Upon disembarking in Malaya, B Company of the Worcestershire Regiment was at the forefront of the ‘emergency.’ They were immediately tasked with guarding the dock area to provide protection for the main party in the event the arrival of the regiment sparked any civil unrest. Fortunately, the day was uneventful and they departed for Nee Soon. Their three-ton trucks substituted wire mesh for the typical canvas canopy to deter grenades. Passing through Singapore gave glimpses of large houses and bungalows with adequate and even extensive yards shaded by trees. Beyond the town, the foliage thinned and gave way to the outskirts where the sun beat down on the poor population. Up beyond this lay the dark jungle. After months of training at Sandhurst, integrating into the battalion, and a three-week voyage at sea from Liverpool through Port Said, Aden, Ceylon, and Singapore, Douglas Tyson looked through the wire mesh at the foreboding jungle ahead where he would spend the next year hunting communist bandits.
Before marching off on their own, despite any and all previous experience and education, the battalion endured a three-week jungle training course. They lived in tents up the slope of a bare hill while going out each day for schooling under the Gurkhas. B Company was again first when they joined an operation with the 2nd/10th Gurkhas in Southern Johore. Intelligence indicated there was a small Chinese settlement north of Kota Tinggi along the River Tinggi. It had been neglected by Security Forces and believed to be a small hive for Communist terrorists. They planned to rout them out into the jungle where other troops lying in wait would ambush them along known tracks.
RIVER TINGGI
On the afternoon of July 12th – after only a few weeks in country – Tyson set off with B Company to commence the first operation that would become a very distinguished combat tour. After moving across the causeway to Johore Bahru, they held a final conference with the Gurkhas before reaching Kota Tinggi near evening. The company clambered into three flat-bottomed long-boats operated by natives to run up river for twelve miles. After three hours, they reached a small, abandoned rubber plantation near dusk and for the first time on their own, assembled their bashas for the night. They were fortunate that the rain held as their shelters needed improvement.
Hours before dawn, the company continued their mission. Only two platoons continued upstream – Tyson’s 4 Platoon assumed the arduous task of travelling through the jungle looking for tracks. With their night time security detail concluded, Private Brian Griffiths begged to join the platoon in lieu of sentry duty. The Bren gunner had a great interest in avenging his brother who had been shelled by Chinese while serving on the frigate Amethyst during the Yangtze Incident.
While the main body of the company was off having considerable success, Tyson led 4 Platoon northwest by compass learning quickly the ‘lessons of jungle lore.’ At their first halt, he doubled back to ensure his column was intact and was startled to find that only his first section of eight men remained of the original thirty. Numbers 9 and 10 in the string of men were signalers who quickly lost ground under the weight of their wireless sets. They had evidently veered off from the leading section. Having concern with how a mere eight men would fare, Tyson set off with two others to recover the missing majority of his platoon. For an hour, the trio searched through vegetation until they found themselves lost. It took another three hours to make it back to the leading section. Only shots fired as a homing signal guided him back successfully. They learned valuable lessons through experience that day – to keep in sight of each other, make allowances for marching speed if carrying heavier equipment, and anyone separated from the main column should resort to looking after themselves.
Within fifty yards of navigating along the edge of the rubber plantation, they found a track that showed signs of recent use where it crossed over a swamp. Leading only eight men, Douglas wished even more that he had his entire platoon. The section crept forward with bayonets fixed. They cautiously traced any suspicious hint of a trail through dense undergrowth, finding many decoys before the lead scout stopped with his hands crossed above his head. The silent signal indicated he had spotted a terrorist hut. After having spent the better part of the day lost in the jungle, Tyson decided to stop the patrol and set an ambush.
The hut was evidently a rest stop for terrorist couriers as it contained a sleeping bench, a few cooking utensils, dry firewood, and a flashlight. The section reconnoitered the area and found the hut was at the junction of two trails. The first track (which was the one the section traveled on) continued beyond the hut. The second trail coming from the west crossed the swamp and dipped to a small stream near the hut. The crossroads were perfect for an ambush and the section moved to the higher ground to set about their new task.
Private Griffiths on the Bren took the Northern stop, aiming south down the track. The section leader (a corporal) and another man went twenty yards down the track with Sten guns as the Southern stop. Lieutenant Tyson remained in the center with a rifleman and two signalers. They planned to allow anyone entering the ambush to close on the central position before opening fire. By dusk, they were all content with their set up except for the corporal who complained of a pungent odor, which Tyson assured him was one of the many peculiar smells of the jungle.
The night was completely uneventful and the section, disappointed that nothing unfolded after careful watch and little sleep, cooked tinned beans and bacon for breakfast. After no contact from Company base, Tyson decided to stay for another day before returning to the rubber plantation. The morning passed slowly until, almost a full day after they set their ambush, the corporal snuck over to the Lieutenant.
“They have arrived,” he reported.
Thinking his lost sections were approaching, Tyson inquired about the platoon sergeant.
