My wild Boar Story

More stories about the bandits in the jungle etc

The last story, ref army discipline, reminded me of an incident that happened to me while doing sentry duty on the same perimeter fence path, but this location was just a few yards away from the edge of the jungle, again it was in the early hours of the morning and still quite dark.
Myself and another pal were patrolling along the wire by the edge of the jungle, when suddenly we heard the sound of a rifle bolt being operated, we both dropped to the ground, loaded our rifles and expected to be fired on any second, then another click, followed by several more at intervals I was just about thinking we have had it, when out of the jungle strolled a huge wild boar it was picking up and cracking rubber nuts like our conkers, that had fallen from the trees. I was glad to go back on jungle patrol, at least we had more fire power with nine or ten men.

Jungle patrol incidents

To explain this title,I have to describe the conditions that led. to these events.
To start with , Malaya is only approx 100 miles from the equator, which means there is only about
15 minutes between night and day, and no summer and winter seasons only monsoon periods.
When out on jungle patrols for six days at a time , life was ruled by the daylight hours, which ment patroling all day and sleeping all night, as it was to dark to do anything, especially firing machine guns and rifles.

It had been noticed from our base camp,the glint of sunlight on field glasses from the hills overlooking our base camp,which indicated that our base camp was under surveillance by the bandits.
The object of our next patrol was to try and locate these bandit positions. Our patrol was arranged to go into the jungle after dark, to avoid being observed by the bandits.

It was led by an Iban tracker following one of the
many wild boar pig trails that criscrossed the area.
Each man had to hold on to a piece of equipment of the man in front to avoid being seperated in the dark. When safely in the jungle we just lay down on the ground and went to sleep untill dawn.

The next day we climbed up into the foot hills above our base camp looking for signs of observation places, eventually we came across several places that showed signs of being used by the bandits, but as they were constantly on the move we never made contact with them.

As it was then approaching evening time our offier started looking for a suitable place to bed down for the night. we followed a pig trail up the side of a very steep hill which had a flat area of ground at the top. It was a perfect place to observe the whole valley below, including our base camp. As it was going dark we could see lines of blueish white lights moving in columns along various pig trails, (To explain the lights) they were torches packed with fireflies, as batteries were unobtainable.

The normal practice of our patrols was to have Stand To, which was, every one standing facing the jungle on all sides, untill the twilight zone had passed, both morning and night, as this was a favorite time for the bandits to attack.
The officer after seeing the columns of lights decided to take extra precautions in case of attack in the night.

As the officer had the only army pocket watch, which had a luminous dial, he instructed the patrol on the procedure to follow, which was for everyone to sleep on the ground, shoulder to shoulder in a straight line. The end lad was given the watch then after one hour, wake the next lad, pass over the watch, to do his turn, this was to follow all down the line untill dawn

It was sometime in the middle of the night when I was awakened by a mate,who passed over the watch and said it is your turn to do an hour, then he went back to sleep. I sat up with my 68 set as a back rest, drew my knees up to support my hands and the pocket watch, and settled down to watch the time go by.
It was so dark I could not see my hands or the watch, only the luminous dots floating in mid air. I was staring so much I must have fallen asleep, untill I awakened with a start, to find not only that I had done my turn but my mates as well.

I thought how can I explain the missing hour ?.
Then it came to me what to do, I gave my mate a nudge in the ribs, and said I could not sleep so I have done your turn, just pass the watch on.
He said good on yer mate, and went back to sleep.
I went to sleep thinking I was to be Court Marshalled, and shot at dawn!.
But all went well, and I thought Alls Fair in Love and War.

In the morning we went to retrace our steps back to our base camp, only to find that a massive landslide had occured on the path we had climbed on the evening before, and we had to find another way back.
I have always been interested to know what caused the landslide, as it was virgin ground and untouched for maybe thousands of years, untill our patrol climbed up to the plateau above.

Question ? Did our patrol cause the landslide,or the bandits after seeing us climb up to the plateau above, think it would be good place to attack us ?.
The combined weight and movement of a large body of men, plus the recent monsoon heavy rain could have done the trick.

My Army Adventures By Andrew Milward.

My involvement with the army started when I was 21 years old after being defered from call up to allow me to finish my time as a bricklayer.
At the enlistment building I was asked what section I would like to be in, I replied the Royal
Engineers to do bridge building etc. they said OK we will fix it.
The next thing that happened was that I was at Whitting Barracks Lichfield, doing infantry traing with the North Staffs Reg, bound for the Italian city and sea port of Trieste.
I thought great, I could just do with a holiday in Italy. The next thing that happened was the order to change your cap badges as you are now in the Worcesters, and bound for Malaya.
We were then subjected to endless lectures on all the dangers of jungle warfare, and if the bandits failed to get you, the multitude of insects and creepy crawlies most certainly will. I can never understand army logic as when I came home from Malaya, I had to report for army emergency reserve, again they asked me what I would like to do, I replied that as I was trained as an infantry man, I would like to join the North Staffs Regiment, OK, they said we will fix it. The next thing I knew I was in the bomb disposal unit learning how to defuse bombs, for the next four years ?.