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The final phase of the exercise was the collation of information picked up during the
patrolling and supplemented by the instructors’ inside information for a round-robin attack
exercise among the three platoons. The sections approached from different directions,
assaulted through the campsites and withdrew after a non-tactical regrouping. The camps
were struck shortly after that and the trainees returned to SAFTI. No one remembers the
contents of the debriefing, partly because there was no special tactical issue to discuss and
mainly because it was a case of the medium being the message. As such, it provided a
fairly realistic opportunity (and all things considered, an enjoyable one) to practise tactical
movement, infiltration, reconnaissance reports, living in the field and formulating and
executing attack plans. It would also have been a major input in the selection of the top
trainee during section training.
Endnotes
1. The initial issue of webbing was a British pattern with two large pouches slung directly on the belt
over each hip. The pouches were designed to accept the magazines of the SLR, plus other odds and ends.
The small magazines of the M16 fitted comfortably in them with room to spare. Trainees did not carry the
full expected load of 12 magazines with them when deployed for training. Instead, when live rounds were to
be used, the magazines were separately brought to the distribution point and issued to the trainees before the
execution of the exercise or just before they moved to the firing point for range lessons. For blank firing
exercises extra magazines were issued at the armskote and sections were given boxes of blank rounds for
loading on their own before the exercise proper began.
2. There was a strong rumour that when Chartered Industries were set up Eugene Stoner was engaged by the
company to develop a local assault rifle and a section support weapon.
3. History of 2 SIR, 1962-1978, 25th Anniversary Publication of 2nd Battalion,
Singapore Infantry Regiment, Singapore 1987, pp. 15 – 21
4. Malaysia continued to accept SAF Officers for courses in the Jungle Warfare School until 1972,
after which Singapore had to set up its own course.