“No, sir, the bandits are here!” The corporal described one with a rifle, one with a pistol, and both carrying grenades. They entered the ambush from his southern end and assumed they had stopped at the hut when the Bren gun remained silent.
The two quietly made their way over to Griffiths on the Bren who also described the two terrorists passing right through the ambush. A cracking twig interrupted their discussion and the Worcester’s men looked up through the thick foliage to a see the red star-capped terrorists making their way back along the trail. The pair moved slowly and still unaware of the ambush they passed through for a second time until one of the Chinese came nearly face to face with Douglas. He waited as long as he could in the event anymore followed – he intended to account for as many as possible.
The Bren gun opened up with a throaty burst the moment Tyson gave the order. One bandit dropped immediately the other was cut down when he stumbled away hurling a grenade. The two bodies lay motionless on the jungle floor and the Worcester’s section approached with great caution in the event either were still alive. Seeing that both were indeed dead, they stripped their weapons and equipment and headed back to B Company at the rubber plantation. They were most interested in the events that transpired.
When a patrol of Gurkhas arrived with boats to take the company back, they delivered police who went to the scene of the ambush to photograph and identify the two bodies. They agreed to bury the bodies in the sandy soil where the corporal’s southern stop was. Within a few inches of digging, they found the decaying body of another terrorist which explained the strange smell the corporal complained about.
Back down river to Kota Tinggi and Nee Soon, the Company returned to the Battalion and received a telegram from Major General R. E. Urquart congratulating them on their first operation. “For a unit to kill terrorists while undergoing training is an unprecedented achievement and promises well for future successes.”
KROH
The Battalion departed Singapore Station by train on the morning of July 25th for a five-hundred-mile journey to Sungei Patani in Kedah. They were all fully armed and had sentries posted on each end of the carriages as a precaution against terrorists who, particularly at night, threatened to simply shoot at them or damage the track and subsequently ambush. To avoid running into such a derailment, a pilot train preceded them to spot any tampering beforehand. They passed over the mile-long causeway connecting Singapore to the mainland and had their first view of Malaya. Past Johore Bahru, the capital of North Johore filled with Chinese shops, they came upon miles of rubber estates with rows of trees in seemingly infinite lines until broken by masses of dark and foreboding jungle. Little villages also appeared along the tracks with little indication of the present emergency except for a few which had police outposts with wired communications. The train rattled through their future postings of Kluang, Segamat, and North Johore which was filled with swaps of ‘oily brown water and thick covering of belukar.’ By evening, they were in Kuala Lumpur at a very Byzantinian style rail station. They found it to be among the most impressive of the buildings of the capital city which had various public buildings of Colonial and Oriental styles. Further north, tin mines replaced rubber plantations and the wide-open landscape was filled with ‘trestle-work’ structures for carrying water from the mines. Steep limestone hills with dugout caves provided homes for terrorists and temples alike, and in Kedah these features gave way to rice fields and eventually the water from which Penang rested four miles out.
They finally made it to Sungei Patani the next afternoon. It was a typical Malayan town with a broad boulevard style main street with trees down the center, a police station, a school, a railway station, and a European club and bank. The Worcester’s camp was set about a mile from town in a large clearing then filled with tents. Because all of the trees had been cut, the sun beat relentlessly on them. The reflection off of the nearby four-thousand-foot Kedah Peak seemed to amplify the heat.
The Battalion took over from 45 Commando for all of Kedah and B Company was posted out to the northeast corner in Kroh. The town was a tucked up in the steep mountains that formed the border between Malaya and Siam. Their camp was unfinished and only perimeter wire separated them from the jungle and what lurked beyond. Unlike the jungle they were used to, there was no tangled undergrowth, but movement incorporated much vertical travel that required gripping saplings for momentum. The town of Kroh itself was very pleasant as it had been a rest center with well stocked shops, tennis courts and a padang. Up the road toward Siam was a mysterious town called Betong with dancing girls and legal opium dens. Beyond that across the border were suspected communist terrorist training camps. Where they traveled into Malaya after training had not yet been discovered, so while 5 Platoon under Lieutenant Campbell searched for tracks, Tyson took his 4 Platoon to watch the south.
While the police handled the sparsely reported activity, the two platoons operated closely for their first weeks in Kroh. One incident that reminded everyone of just how thick the jungle was occurred when the platoons were waiting for an air drop. Both arrived at their rendezvous point, but being out of wireless communication temporarily, neither knew where the other was. They camped for the night and in the morning began to search for the other platoon before moving to the drop zone. Only when one struck a phosphorous grenade did they realize they had been within yards of each other the entire time.
