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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1481.PDF
720 * - FLIGHT, 22 May 1959 THE FAR EAST AIR FORCE Sycamore helicopters of No. 194 $qn. at Kuala Lipis, Pahang State, where there is an aborigine hospital. The aircraft are used to evacuate seriously ill aborigines from the jungle War in die Jungle. From R.A.F. Changi to Kuala Lumpur byValetta takes a few minutes over one hour. When weather permits the route is direct overland. In bad weather it lies along the low-lying seaboard with its rivers, mangrove swamps, occasional low- lying islands, and vessels of assorted sizes. Near the seaboard areconsiderable tracts of cleared land whereon a variety of crops grow. On the direct route the mountains vary from below 2,000to over 4,000ft and there is much jungle. I travelled by both routes; inland, the clouds were almost at wing level, and belowthe higher mountains gave one an impressive vision of inhospitable terrain. Malacca boasts the only intermediate landing-ground. Kuala Lumpur airfield, due south of the city, is long andnarrow, with a single runway of about the same length as that at Tengah. At the south end is the civil airport, where there are theusual international airport amenities, including quite a pleasant restaurant looking over the airfield. The military hangars andsquadron offices stand on the western side of the northern part of the field and on the rising ground behind them are the head-quarters of No. 224 Group and above that again the mess and living quarters. It appears to be policy everywhere to site messesand quarters on the rising ground, no doubt a wise precaution from the aspect of health and general comfort. I found thestandard of living in mess and quarters progressively deteriorating the further I went from F.E.A.F. headquarters. This is hard toexplain, but it was so. Ablutions and sanitary arrangements also became steadily less luxurious (to put it in another way). ButI have found a great deal worse outside F.E.A.F. and personally could not find it easy to agree with any grumbles except bycomparisons (which, it is said, are always odious). I think the truth is that the standard at F.E.A.F. headquarters is exceptionallyhigh and would be impossible to maintain everywhere. Anyhow, the married officers live out and with the higher payand allowances scale in F.E.AF. they seem to be reasonably comfortable although they may be unable to save much, becauseneither rents nor domestic labour are cheap. Those who live in must be able to save quite a bit during their tour. It may betough going for the junior officer with a young family; he is probably less well off than some of the N.C.O.s, because he ishandicapped by the higher standard he has to live up to. In a land where "face" still counts, and in our present democratic age,these perhaps are matters which should receive special consideration, H Kuala Lumpur is the directing centre in the pacification ofMalaya from the C.T. menace. This local war, called the Emergency, has been conducted through an Emergency Opera-tions Council with the Federal Prime Minister in the chair, State War Executive Committees with the State P.M. in the chair, andDistrict War Executive Committees whose areas roughly corres- pond with U.K. Parliamentary divisions. The Police SpecialBranch and the Army are represented—the A.O.C. and a genera] on the first body, a brigadier on the second, a colonel on the third.Under the first is a Commanders' Sub-Committee for military planning with the Director of Operations in the chair; he com-mands nothing but acts as an adviser to the Federal Govern- ment. Under this biennially meeting committee comes theDirector of Operations staff with a wing commander as a member; this body functions in parallel between the Emergency OperationsCouncil and the State War Executive Committees. At Kuala Lumpur a joint Army and Air Force staff mans theCombined Operations Centre where the actual operations are projected. In addition there is the normal airfield operations roomfor the control of air activity. The integration is close and one cannot see how a single service (such as the Army had in the First World War) could work better. Indeed, I saw little differ-ence in the relationship between land and air forces in Malaya from that which existed prior to the formation of the R.A.F. in1918. The separation was as wide, the integration as close, in each case. Intelligence is sifted and operations planned against the mostpromising C.T. targets. Army and air requirements are calculated and requested. They are provided as required by the differentelements of the Army and F.E.AJ". We have already