9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2001 - Page 0086
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2001 |
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86 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) A Squadron - Malaya 1951 Memorable Moments in Raub Malaya 1951 In the quiet village of Raub A Sqn resided, scattered from one end to the other. The Sgts Mess was located halfway up the main street, the troopers were located at the bottom end near the Chinese laundry and SHQ was positioned in a building across from the troop location. The quietness of the village was disturbed each morning by the Squadron parade at 0500 hrs. SSM James (known affectionate- ly as Jesse) would call the Sqn to attention and Troop Sgts to call the roll, having ascertained the number of troops on parade he would then issue each Troop Sgt with the correct number of Pallidrine tablets who in turn would issue each member of their troop a tablet. The troops would await with baited breath for the SSM to order “Troops take your Pallidrine” and the right hand of each soldier would move in the direction of the mouth and then a quick flick would see the tablet disappear not into the mouth but over the left shoulder. The Squadron was then ordered to dismiss, this was carried out in a smart movement to the right and a shuffle forward to their billets, at this point the observant one would notice that many a jungle boot was loosely tied and the mode of dress was varied from soldier to soldier. When all had returned to their billets the SSM was seen to be scanning the parade ground andpicking up the discarded tablets and returning them to the bottle from whence they came. The visit of the Colonel of the Regiment proved to be an exciting event. The Squadron Leader, Major John Clark Kennedy decided to carry out a Jungle Patrol to the Sungei Sipet Tin Mines to inter- cept terrorists picking up food supplies. The patrol consisted of the Sqn Ldr, General Dick McCreery, Cpl Dinger Bell, Cpl Voss, LCpl Wingate (Pay NCO), Cpl Dugdale and Cpl Gerry Johnston. We were transported out to the edge of the jungle on a Flatbed; when we reached our destination the vehicle slowed down and believe it or not we each rolled off like they do in the movies. Having arrived in one piece we quietly assembled and proceeded to douse ourselves with anti mosquito lotion. The patrol moved forward with Cpl Voss leading followed by the Sqn Ldr, Dinger Bell, the General, Wingate, Dugdale and Johnston guarding the rear. All was going smoothly when it happened 7 Dinger who was following the shine of the brass cartridges around the Leaders waist came to an abrupt halt. The General whispered “Is there a problem” 7 “He’s gone” was the hoarse reply 7 “Gone where man” said the General. At that precise moment the quietness of the jun- gle night was disturbed by a string of expletives causing the General to enquire if he (the Leader) was alright 7 sounds like it said Dinger. We recovered the Leader from the Chinese well he had fallen into and proceeded on our way. We took up our positions outside the wire perimeter blending into the jungle surrounds like true professionals. As the hours passed slowly the stillness of the night was disturbed by a soft moaning sound coming from my left, then the figure of the Leader could be seen crawling around the troop positions, even- tually he reached me ,“Did you hear that” he said, “Yes said I it sounds like Voss is in some sort of trouble. With that he pro- ceeded towards Voss’s position, then once again the night air was reverberating to the sound of the Leader sounding off, apparent- ly Voss had applied mosquito lotion to his forehead and because of the high humidity in those conditions this caused a mixture of sweat and lotion to slowly drift into the eyes of Cpl Voss - the war against the CTs was discontinued for the time being. The occasion of the Memorial Parade for the late King took place on the Padang. It was a moving occasion which nearly turned into a disaster for the Sqn Trumpeter, Cpl Barraclough. He took up position facing the daimler armoured cars who were waiting for the Trumpeter to sound off, a signal for the Gun Salute to com- mence. The first car fired the 2 pdr and to the horror of everyone instead of the sharp explosion they expected there was a muffled explosion and a ball of flaming cordite was seen to be hurtling towards Barraclough. The true metal of the man could be clearly seen by all, he never flinched, stood his ground and continued to finish the call; he admitted afterwards that he was rooted in ter- ror to the ground praying like mad, fortunately the missile fell short and everyone breathed a sound of relief. An enquiry was launched headed by our gunnery expert Sgt Eddie Edwards. It transpired that our pay clerk a certain Cpl Wingate was intrigued by the make up of the shell and Cpl Gerry Johnston enlightened his curiosity by extracting a string of cordite and show- ing him how quickly it burned. Wingate was so fascinated by this that he spent the night burning little strings of cordite from one of the shells thus leaving a loosely packed explosive, he survived the wrath of Edwards and continued to look after the soldiers pay. Captain G Brown was the Sqn ZIC and to the consternation ofthe Ldr changed this title on a regular basis from Int Offr to 2nd Capt and the usual enquiry from the Leader was which one was in office today As Int Offr he was responsible for some of the covert ops carried out by the Sqn ably assisted by a Chines JCLO who was called Freddie the Fly****er or something similar. Our main task in Malaya was escorting food convoys to and from various loca- tions though sometimes we were called upon to assist in clearing operations backing up the Ghurkas and 5 Malay Bde. On infor- mation received from Freddie the Fly an op was mounted to ambush CTs foraging for food. 5 Troop was allocated the task and set off in the darkness to an area 5 miles south of Raub on the river of Sungei, the troop was split in two, one half commanded by the troop Sgt and the other by the troop Ldr. The moon had slid under a blanket of cloud making the going very difficult, the humidity and the constant nipping of insects soon began to have their affect on the soldiers, everyone was in a high state of tension, then out of the darkness there was a single shot fired by whom we shall never know, all hell broke loose, grenades exploded, bren and sten blended into a cacophony of sound. The moans and groans from the suspected enemy position could be clearly heard, at last the order to cease fire was given, the troops moved forward cau- tiously fully aware that the enemy were fanatics and were prepared to fight to the last. The blanket of cloud lifted at last to reveal a terrible sight, there were at least seven cows lying severely wound- ed and no sign of any CTs. The troop Ldr and the troop Sgt had visions of their career disappearing down the river, not a word was said the troops moved back to their billets silently cursing the one known as Freddie the Fly****er. Dinger who was known sometimes as Int NCO (why we shall never know) was given the task of writing a report and submitting a drawing of the incident to Bde. He proceeded to the area under escort for by this time we not only had the CTs to worry about we also had the local farming community. It was a terrible scene but with a little imagination and a touch of Irish blarney a suitable story complete with artistic drawing led all to believe that it indeed was an unfortunate accident. The Singapore Standard had a field day (info probably from a mole within Bde) and a cartoon was published showing cows emerging from the jungle carrying the Union flag declaring “Don’t shoot we are on your side” fortunately they never men- tioned the 12th Lancers or Lt R Arkwright or Sgt Tiny Satchel (oops). |
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