During The non-exercise period, about 80% of the Squadron took part in Exercise "Kangaroo Hop" near Kuantan, on the east coast of Malaya. Briefly the exercise consisted of an airlift of the Australian Battalion, complete with it’s Signal Troop from Singapore to Kuantan, in order to carry out anti terrorist campaigns in the area. This is the first time we have had the opportunity to see the new Argosy in action, and those of us who were fortunate enough to get a ride, were most impressed.

Both Cpl. Wolfenden and L/Cpl Row are to be congratulated on their efforts at foot-slogging through the jungle with the Battalion carrying close on a 100lbs equipment on their backs. The raised eyebrows of the Infanteers were soon lowered in recognition of their fitness and endurance.

In the middle of December, Captain Costello and his driver, L/Cpl Gordon did a 1,000 mile reconnaissance of the east coast of Malaya, from Kota Bahru to Singapore in preparation for a jungle orientation-cum-communications exercise to take place in the jungle.

Oddly enough when the exercise did take place in January, it was found that Captain Costello had selected his camp area on top of a very large "holiday camp" for scorpions. Several men got bitten, Cpl. Judd quite badly; he spent half the exercise in Mersing Hospital with an extremely painful memory.

Being the proud holders of the Brigade Minor Units Cross-country cup we set out on the 17^th January to defend our title for a further year. Lt. Elder, the team coach, had trained the team over the past few months to the peak of fitness and the team captain, Sig. Mills, held high hopes of victory. Sure enough the hard work paid off and we were completely unchallenged in the final result. Sig. Smith deserves a special word of praise for coming in 5^th out of 70 in the individual placings.

During 1963 we were unchallenged for supremacy for water polo by any major unit. Unfortunately during the latter end we lost several key players and the team that met the highly trained Brigade HQ in the final of the Brigade competition was a little below its best. Nevertheless the boys played their hearts out and we were narrowly defeated by a superior team.

We do not list all arrivals and departures but certain are worthy of notes. Captain Sprackling our correspondent leaves us in February as an administrative officer who has spent more time on exercise than he has administering! RQMS Talbot left us in January for a change of employment in UK – he was SQMS, SSM, and RQMS in the Squadron and so knows it backwards. Good luck to both of them and their families in the future. Welcome too to their reliefs, Lt. FR Maynard and RQMS Emery.

Things are happening now at a very past pace out here in Malaya as Lt. FR Maynard our newly joined OC "J" Troop has found out. All Lt. Maynard wants to do now is to get hold of the people in Catterick who told him we only work mornings.

We have now said goodbye to Captain Sprackling who has gone to the School of Signals and we will greatly miss his humour. We will have a last paragraph on officers by saying that we had a most enjoyable visit from the Australian Director of Signals, Colonel RP Wollard from the 18^th – 20^th February; he was able to visit us on exercise. Finally the CSO FARELF Brigadier ECR Blaker honoured us with a vist on the 24^th March when he saw us starting working up exercises on our newly radio relay equipment which includes the new 1+4 No. 3.

On the exercise side we are now very much in full swing. During the past six weeks we have been twice over to the east coast to practice lifting an infantry battalion into a jungle area. We managed to get a little bit of swimming to make the exercise quite enjoyable.

During one of our exercises we were called upon to carry our trials to see if we could carry radio sets on ponies. This proved quite an interesting interlude, especially as one of the ponies bolted with a C11 on its back. Captain Costello was a very worried man until that pony was caught. Some of "J" troop linemen were also converted temporarily to pony handlers to see if an inexperienced man could handle the ponies.

Another point of interest is that our new D11 radio sets have arrived- now no one argues as to who is on the wrong frequency!

Finally you may have heard that the Australian soldier is much bigger and better than the British soldier (they never tire of telling us this). To disprove the myth we show you a photo of our Radio Troop Sgt, Sgt. M. Hardy of Royal Australian Signals. A cunning ploy as this photograph may also assist Scotland Yard to solve some of the unsolved crimes when Sgt. Hardy was over in England on holiday.

Exercise "Air Boon Choo"

208 Squadron once again make the trip (some by slow boat) to Bangkok and have their usual quota of adventures – mostly light hearted.

