195 / 409
SECTION TRAINING
179
NINE
position in the boats and the main objectives of the lessons were how to deal with enemy
fire from the shore and how to divert the boat immediately to the shore and disembark
tactically, to engage the enemy in case of an ambush, or if enemy activity was spotted during
the approach.
The land-based lessons were eventually applied with a lot of free play in a summary exercise
towards the end of the section training.
XIV. DEFENCE
Defence exercises eventually came to be seen as a real pain. The primary cause was the digging
of foxholes, weapon pits and platoon command posts, the latter requiring contributions of
labour from the sub-units. After doing the foxholes, there was the overhead shelter for
longer deployments. The idea of sleeping in a foxhole, depending on rationed water supply
for ablutions and using field toilets were also nothing to get rapturous about either. And,
to make things even more memorable, there were the alerts, the reinforcement drills, the
patrolling and the spoiling counter-attacks.
Most of the above came in the officer cadet phase. At the section level, defence comprised
essentially of the basic techniques: identifying locations for each two-man fox hole based on
the concept of mutual defence at the section level; digging a shell-scrape as an intermediate
step in case the enemy happened on the force while the foxholes were being dug; using
sandbags to build up the rims of the foxhole; clearing a field of fire; preparing a range card;
and building overhead shelters with timber and zinc sheets (if supplied) and more sandbags,
plus camouflaging the whole thing and refreshing the camouflage daily. There were many
features in Pasir Laba which had laterite soil and digging a hole of 5 feet by 3 feet by about
4 feet deep with regular sides, easily required the five to six hours allowed by two men teams.
There were, among the trainees, some with farming and rural backgrounds who could do this
with astounding skill but for most of the rest, it was an endless chore. The main implement
was the US style entrenching tool that was carried on the webbing. It was really a small spade
with a broad point instead of a straight edge. It offered neither grip nor leverage and was
constantly snapping in two. Clearing the loosened earth was done with helmet outers and
Hessian bags. The work was frequently interrupted by other operational assignments.
One of the First Batch officers, Eng Song King was credited with changing the design of
the entrenching tool to a short Asian changkul (hoe) several years later. This was a vast
improvement even though reducing the handle of the changkul also reduced the force and
leverage offered by the Asian farm implement. In due course, regular changkuls became part
of the stores issued to a platoon with a defence mission. Song King, a Nantah graduate,
went on to become Military Personal Secretary to Dr. Goh Keng Swee, then Commanding
Officer, Officer Cadet School, Commanding Officer 1 SIR, Commanding Officer, Officers’
Personnel Centre, and finally Assistant Chief of General Staff (Intelligence) before resigning