*
Back toward the southern tip of the peninsula four miles northwest of Kluang sat the Niyor Estate, which became B Company’s next home in April. The Lieutenant learned he had earned a Mention in Dispatches for their training patrol action the previous year, and he upheld his reputation with the Company’s biggest success for the month. While patrolling through swampland, they discovered a fish trap on the banks of the Sembrong. It could have been laid by a local or a terrorist, so they left a section under Corporal Nolan to wait in the tall reeds and watch while the rest of the platoon slinked back to make camp. Eventually a sampan appeared with a Sakai woman at the stern and two Chinese paddling upstream. They were wary of the area around the fishing trap and kept to the other side of the river. One of the Chinese broke the tension with a ‘three low bird-like whistles’ which Nolan countered with an order to stop. In a panic, the Chinese tried to paddle away, but the section opened fire, overturning the boat, killing the two Chinese, and wounding the woman. Two Sakai guides with the platoon fashioned a raft to cross the river and investigate. One recognized the woman, who was mortally wounded, and before she died, she divulged she was the wife of one of the Chinese and both were terrorist couriers.
KLANG
The next movement was back north along the west coast to Klang, west of Kuala Lumpur, which was a largely colonial town that had had no security forces in the area until a shooting prompted the movement of troops. B Company arrived near Batang Berjuntai in the first days of September and it was quiet until November 7th when His Excellency the High Commissioner, Sir Henry Gurney was ambushed and killed. He was traveling with his wife, secretary, and considerable police escort through a narrow road surrounded by jungle when twenty terrorists inflicted heavy casualties first on the police escort and then on Sir Henry Gurney who had gotten out of his car to draw fire from his wife. A large military operation immediately ensued in response with B Company trekking out from Batang Berjuntai.
Ten days later, Tyson and 4 Platoon would take credit for the most successful kill for the Battalion during their Malayan tour. The Company had been patrolling Ulu Tiram Burok without contact, though it was known to be an ‘unsavory’ Chinese squatter area. The Company Commander, Major Brooke-Johnson, received a report that fifteen terrorists had been spotted in a one-hundred square acre patch of thick jungle swamp. As the Company was already on other operations in light of the November 7th incident, only 4 Platoon consisting of a mere twelve men was sent to investigate.
Douglas led the march by compass in the dark of night. He ensured the platoon was undetected by taking a long sweeping detour around the area of the terrorist camp and slowed even more on their approach to the area. A reconnaissance revealed a track into the jungle and the Lieutenant ordered bayonets fixed for movement up the track. It eventually vanished, but they knew they were close when the lead scout heard a tin rattling. The platoon spent over four hours making the final few hundred yards. By the time they heard the sounds of voices, dawn was just breaking and the twelve men were still unnoticed. Another one-and-a-half hours passed while they took slow steps as to not crack any twigs and gently moved foliage aside to maintain a silent approach. Eventually, they reached the undergrowth at the edge of the clearing.
Lieutenant Tyson split the platoon, leaving six men with Serjeant Whitehouse and taking the remaining six with him. They crawled around the clearing until spotting the best way in – another half-hour snail paced movement to cover only thirty yards – when they spotted a break in the brush and a nearby basha. To make the final approach, Tyson split his section into two groups of three, one being the assault party. They were within ten yards of the basha when they slowly stood up. They saw six terrorists inside the hut and immediately Tyson signaled for his men to stand and whispered the order to fire.
The absolute silence, save for the noises of nature, split apart by a thunderous burst of fire that ripped through the basha. At once, all of the terrorists were hit. Four lay where they were killed instantly, but two attempted to run. With Private Stredder, Douglas charged into the camp and the two cut down the fleeing two terrorists. As the rest of the party entered the camp, two grenades thudded dully into the earth, but fortunately did not explode. They turned in the direction of the toss to see a silhouette move from behind hanging laundry and fired at what appeared to be a woman, but she escaped into the jungle. Only one other wounded bandit was also seen escape.
The action was extremely quick, especially in comparison to the amount of time it had taken to sneak into the area, and 5 Platoon made it over rapidly after hearing the commotion. They attempted to retrieve the bodies from the jungle before dark, but gave up when it began to rain heavily. The two platoons returned the next morning, prepared to attack after sounds came from the camp again. It turned out to be one of the wounded from the previous day who willingly informed the Worcesters that seven other terrorists had been holding a meeting just outside of the camp, but fled during the attack. He confirmed two others had been wounded, bringing the total for the small 4 Platoon – who had suffered no casualties – to six killed and three wounded, one of which was the man they spoke to who they captured. They confiscated four rifles, a Sten gun, fifteen packs, grenades, clothing, food and printing ink and equipment.
For his incredible patience and skill, Lieutenant Tyson was awarded the Military Cross. The citation noted “the success of this operation is directly attributable to the perseverance, patience, excellent fieldcraft, perfect control and the stimulating personal leadership, fortitude and resolute action of Lieutenant Tyson. The platoon under his command has previously been responsible for killing three bandits at Kota Tinggi in July 1950 and three bandits on the Sungei Sembrong in August 1951.” It was a suitable finale to the first eighteen months in Malaya before rotation out for rest in Penang in December. There was no need to carry a weapon there, which left the men feeling a bit naked, and the locals went about as if they had not even heard of the nearby jungle war. They left behind the constant tension of the Emergency, no longer watching the tape around base, patrolling and responding to incidents, and did their best to enjoy some time away.