On March 24^th 1964, the 208 (Comel) Signal Squadron advance party left Terendak Camp, en route for Thailand and Exercise "Air Boon Choo".

This was the title given to this year’s joint tactical SEATO exercise, held annually in Thailand. It’s aim is to practice the member countries of this alliance in working together against a common enemy. A truly joint affair with representatives from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and the USA. The main British Army element was represented by 28^th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade Group, with the ASSU from 249 Squadron (FARELF)attached to 208 Comwel) Squadron for the exercise.

This is one of the few opportunities the Brigade has of exercising together outside Malaysia and the most is made of it. This year’s exercise was more of a communication exercise, with the emphasis on the request of close air support by the battalions, who were represented by the Forward Air Control with their radio sets.

A great deal of preparation went on within the squadron and a great deal of attention was paid to our recently acquired D11’s and radio relay equipment. With the surprise of the end-of –the-exercise parade, held last year, in mind, all vehicles and trailers were given a fresh coat of paint. If chaos and confusion did not exist, then it gave a pretty good imitation of it. Hardened campaigners, with pursed lips and shaking heads, were heard to mutter: "If the Squadron had wings it would fly!" which was the general idea –RAF help, of course.

It was with a slight feeling of relief that the advance party, mentioned earlier, extricated itself and departed. We reached Singapore (everyone reaches Singapore-it’s getting out that’s difficult) without too much trouble, and after a nights rest(?!) began loading the LST that was to take us to Thailand. Again, like last year, it seemed a little strange at first that an airportable Brigade should have to travel by sea. But, as we found out later, going by air and going by sea amount to much the same thing in the end.

On the night of the 26^th, we were all, more or less, on board, and at 0.600hrs next morning we sailed for Bangkok.

The Army does this sort of thing a little differently from say, the Cunard Line. A vision of soft moonlight night; the waves gently lapping against the side of the ship; a quiet stroll around the promenade deck and cocktails in the ship’s lounge before dinner at the Captain’s table, could be given here, but in an inherent state of integrity in the writer forbids it. For the first couple of days it was all most of us could do to keep on board. Others weren’t terribly interested whether they stayed on board or not – death was upon them anyway. The LST had a flat bottom, and so did we all after a short time. This does not make for a calm voyage (the ships bottom not ours) and it was only on the last day and a half that we could look a fried egg in the eye again.

During the voyage, a successful attempt was made to communicate with the unit back at Terendak Camp. This was done with a C11 and a rather tricky dipole strung between crane, light boat and funnel.

Bangkok was reached on the 30^th and as soon as the ship berthed, she was promptly invaded by a swarm of Thai girls intent on relieving the crew of certain goods and us of our vehicles.. The piquet, reluctantly threw them overboard. Bangkok was given a close inspection which ended in a lot of sore heads and empty pockets, and, for one L/Cpl Lucas a midnight swim.

The party then went to Don Muang Airport to load everything on to a Beverley and to take it all off again, when it was found to be unserviceable. We became quite good at it after awhile. Eventually the work was completed and the aircraft in defiance of the laws of nature took off for Ubon, which was to be our exercise location. We were not the first in, having been beaten to the post by a detachment of the American Signal Company, 999, who were to work very closely with throughout the exercise. We decided to establish cordial relations from the beginning and offered them a cup of tea. A few brave ones accepted the challenge, and no mention was made of the last time the British gave the Americans tea, at a place called Boston.

The writer learned that the OC of the US detachment was not with them having been held up in Bangkok, and bitterly expressed the thought that there was a lot we could learn from the Americans. The next few days were lost in a whirl of activity, setting up camp, establishing communications, conferences with other "Prontos" ("say, Bud, what are you guys doing here?" – "well actually chaps we’re….."). At last all the nets were open, the camp was finished and everything was ready for the main body to come in and take all the credit.

During this time we got to know the town of Ubon and learn a little about Thailand and the Thais.Also, occasional visits were made to the local "hot-spots", although we later gathered from our experts in these matters, the OC, Major AM Hewson, that they weren’t as "hot" as last year. From what we heard about last year, we were quite happy to take his word for it. The Thais are friendly people, always smiling and nodding, whether they understood or not. This got a little exasperating after a while, but their generosity and charm soon won us over.

