Exercise Against Odds For S.A.S. Squadron In Malaya
(New Zealand Press Association)
KUALA LUMPUR, April 27.
The odds were heavily against 60 officers and men of the New Zealand Special Air Service Squadron when they undertook a commando-type attack against R.A.F. installations at the Kuala Lumpur airfield as part of the squadron’s retraining programme. The defending force, which included a substantial element of the R.A.F. Regiment (for defence of airfields) numbered about 650, and the exercise plan called for the operation to take place between 4 p.m. and 1 a.m. the following day. In spite of overwhelming superiority in numbers and the inestimable advantage of a predicted time of attack, the defenders suffered heavily in “casualties” and in the ‘‘destruction” of buildings, fuel tanks, vehicles, generators and lighting systems, and hangars. The attacking force’s “casualties” also were heavy, slightly more than 50 per „cent. being taken prisoner. In war a saboteur force would have postponed an attack on observing the build-up in defence strength. Six Attack Groups Major F. Rennie, officer commanding the New Zealand S.A.S. Squadron, used six small attack groups and a lot of ingenuity in the operation. He had his headquarters in a nearby cemetery,with a wireless link to each group. The chief umpire was also linked to the squadron’s net so that he could investigate immediately the claims made by. the attacking force. Normal civilian services were used twice to deliver parcels containing dummy bombs. One was delivered in , all innocence by a well-known Kuala Lumpur store, and its acceptance by the officer commanding the R.A.F. Regiment’s defence force resulted in the theoretical destruction of his headquarters. When he unwrapped the parcel and opened the carton he found a cube of red-painted wood bearing the inscription: “This bomb was set to explode as the parcel was opened. You’ve had it.” Some members of the New Zealand Squadron dressed as civilians were able to place time bombs against bulk fuel tanks and generators. One R.A.F. squadron leader
was captured and six vehicles were disabled—by removal of motors—when a patrol brilliantly eluded the defence and entered the transport park. Two R.A.F. guards were captured with their weapons in another area. Among the buildings and installations “destroyed” were the headquarters of the R.A.F. Regiment, the wireless centre, the guard room, fuel tankers, a junction box on the runway, runway lights, and three generators. The runway itself could have been cratered and put out of use for some time. Not the least valuable part of the exercise—an operation of the type for which the Special Air Seryice was formed in World War ll—was the experience gained by the New Zealanders in resistance to interrogation. And the techniques of interrogation employed by a field security unit against a proportion of the attacking force taken prisoner were emphatically realistic.
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Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28264, 30 April 1957, Page 12
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467Exercise Against Odds For S.A.S. Squadron In Malaya Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28264, 30 April 1957, Page 12
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