Page 67 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
encountered took 30 minutes to cross, eventually, the team would find themselves miles behind the enemy.
The precise nature of the actions involved in the tracking process emphasised the importance of the two Visual Trackers in the team.
This role was filled by locals from either the Malaysian Rangers or Police Field Force whose job it was to locate, track and indicate time, details and the strength of the enemy. On ‘re-casting’ they usually picked up the track again with no time wasted. Training for the Visual Trackers also included a version of ‘Kim’s Game’ – where a number of articles were dropped along a track that had been laid in secondary jungle. Each member then listed the articles he picked up – a way of demonstrating his powers of observation. In practice, while moving after the enemy, articles were discarded, and it was imperative that these were located by the ‘follow-up’ party.
At the end of the training a tracking operation was staged to cover every aspect of the course. Not only did it showcase the high quality of the instruction provided, but it also inspired each team member and developed each individual’s confidence in their fellow cohorts. Once ready the Unit members were then ready to prove their worth to their respective battalions.
And the Dogs...
During 1964, the Unit took charge of, and were very grateful for, five Alsatians from the Australian Police. They were only twelve months old but were, by all accounts, large, well-proportioned dogs with plenty of promise. The four who performed well under Sgt George Yeandle’s care were classed as – ‘exceptionally good’ (so they must have been exactly that), and very quickly the JWS Combat Survival course allowed these dogs, and the men of the Unit, a chance to venture into the jungle. It was SSgt Tony Rossell who had a series of captures but it was said that: “... as they were not big enough, he threw them back into the Ulu.” The de-brief included a reference to the fact that a “...poor pale person was deprived, by a dog handler, of his meagre survival ration.”
As said earlier in the chapter, the Operational Dog Section was formed in 1963 with Sgt Tony Rossell, three RAVC JNCOs and nineteen Other Ranks (ORs), mainly from the Royal Marines, to help operations in Sarawak. As always with a new dog section the kennels are a priority and
12 The Journal of The Royal Army Veterinary Corps 34 No 1 Autumn 1963.
13 The Journal of The Royal Army Veterinary Corps 35 No 1 Spring 1964.
14 The Journal of The Royal Army Veterinary Corps Volume 35 No 2 Autumn 1964.
in this campaign the canine accommodation was essentially a wire cage 5 x 3 feet (152cm x 93cm), made of Dexicon with a wooden floor. They were specifically designed for air portability because, in the jungle, re-location demanded that dog and kennel were under-slung below a helicopter.
And the soldiers’ accommodation? Five men in 18 x 12 feet (5.4m x 3.6m) room was pretty cramped despite the minimal furnishings comprising a camp bed and two ‘egg boxes’ per man. The ‘neighbours’ – the Post Office, a barber’s shop and the Chinese laundry – were close by but so were hundreds of unwanted visitors – the rats which lived in the ‘Ulu’ bordering the camp.12
By the spring of 1964 the Operational Dog Section Borneo proudly reported that the Guard dogs were working to the maximum that could be expected of them and, with a new commitment added, the handlers were lucky if they spent two nights a week in their own beds. The big call on the Unit was the Tracker dogs and reinforcements were requested. The Corps' Journal at that time recorded:
... with the amount of guerrilla movement over the border these days we could keep ten Trackers fully occupied. The Infantry Patrol with the Royal Marines are all employed on the border and spend many nights in the role of ambush dogs. One big problem here in Borneo is tick fever and it may be of interest to ex-Malayites to note the havoc caused by tick fever in these territories, and you see very few ticks. And yet in Malaya, which is only a stone’s throw away, you see hordes of ticks and no tick fever. They must be Indonesian ticks carrying out guerrilla germ warfare against our canines or could it be confrontation?13
The situation was still as hectic by the autumn when the Section enjoyed being held in high regard by the Operational Brigades in Borneo Territories.14 Its development from the embryonic RAVC Unit with eight dogs had been slow due to a shortage of operational dogs of the required ability, as explained in the Corp’s Journal:
In many ways this slow development has been an excellent thing as we have been able to digest the operational handling techniques gradually. At the beginning, operating patrols called for an RAVC handler and a dog. This mode of use was successful, but there was a certain lack of patrol cohesion.
We then processed the notion of using a ‘tracking blister’ of a dog, a handler and two Ibans. This was tried and worked with success, but still the patrol could not be considered properly amalgamated. The policy
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