Lt. RG Elder, Royal Australian Signals, brought the next party, and we were very pleased to see them- they had the mail. With their arrival we were soon in top gear, and it was merely a question of waiting for the exercise to start.

We Make Pals with the Yanks

By this time the OC of the 999^th Signal Company Detachment had arrived, Lt. T. Furhovden and he was gently persuaded to tear his thoughts away from Bangkok and start thinking about "Air Boon Choo" instead. Not an easy task, this. Under his able guidance, the Detachment performed a very valuable service, and we were proud to have them working alongside us. A friendly rivalry grew up between us, and all ranks got on well together. The only snag was that with all the souvenir hunting going on it became difficult to see who belonged to whom. To an impartial observer. It looked as though an explosion had taken place in the laundry. This view was confirmed when one’s personal "dhobi" came back . Either that or the laundryman collected buttons.

The main body was expected to arrive on the 21^st April but there was still no sign of them on the 22^nd. Later that afternoon we received a message telling us that they had been delayed in Bangkok. This didn’t surprise in the slightest. We had long since learned that few aircraft managed the tricky operation of flying past Bangkok. "Engine trouble" became a frequent cry. We had never heard it called that before.

 A Successful Exercise and back we go

The exercise forged ahead successfully, bringing with it it’s own peculiar problems. The Signal Centre was a little dismayed to answer five flash messages in one day, and the D11 came up on the Ground Control Approach frequency. No doubt with the idea that since we did just about everything else, we may as well land the aircraft also.

The D11 link with Singapore performed very well after it had settled down, and one historic day we had 21 hours of FSK.

Our man in the Task Force HQ at this time was Captain DI Godden Royal Australian Signals. He had some pretty heart rending tales to tell of the amount of work he had to do. Our sympathies went out to him as he flew around the countryside in light aircraft. We were not quite sure what it was that he was doing but we are assured that it was terribly important.

Arrivals and Departures and Some Sport

The are no exciting exercise exploits to relate, since we are at present in out individual training period. The Squadron is in fact looking a little deserted since we have exported most of it to various training centres on up-grading courses. The remaining few however are doing sterling work although there does seem to be a greater proportion of chiefs to Indians – as the Indians have quickly discovered! Having two Officers Commanding tends to confuse the issue slightly.

This month we say goodbye to Major AM Hewson, Royal Signals, who goes to 18 Regiment as Second-in-Command. Major Hewson has done so much for the Squadron that his influence will be apparent for many years to come. His experience in field units has been invaluable and we shall miss his very intimate knowledge of the working of the Brigade Signal Squadron. His wife, Kay, has been the main force behind our very flourishing Wives Club and her work on behalf of the squadron will be missed. We wish them both every happiness for the future.

Taking over is Major DJ Commerford, Royal Australian Signals. We welcome him and his wife Yvonne and wish them a happy and successful tour in the Brigade.

September was another month of sporting successes. This time it was the Brigade Minor Units Swimming and Water Polo. Because of operations in South Malaya, some units had to withdraw, but the chief contenders for the Minor Units Swimming Trophy managed to keep their stars away from the Indonesians. Only at one stage, when 3 Company RASC went into the lead, was there any doubt. Gradually the Squadron’s lead increased, until, in the end, we were 60 points ahead to our nearest rivals, 11^th Independent Field Squadron, RE.

The water polo was not quite so easy; a 13-1 victory over 11^th Field Squadron, RE in the semi-finals, the team met HQ Company in the finals, and in a very exciting game, just beat them 4 goals to 3.

The arrival, from Australia of our new Admin Officer, Lt. DJ Slade, brings the hierarchy up to strength. This gives the lead to Australia for the next two years by three Australian to two British officers.

They say that winter is with us, although the temperature is still in the 80’s and unlikely to change. This means that we shall soon be starting the round of religious festivals (with the usual holidays) that makes life in a multi racial such a "scive" – I mean hive - of activity.