Page 141 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
four main units in which Chinese soldiers served, were the Hong Kong Defence Corps, the Royal Engineers, the Hong Kong and Singapore Coast Artillery Regiment and the Hong Kong Chinese Regiment. In the battle for Hong Kong, they acquitted themselves well to the point of being ordered by the British to shed their uniforms and disperse. Many of them made their way to the Chinese interior and joined the British Army Aid Group. They later formed the Hong Kong Volunteer Company and saw service in Burma.
In November 1945 the Hong Kong Pioneer Company was organised and this later became the Hong Kong Chinese cadre company responsible for guarding important buildings. In January 1948 it was decided to use locally enlisted soldiers to fill manpower shortages in various Corps in the Colony’s garrison. And so, the Hong Kong Chinese Training Unit was formed. The later title of HKMSC was adopted in 1962.4
Riots were not the Unit’s only challenge in 1967. In the summer there was a reduction in estab- lishments – one RAVC Corporal and thirty-five dogs to be exact. All dogs being double-handled. However, the advantages delivered by the new kennels at Sek Kong were not over-ridden by the riots that took place in May that year. The bombing and shooting incidents across the border, and the murder of one or two local policemen proved challenging but it was the shooting incidents at Sha Tau Kok that put 29 Pack Tpt Sqn on the map for a while and highlighted the skills that the Sqn could provide. This kept personnel employed in the border area where they had to carry a variety of loads, the worst by far being coils of barbed wire.
In November 1967 the Unit reported that: “...all the pack mules at 29 Pack Tpt Sqn were inspected, and we had pushed for mules from Pakistan, but at the time of going to press we are still awaiting the outcome of this, and so we are nursing along all our old mules, of which ‘Lu Lu’, No 79, is the oldest at twenty-nine years, but still not retired.”
The summer of 1968 was a time the Unit had very little to report, other than a sense of relief: “not a decent riot yet!” It may have all been quiet in the Kowloon ‘jungle’ apart from the occasional orderly demonstration by sacked Maoist strikers seeking reinstatement in their former jobs, but everyone was aware that trouble was always lingering just over the hill. As life in the backwater of Lo Wu continued much as usual, the previous
year’s hectic border troubles made the days appear relatively quiet. Pure economics prevented the replacement of animals and so the older mules were nursed in case they were needed again the following summer. But it wasn’t only the mule strength that needed preserving. In the spring of 1969, it was reported that: “...fate struck us hard just before the Dashera celebrations for all the goats that had been assiduously collected as unmarked specimens went down with Foot and Mouth disease. We all had to rush around and find seventy replacements and we consider it also a success that we lost none of the goats that had suffered the disease – isolation and good adminis- tration did the trick.”
At the same time, 414 Pack Troop reeled from another icy wind that blew in from Whitehall and made a decisive cut to the Unit’s establishment. It was with great sadness that the following words were read: “The squadron exists no more. We are a troop. Many muleteers have been made redundant as well as several BORs, including RAVC personnel...” It was with great sadness that the soldiers said goodbye to their mules and for some of the men there was only one consolation – that they knew something of carcass dressing and cutting. They had already made the difficult decision to donate the flesh to be used by the Hong Kong Dog Coy.
The summer of 1969 was one of the hottest in forty years and in the Colony eight dogs were undergoing training to work alongside the riot squads assisting with crowd dispersal. The heat was responsible for the loss of two recently arrived dogs and that hit the men hard. It was a tough summer in many respects but an article for Soldier Magazine, brought some much needed distraction. In Hoof and Cushion the success of the mules was matched to the success of the hovercraft – bringing the Army’s oldest and most recent modes of transport into focus. The importance of the mule and the hovercraft was explored in relation to Exercise TRIDENT STAR which involved all three Services and was held over five days in Hong Kong. It was the biggest Exercise in the Colony for many years and a good test of Britain’s amphibious warfare techniques.
TRIDENT STAR required that two battalions were landed by night on separate beaches on Lantau, the largest and most mountainous island in the Hong Kong group, and the troops then linked-up to seek out terrorists.
The First Battalion the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment spent thirty-six hours aboard HMS
4 Soldier Magazine ‘HKMSC’ dated September 1973.
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