208 (COMWEL) SQUADRON (INFANTRY BRIGADE GROUP)
EXTRACTS FROM THE WIRE – DECEMBER 1960 UNTIL JANUARY 1961

208 (Comwel) Squadron in Taiping

DECEMBER 1960

We Welcome Major B.P. James Royal Australian Signals, as our new Sqadron Commander, and wish good luck to Major F.A. Wainwright in his next appointment.

In the Brigade Rifle Meeting the Squadron won the minor units trophy, the minor units SLR team championship, the SLR individual championship, and the minor units LMG championship. We also won the SMC team competition in the Signals (Malaya) Rifle Meeting. 

FEBRUARY 1961

We can hardly think of a worse time for a new O.C. to arrive at this Unit in Malaya than the beginning of the monsoon season. Major B.P. James came with the rains, but he assured us that he picked them up on the way and that they did not originate in Australia. From the English newspaper reports it looks as if the previous O.C. has jumped the proverbial frying pan in to the fire.

Exercises come and go, as do O.C.’s and Brigade Commanders. Brigadier Mogg’s last exercise with us was "Eleven Plus" in the Cameron Highlands. The following week he bade his farewell to the Squadron at the Administrative Inspection parade. We believe he almost started a mutiny by wearing his Australian slouch hat, bearing the three Jimmies of the Commonwealth Brigade, on a visit to the 2nd Battalion of the New Zealand Regiment.

Many Wire readers will not be familiar with the term "Aust Rules". This is not a version of the Queen’s Regulations for Australians only, but a game of football (for Australians only). The difficulty with the game is that opponents are few and far between, particularly outside Australia. The Squadron has provided a few players for the Brigade which has found opponents at the RAAF Station at Butterworth.

Farewells and welcomes are a regular occurrence in most Squadrons and ours is no exception. Lt. Bygrave arrived from Singapore just in time to say farewell to Captain Mostyn, who has now returned to Australia. Staff Sgt Banham arrived to send Staff Sgt Gilmore on his way to Hong Kong. Staff Gilmore will be missed not only for his hickey skills, but by the Taiping Amateur Football Association, who voted him the fairest soccer referee of the year.

The Squadron now runs a "ham" radio club for members of the Brigade. 9M2FP has been on the air for a bout a fortnight at the time of going to press. So far satisfactory reports of strength and readability have been received from most of Malaya, but contacts "outside" are eagerly awaited. Technical and equipment assistance from Captain R. Chambler, of the Royal New Zealand Signals, who is attached to the New Zealand battalion, were gratefully received when the Club was born.

The members of the Commonwealth Squadron extend their best wishes to all members of the three Corps for the New Year.

APRIL 1961

With Christmas and the New Year behind us, we now face more festivities with the approach of the Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is as much of a festival in Malaya as Hogmany is in Scotland and , although firecrackers are still banned in the Federation for security reasons, everyone, including Commonwealth Forces, is infected with the festive spirit. We wish all members of the Corps, "Kang Hee Fatt Choy".

The Brigade Amateur Radio Club, run by the Squadron, is now on the air. Contact outside Malaya was initially established in January. Using borrowed equipment, a very successful evening was spent contacting "Hams" in Australia and New Zealand as well as India and Americans in Japan. Any other Royal Signals "Hams"? 9M2FP will only be too glad to make QSL’s with you.

During January the Brigade held its Cross Country Meeting here in Taiping. In the cool of the evening 120 runners (including eleven from our squadron) started off on what turned out to be four gruelling miles across the Malayan terrain.

After about half an hour of expectant waiting, the first runners started crossing the finishing line. We consider that on the whole our entrants came in quite well with the placings and gave the squadron a win for the Minor Unit Championship.

Recently we held a Squadron Swimming Gala in the local fresh water pool fed by streams from the jungle. This swimming pool is reputed to be the coldest part of Malaya as the waster comes straight from the mountains. An enjoyable time was had by all and the prizes were presented to the winners by Mrs. James, wife of the Officer Commanding.

