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Having completed the baseline survey my position (able
post) was one of five posts was at the foot of the straits of Malaca lighthouse.
Artillery teaching was that in setting up the instrument you should take two
bearings in the far distance, one in the middle distance and two in the near
distance. The further away the point of bearing the more accurate the set up.
In the far distance there was only one clear cut point, the right hand edge
of Borneo. In the middle distance all that was clear cut was a pointed rock
on the seashore. In the near distance was jungle and the one thing that stood
out was a tree in the shape of a letter Y. On the day of the shoot I go to the
lighthouse early to set up the instrument; mist is obscuring Borneo. Turn to
the rock; it has disappeared, submerged by the tide. The prominent tree then
- wildly quivering as a troop of monkeys cavort among the branches. People don't
believe me but I promise this is exactly what happened. Headquarters will confirm
it because able post was 'off bearing' until the mist cleared.
Whilst at Tampin I remember the padre was ambushed whilst riding up top in a light armoured car. He gave good account with his machine Gun and rounted the terrorists. A week or so later I am being driven in a similar vehicle through a Malay village when there is a bump and the driver stops "what was that" enquiries a worried Rogers "a chicken" says the driver. Despite my exhortations he insists on leaving the vehicle in an endeavour to find the owner of the carcass in his hand.