seen what is done from the air stations in Singapore. Butterworth air station(opposite Penang) gives similar aid. The tactical air operations are provided by the squadrons at Kuala Lumpur. The current system of operations dates from 1953. Before thenthe C.T.s had gained the aborigines' allegiance almost completely. These jungle dwellers acted as their porters, guides, sources offood supply, intelligence; the C.T.s were training about 6,000 of them in the use of modern arms (the aborigines' own were blow-pipes and darts, bows and arrows, staves, knives) and drilling had begun. Counter-action by bringing aborigines out of thejungle failed because diseases to which they were unaccustomed struck them down; they became a liability, not an asset. GeneralTempler decided to act in reverse and send forces into the jungle to counter the hold of the Communists over the aborigines. The Department of Aborigines (which had been a small-scaleone) was expanded and a special branch of the Malaya Police formed. Forts were set up in the jungle and permanently mannedby these police, equipped with small arms. Air power facilitated this, by supply-dropping both men and materials by para-chute. Small airstrips were made where possible, elsewhere heli- copter landing zones were cleared. The aborigines found in thesenew forts places where they could obtain work as gardeners, porters, guides and later as sentinels; their work and intelligencewere paid for. The Department of Aborigines set up stores where the simple things the aborigines wish to buy could be purchasedwith the money they earned. Clinics were set up where visiting "protectors" gave medical treatment for dermatitis, wounds anduncomplicated ailments. Serious cases were air-evacuated to an aborigine hospital set up at Kuala Lipis. The forts provided bases from which the Army units couldoperate against the C.T.s. They provided asylums where hard- pressed CT.s could surrender. They provided the gun butts forthe drives. They opened up sections of the jungle where civilized* man bad hardly ever been known except during the Japaneseoccupation when anti-Japanese elements took to the jungle and again when the Malayan Communist Party went into the jungle tofight the legitimate Malayan government. These Chinese com- munists treated the aborigines well, but the Malayan governmentsince 1953 has treated them better and they have been won over from the Communists almost completely. One must rememberthat these aborigines have no politics but their own simple tribal laws and customs and primitive religion. They know nothing ofallegiance to ideologies. (To be concluded) U.S. MILITARY PURCHASES SOME of the more important appropriations made to theUnited States armed Services under the Fiscal Year 1960 are as follows: —Air Force: Boeing B-52H, a new and improved version similar to the B-52G but with JT3D fan engines, 70 aircraft (about $58Om);Convair B-58A, 40 aircraft, which, with the 66 already bought, should equip two wings, the first to become operational during the year; BoeingKC-135, 96 additional aircraft; Republic F-105, elimination of the tandem-seat F-10SE and probable purchase of 24 additional F-105Ds inlieu; Lockheed C-130B, 18 additional aircraft. There does not seem to be an allocation for additional C-133 transports.Navy: McDonnell F4H-1 12 development aircraft ($66m); Grum- man S2F-3 (the new T56-powered carrier-based ASW machine), 18for $17.7m; Grumman WF-2 early warners, 24 for $33.4m; Sikorsky HSS-2 (twin-T58 ASW helicopters), 20 for $13.8m; $107m has beenvoted for engineering development and initial production of the Gram- man A2F-1 (twin JS2 carrier-based attack aircraft); appropriations willbe made for a production quantity of Lockheed P3V (Electra ASW aircraft) and to initiate final competitions for flying-boats to replacethe P5M and P6M; money has been found for test and evaluation of the improved Sidewinder (Diamondback), Corvus, Eagle and theSubroc ASW system. Army: Following the decision not to procure the Raytheon Hawkfor home defence it appears that production of this missile will be limited to that needed by 15 battalions in the U.S. 7th Army in Europe;total Nike-Hercules strength will stabilize at 57 battalions by the end of FY 1962, and the FY 1960 vote includes an account to improve theelectronic and anti-countermeasure ability of the Nike system; some $400m will be available for Nike-Zeus, about half the figure requested,the vote includes seven D.H.C. Caribou aircraft, supplementing the five developing machines, and it is stated that bulk production willbe ordered for transport companies of 16 machines each.
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