To finish off the afternoon, the Squadron team challenged the 28 Brigade provost Unit and we are proud to add that we won by nine points to six.

Squadron sporting activities will be taking a new look in the next few weeks. Summer, although there is no weather change, starts at the end of February, and flannels and tennis shoes replace hockey sticks and rugger boots. The Squadron hockey team are sorry that the season has finished, if only because they will miss their games (of hockey) against the local ladies’ teams. From all accounts the ladies are starting a soccer team, so perhaps the Squadron might continue it’s sporting liaison.

We would also like to mention the marriage between Corporal C. Byrne, Royal Australian Signals and Miss Marion McNeil (ex UK) in Melbourne on the 24th December 1960. To them we convey our best wishes.

Like most other units we have had our share (although small this time) of arrivals and departures. Staff Sgt Talbott has just arrived and we hope, settled down to take the place of "Q" Rigby who leaves us for a Unit in the BAOR. To them we wish the very best of everything. Others returning to the UK on completion of their tour include Cpl. Kinsella and Cpl. Hunt.

JUNE 1961

Members of the Unit have just returned from a rather tedious exercise on the West Coast of Malaya where for four whole days they laboured on the football and sports fields despite the elephant size mosquitoes and ugly sea snakes.

There were, quite naturally, the "skivers" who managed to get out of roughing it. They included the erstwhile intellects attending an education course and that minority who are, in general, too lazy to bother with such "inconveniences". Never the less, and regardless of the foretold, most people actually enjoyed themselves. (Cheers to the aerosol bombs and mosquito nets).

Many rumours have spread through the unit about reducing the tour of duty out here. Naturally, like most other things that seem to benefit the whole theatre, we shall be told last with a "Oh did you not know about this?" and "My dear fellow, we have been on a two and a half year tour for the past two or three months now. I thought you knew all about it". You know this makes one wonder what happened in Wellington’s time?

We have all read and heard about the new uniform and whilst a large number of men are, no doubt, anxious "to show it off", I know there are at least three people who will be very pleased when it is all over. Referring to the most important (some people say) department in the unit, our "Q" Staff have been running around the lines for some while now catching men as they go to lunch, NAAFI break or any other places one has to go, in order to get hat sizes etc. One individual it is said, who should remain nameless, asked whether he wanted to know the size of his hat before or after he had been promoted. How a person can be like that is a question I would like answered, any offers?

The summer sports season has caught up with us again. We had another trial cricket match last week (a devastating result which would probably be censored) against the Infantry Workshops. However, we feel that after some practice, our results will be publishable, win or lose. Training has also begun for athletics with PT in the morning before the sun gets organised. Our progress and results (if any) will be published in a later edition. Turning now to the welfare problems of the Squadron, we would like to extend our congratulations to Signalman S. Halse and Lance Cpl Bluey McPhee who both took the big plunge and came up smiling. We wish them and their wives a happy and prosperous married life.

AUGUST 1961

Former members of the Squadron, here’s what we have been up to for the past few weeks. We’ve been training the shooting team, and playing lots of games. Our hockey team has played 6, won 2, lost 1 and drawn 3. Our soccer team has played 8, won 2 and lost 6. We have also played a few games of cricket, and were the only minor unit to enter for the Brigade tennis. We have had to gracefully withdraw from thr athletics as we also work sometimes.

The Squadron has said farewell to such Australian stalwarts as Sigs. Daly, McGowan, Halse, L/Cpl Baich, who left us recemtly to join 1 Infantry Division Regiment, Down Under, and we wish them all the best of luck. L/Cpl Wlliamson has returned to the UK along with Sig. Wombwell and L/Cpl Chappels. Good luck to you also. We welcome Sig. Cranston from Australia, Captain Ashton from Singapore, ad 11 landrovers from Ark.

And as the sun sinks rather quickly in the West, we say farewell from this tropical paradise of North Malaysia

NOVEMBER 1961.

