Page 62 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
damp earth swaying towards the irresistible lure of the soldiers’ soggy damp flesh.”
Russell Miller links all back to the extremes of the weather: “Heavy monsoon rains during the rainy season, soft rain blobs that turn instantly into a deluge and end like a turned off tap leaving men and jungle dripping and steaming.3 It was possible to drink water from the sky, a feature so predictable that you could almost set your watch to its arrival.” In these unique and challenging conditions, it was vital that the handlers and dogs kept hydrated at all times. Un-acclimatised individuals started to sweat even before they took on board all the necessary equipment, weapons, ancillaries and of course their dog’s water and food.
Darkness fell rapidly in the evening leaving the ill-equipped, unprepared soldier in the company of creepy-crawlies and a species of crickets that created a noise similar to high-pitched buzz saws. The tropical rainforest was seemingly sleepless. It was a long waiting game with many an hour spent in a static sentry post, or an ‘ambush’ watching the black shapes in the darkness, waiting for an ‘enemy’ of some description.
The tropical heat and then, under the canopy, the relentless humidity saps every drop of human strength – the combination of these forces creating a deadly duo. Only fitness, stamina, self-disci- pline, and fortitude had the ability to fend off this invisible enemy. The need for the soldier to look after their body, the need to sleep in dry clothing and the discipline to put on wet clothing first thing in preparation for another day in the ulu4 – all critical for survival.
It was Major Marsh Revell RAVC, a seasoned jungle soldier who had served in Malaysia, who informed me of the perils of the jungle prior to my attendance on the seven-week Jungle Warfare Instructors Course. Major Marsh Revell personified the reality that those who succeeded in the inhospitable environment are endowed with an enviable military discipline.
The only way a soldier can train to live and operate in the jungle is to be exposed to that environment to learn. The British Army Jungle Warfare School (JWS) – part of HQ 26 Gurkha Infantry Bde – was located to the North of Singapore in the Malaysia peninsula at Johore Bahru, in the state of Johore. The School, which had access to vast training areas, was formed in 1948 but its roots went back to the 1942 – 1943 Burma campaign. The JWS trained both individual soldiers and the instructors to
3 ‘Confrontation’ by Russell Miller.
4 Slang term used by soldiers meaning the jungle. Can also mean a district.
train others. Normally, battalions from the UK and other Forces from Australia and New Zealand, dispatched ‘instructors’ to the School to receive training – the qualified instructors completing the cascade by training their own men.
RAVC personnel were very much part of this process, not only training handlers but also instructing on the use of dogs for counter insurgency operations in the jungle. This involved both visual tracking and Tracker dog handlers’ courses which became very much part of the Corps’ every day role in Johore.
A History of Confrontation:
The Malayan Emergency lasted over ten years and the Borneo Confrontation went on for almost four. Fortunately, both these counter insurgency campaigns were won with very few lives lost. The Malayan Emergency was an internal insurrection by the Communists, the vast majority of Chinese origin, but residents of Malaya. They wished to overthrow the British Colonial Government. The Communist aim diminished when the British Government offered independence to Malaya.
The expertise gained in this conflict had a far reaching effect, the lessons learned in Malaya were not forgotten and provided a foundation for the victory in the next confrontation, which was to protect the Borneo Territories, offered a far more dangerous threat from the Indonesians.
The Indonesian confrontation began on 8th December 1962 – although significant national interests were not threatened until 17th August 1964 when Indonesian Marines attacked Malaysia – an act that that signalled an active external threat to British regional importance. It meant that critical national interests were at stake, but a costly conventional war was not in British interests. The UK lacked the finances and the manpower; however, it could not forget its commitment to a treaty to protect the Sultanate.
In 1961 the Prime Minister of Malaya proposed that Malaya, Singapore and the British colonies of Borneo should form a federation called Malaysia. At first, Indonesia was fully supportive of the plan as they believed it would help remove the British influence in Borneo, which would make it easier to carry out their wider plan of owning the whole of Borneo. However, in 1962, the Indonesian government attempted to stop the creation of Malaysia by helping rebels in Brunei stage a revolt, which resulted in the four-year conflict between
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