Operation Brodrick Malaya   Feb 1952
B sub X Troop  40 Commando 
By Ken Port  RM10127.

“X”  Troop was on the move, we had now been seconded to “42” Cdo operating in the Selangor state and a big operation was being put together,  code named Operation Brodrick.  It was a seek and destroy operation.  The task was to find a battalion of Commies,  led by its notorious leader Yung Hoi,  who had terrorised Selangor for a long while.  The terrain was a little different to Perak,  particularly the area we were patrolling, where a lot of the jungle had been cleared and re-growth was “lalang” grass,  a grass that grows to six feet high,  but still some heavy patches of jungle. 

After several days of patrolling where no contact with the Commies been made, we were re-supplied by air-drop.  Our patrol comprised of two sub- sections,  “B”  and  “D”,  with Lt. David Scott- Langley as our team leader.  B sub led the patrol in the morning and after Tiffin (lunch),  D  took over. My position in the total patrol was about 10th man,   I  carried the E.Y. rifle which was a grenade launcher,  and could propel a grenade up to 200 yards.  The grenade had a seven second fuse which enabled it to explode in flight,  causing maximum damage.   As we progressed through the lalang,   the patrol suddenly halted,  and went to ground.   The Iban and Marine scouts,   (Cpl Ireland and Marine Alexander) had found something suspicious.  A log was across the track,  so the scouts checked it out,   it went off to our left leading to some jungle.  They found evidence that this new track had been used recently,  and there also there appeared to be an observation position in a tree on the edge of the jungle. 

Following this new track,  we located and confirmed there had been someone up that tree observing us within  the last hour,  also evidence that three or four Commies had eaten and left this position in a hurry.   We now set out to track them down quickly, Cpl Ireland as lead scout and Marine Alexander as second. 

We had only been in the jungle patch about five minutes,  moving quietly but quickly,  when all hell broke loose!.  While bullets were zip zapping through the trees,  I had gone to ground crawled to the side and removed my back pack all in one movement  So that's what all that training was about!.   It was obvious to me that we had walked into an ambush but  I couldn’t see any targets from my position and even if I could,  I couldn’t fire the grenade launcher.   If I fired,  the grenades would hit the overhanging trees----and explode on my own patrol.    We then heard an order from Lt. Langley for “B” section ,  “to move forward and pass through “D”,  and attack.   Quickly  we moved and passed though our mates in “D”,  who were looking shaky, naturally, but were busy reloading or returning fire.   It looked like we had won the initial fire fight,  when we came across an opening in the jungle canopy, and in front of us was a small swamp ten yards across to further jungle. 

As we passed though the swamp, I noticed Cpl Ireland with his head down in the water dead,  and Marine Alexander, was seriously wounded, laying to one side.  Most of “B”  had crossed,  and were returning fire, and I was about half way across when I was told to return to the bank by a Colour Sergeant.   There was a clear space through the trees,  on a sort of knoll,  where I could open up with the grenade launcher,  and put a lot of heat on the Commies.  The Colour Sgt grabbed  the rifle and I loaded, and we fired off eight of my twelve grenades.  On this knoll we were both very exposed to  enemy fire,  but the grenades had done their job because we heard a number of screams and yells,  and the Commies broke off the engagement.   The patrol formed a defensive perimeter while we recovered wounded and dead for the Navy medic to attend to. 

Cpl Ireland was dead,  Marine Alexander  was seriously wounded with stomach wounds.   Lt Langley had a bullet in the shoulder,  another bullet had cut an ugly groove in his cheek,  while another had cut a path across his scalp,  but he was coherent and could walk unaided.  A Commie informer with our patrol stopped a bullet between the eyes,  (He wouldn’t be eating sweat and sour pork again!.)

 Our priority now was not to chase and kill the enemy but to try to get Marine Alexander to a medical base before he died,  time was of the essence.  A stretcher was made by chopping down suitable poles and utilising our poncho’s,   but first we hid the bodies of Cpl Ireland and the Commie informer, as we certainly didn’t  want the Cpls  body hacked up,  which seemed to be a traditional occupation of our enemy. 

Signals to our base were not being received,  due to the heavy jungle canopy we were in at that time,  and  we also sighted an Army “Auster”  reconnaissance air- craft not far away but he didn’t pick up our signal either.   The patrol set off and we put caution to one side.   With four men carrying the stretcher,  we were determined to get Alex some medical help, and the Medic had dosed him up with morphine, which he needed, for it was a rough ride for him.   The extra weapons and equipment were all shared around,  and nine of us that changed around every fifteen minutes on stretcher duty.  Two scouts were put way out front to clear our way and one was on back marker,   (hanging a long way back to cover our rear),  two covering the stretcher team,   Lt. Langley just managing to look after himself,  he was obviously in a lot of pain!. 

While we were out in the Lalang and flat country a message from our radio did get through to our head quarters so we were given grid co-ordinates to march on,  where trucks would rendezvous in a rubber plantation.  It was now night time,  but we still pushed hard to achieve our goal.  You could imagine how delighted we were to see the truck lights flashing to guide us on,  so we sent up a flare to confirm we were on our way in,  and eventually we loaded Alex on to the truck.  He was then still alive,  the hard forced march had taken five hours since the ambush!.    

It was nearly mid-night before we had a feed and crashed down,  we were absolutely exhausted,  and we must have used up all our adrenaline.  The very sad news was received early the next day, that Alex had died shattered us all, after trying so hard to save him!

 42 Cdo sent a patrol back to the scene of the ambush, and two or three of us went back as guides,  and to recover the bodies of Cpl Ireland and the Commie informer.  I also recovered my pack which had been left behind.  It was weird going back into the scene,  from our “recon” of the area,  it was concluded that we had faced a main force of 100,  possible 150 enemy.   They had taken their bodies with them but there were a lot of signs that we had inflicted heavy damage.  The big thing was that we had flushed out Yong Hoi,  and he was on the run until he walked into one of our ambushes a few months later.

 Lt. Langley was awarded the Military Cross,  the Bren gunner of  “D”  sub-section a Mention in Dispatches,  and the Colour Sergeant who I shared the knoll with (firing the grenade launcher) received the Distinguished Conduct Medal but, he also got a “Dear John” letter from his wife the next day.    Well, you can’t win them all!.   The action I have described,   haunted me over the past 47 years.!!

 The patrol had a rest for a few days, after the loss of our mates.   We roared into the canteen at 42 Cdo  Head Quarters,   the intention was to get really “pissed”.  After we had had just one pint,  a Sergeant stated King George V1  had just died and the bar was closed.    He wouldn’t listen to our argument that, we had just lost two mates,   and they wouldn’t  mind us drinking!!.