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SECTION TRAINING
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NINE
locate and report on the disposition of the other two platoons. The tactical disposition of
the ‘enemy’ was built up over the succeeding days. The Section Instructors did not quite
lead each section, but they often oversaw its activities after appointing one or another of the
trainees to take charge on various occasions. As each section averaged 13 trainees, one or
two would be asked to stay back and prepare meals for the whole group with the composite
rations. It was clear that several free ranging chickens ceased to range freely after they
crossed the paths of some of the NCOs, who were also not above chatting up the farmers’
daughters, although to what effect was not evident.
Strictly speaking, the camps were not tactical, being just a few yards off the tracks that
crisscrossed the areas. The shelters consisted of two-man bashas. Improvised camp cots
raised a few inches above ground were constructed with a framework of sturdy branches
pushed through the sleeves of the thick canvas ground sheets. Though the personal hygiene
proclivities of fellow trainees became increasingly self-evident, life was made tolerable with
field toilets (sanitised with copious amounts of lime powder strewn around and shielded by
Hessian cloth), sponge baths with ‘Good Morning’ towels and an adequate supply of water
from stand pipes and kampong wells, when water bowsers (trailer-tanks) supplied to each
platoon daily ran dry.
The privations of living in the field, coping with mosquitoes and flies and other fellow
denizens of the tropical outdoors were aggravated by the lack of personal time. The summary
exercise brought home the fact that in operations, the soldier is always on call and there is no
such thing as unwinding at the end of the day or time to break away for personal pursuits.
Somebody up the command chain seemed to be always thinking of some fresh initiative.
Being among human habitation was something of a relief in itself—if the camp had been in
the jungle and during a prolonged patrol assignment, it would probably have taken a great
toll among the trainees and may in fact have helped some of them to decide about making
a career of it.
The working day began with patrol missions that took assigned groups to the location of
the neighbouring platoons some five to six miles away. Contact drills were applied when a
group ran into what were ‘enemy’ platoons, identified through coloured bands on helmets.
Section instructors played the role of Controllers and Umpires. Each platoon appeared to
have caught some prisoners of war and there were reports of various forms of robust
interrogation to get intelligence. As the distances between platoons were considerable, some
resorted to getting lifts from farmers’ pickup trucks and other vehicles plying the rural
tracks, not entirely with the disapproval of some accompanying instructors. In one case, a
recruit managed to borrow a motorcycle and brought along a pillion rider, but an officer and
an Advisor who spotted them gave chase in a car until the motorcycle accidentally veered
off the road. The two were identified and awarded a couple of weekend duties. Without
motorised transport, the patrols would often return late at night after an exhausting day and
usually be dead to the world as soon as they hit their ground sheets.