The months of June and July proved to be uneventful and rather dull. Apart from three minor and one major exercise (the latter being "Trinity Angel", which is mentioned again below), the Annual Administrative Inspection (which lasted a week and there is still more to come) and the office staff one man short (Sig. Swanson, who has just completed a First Aid Instructor’s course, then went straight on a three week "pleasure" seeking to Hong Kong), the powers-that-be have left us alone.

A rousing farewell was given by the Officers and Senior NCO’s to Captain PD Evans on the 1st July. It was certainly an afternoon to remember, because, according to reports of his actual departure by train the following morning, he insisted on the carriages being fitted with Land Rover tyres (tyre pressure 21). We trust that he will arrive in 10th Regiment. The last signal received by that writer, prior to embarkation in Singapore, hinted that he was worried whether he would find accommodation in BAOR for his eight children.

Having read with interest the account of 249 Squadron’s adventure in Thailand, we wonder whether the exercise proved to be a giggling success due to the weekly pay being distributed in Ticals. The forunate members of this Squadron who went up there, say they never laughed so much in their lives. Apparently the exercise was a howling success.

We just mention a snatch of conversation heard in camp recently. Apparently a sarcastic Pommy was struggling across the square with a large battery. He was met half way by a jovial type digger proceeding in the opposite direction. The Digger Asked : "Say, Blue, what the hell ya carrying that thing for?" Back came the reply, in what one might call "Oxford English": "Well, old chap, you feel such a damned fool if someone asks you for one and you haven’t got one, don’t you?"

And so with Elvis Presley singing "Bunde Special" (for the benefit of Toni Porter). We put down our pens, sit back in our comfortable easy chairs and rave man, rave!

DECEMBER 1961

September and October have been months which were to be all for Squadron training. Members have been disappearing in all directions on upgrading and regimental courses, and at times the camp has been almost empty.

After the draughts of June and July came the monsoons in late September. It had been said that if you have not been to Manchester, you have not lived. Manchester has nothing on North Malaya in the monsoons.

Being a Commonwealth Unit we get more than a usual crop of visitors. The winter in Australia has just about ended, and so has the season’s collection of senior Australian visitors. We now eagerly await to see who will come out from the UK this winter.

The Squadron has said "Fare thee well, Sergeant Major", to WO2 and Mrs. Drummond. We wish you all the best with 30th Regiment and I bet you will find it very different from being with us. There has been a great change of face in the Squadron in the last few months. The Australian Government has seen fit to relieve its Force in Malaya, and so we have said many farewells, and welcomed their replacements. The British element of the unit has been brought up to strength and so many new faces have appeared that the Admin Officer did not know if he was dealing with a Signal Squadron or a Transit Camp.

Among the worthies who have gone are Sgt. Stephens, who bowled his heart out in cricket this year; Cpl. Byrne, whose smiling face will probably now be adorning an Orderly Room "somewhere in Australia" and many others who have served the unit well. SQMS Talbott moved up into the Sgt major’s office, and now sits there permanently. Congratulations. We welcome S/Sgt Young, our new SQMS, and Sgt Harris both from UK and S/Sgt Hillman and Danaher from Australia. Sgt. Bennet we hear has now become a qualified flyer in light aircraft, We hope he does well on his up-grading course down in Singapore.

About a year ago I wrote that my next notes may well be written from a new home in Malacca. Things seems a little more definite now, and so long as the plans are not changed again we hope to be there by Christmas. Fort George has become Camp Terendak, and every one up here in the north looks eagerly forward to living in a more permanent atmosphere.

For those who have never been to Malaya, it may be of interest to learn a little of the local pattern of life. The country is occupied by three main races of people, there being Malay, Chinese and Indian. This means that there are several religions in the country. The Malays are Moslems, the Chinese are either Buddhists or Christian, and Indians Buddhist and Hindu. Of course you may wonder where the Europeans fit in and what interest have the religions of the country to the Military Forces. Well, all these religions have their own festivals and holidays, and they are all suitably spread over the year, so that one appears about every month or six weeks. The European community (probably because they are not such a fanatical race as far as religion is concerned) sits on the fence and enjoys all the holidays of the other religions, as well as those of their own, with a liberal sprinkling of English style Bank Holidays.