KIWIS IN THE JUNGLE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 929, 31 May 1957, Page 16

KIWIS IN THE JUNGLE

AT the request of the New Zealand Army and with the assistance of the R.N.Z.A.F., the NZBS sent Ian Watkins, of. 1ZB, off to, the Far East for a month last April. In a Hastings aircraft of No. 40 Squadron, he travelled to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaya, via Brisbane, Darwin and Singapore, and he spent two weeks with the New Zealand paratroopers stationed at Wadiburn Camp. There he was able to see them training and learnt a good deal about the fight against terrorists from patrols just returned from the jungle. He accompanied a truck convoy into a "black" area where terrorists had successfully ambushed an Army pay van only the week before. And he discovered how intelligence officers keep track of every one of the 2000 terrorists left in the jungle. "The survivors are the hard core of the terrorist movement," Ian told The Listener, "and they are so fanatical they will shoot themiselves or chew cyanide rather than surrender. Ex-terrorists help our patrols to identify the fanatics, and tracking them down is entrusted to tribesmen from Borneo." On his return to Singapore Ian Watkins stayed for three days at Changi, where the Bristol freighters of No. 41 Squadron, R.N.Z.A.F., are _ stationed. They play a dual role, he explained. They assist the R.A.F. in carrying cargo and provide support for our patrols in the jungle. Ground support is also provided by New Zealand’s No. 14 Squadron, stationed at Tengah, which Ian also visited. There the New Zealanders fly Venom fighter-bombers, and Ian was able to listen to the radio-telephone account of a jungle strike when 1000pound bombs were dropped on a terrorist hide-out. The R.N.Z.A.F. later flew Ian to Hong Kong, via Borneo, and the Philippines, and returned him to Singapore via Saigon in Indo-China. He said that the New Zealand airmen always felt a sense of achievement in flying in and out of Kai Tak airfield in Hong Kong,

for it is notorious as one of the most difficult in the world to approach. The highlight of his visit to the New Zealanders serving in Malaya was an early morning practice parachuteé-drop, Ian said. The men had butterflies in the stomach even though they had all jumped several times before, but as Major Hugh Mercer, second in command of the 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, explained, jumping from an aircraft is psychologically an unnatural act, and he should know-he’s done it 80 times. The tape Tecordings that Ian Watkins made of this and other experiences during his recent trip have been edited by Arthur E. Jones into two documentary programmes, They will be broadcast in the Main National Programme at 9.30 a.m. on Sunday, June 2, and on the following Sunday. The first is called Jungle Green.