diplomas, he will look for scars". The credit belongs to those guys, they are scarred for life.