Jungle Juice
JUNGLE JUICE (1) A TRUE TALES STORY
By
John Dolan
I was 18 and waiting for a bus to take me to Middlesbrough. This would be the first time I had left my home town of Hartlepool because I had been called up. Conscription it was called but to make sure I would go in the Royal Air Force I signed up for three years. After some weeks of being shouted at, marched a few hundred miles and fired a gun I was ready to fight a
war. I was about to leave West Kirby near Liverpool. We all waited for our postings and rumour had it that if you lived in Cornwall you would be sent to Scotland 500 miles away, I was lucky my posting was to RAF Acklington just 60 miles away. Oh! how I liked the place, this would do me for 3 years but alas an order came for me to report to the orderly room, it was November 1951 and I was being posted to the Far East.
After a spell of leave I found myself on a train entering Southampton Harbour pulling up right along side the Queen Mary, Wow! what a lovely cruise this is going to be I thought as we formed up on the dockside. Of we went in lines of three turning sharp right behind the large packing cases which led straight up the gangway onto the Empire Trooper which was berthed along side the great liner.
I was told to proceed to "D" deck and find a bed which I tried to do. Down below the place was milling with soldiers and airmen looking for a nice spot and as I stood there I noticed a three tier bunk tucked up in one corner and next to some portholes. one chap was there already so I went over and dropped my kitbag next to it . I was soon joined by a flight sergeant who asked if I wanted the middle or lower bunk but being afraid of rank I let him choose the middle one. My kitbag was on the bed and I was about to settle down when along came an army corporal and told me to shift as he was taking my bunk,"Sling Your Hook" bellowed the flight sergeant "he is staying here" I had my first big taste of what rank could do because I was just an Aircraftsman First Class.
On the ship many people were already seasick and we had not left port, maybe it was because I lived just a half mile from the sea that it did not affect me. Next morning at 8am.the ship left port to the sound of all the ships sirens the loudest being The Queen Mary. We all stood on the deck waving goodbye to Blighty and when we passed The Needles Lighthouse we knew we would not see any land for a long time. The ship called at Port Said but we were not allowed to go ashore be cause of the Suez Crisis. On the night we sailed we were woken by the ships hooter giving three blasts over and over again, we had ran aground in the Suez Canal and bent one of the propellers. The ship had to limp on its journey with a "chug chug bump" sound.
After a refuelling stop at Aden and an hour of shore leave we sailed to Columbo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and most of us enjoyed a few hours in the capital. when we sailed from Columbo word was out that our places of posting had been received and we would be called and told were that was. Soon lots of guys were coming back with the usual well known places,Changi..Seletar..Tenga..Hong Kong but I came back puzzled and asked a few people where my posting was but no one knew so I asked the flight sergeant,"Its Jungle Juice for you my boy Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaya".
The sun beat down on my head as I watched the ship berth at Singapore and soon I was on my way to the transit camp at Changi for two days while arrangements were madefor my transfer to KL.I was surprised to be kitted out with jungle green and a rifle with 50 rounds of live ammo.for the perilous overnight journy to KL.
Do not forget to take your second dose of JUNGLE JUICE coming soon......
JUNGLE JUICE (2) A TRUE TALES STORY
There I am sitting in a good old workhorse the Bedford 3 tonner heading for Singapore Station wearing jungle green, a rifle and 50 rounds of live ammo. strapped around me. I am looking around the countryside when my heart stopped......There it was just one hundred yards away on the left "CHANGI JAIL" my memories returned of the newsreels back home telling of the terror and horror that happened in that place during the Japanese occupation.
Arriving at the station I saw mostly servicemen all armed to the teeth, I boarded the train and sat next to another guy going to KL. Looking round the train carriage I noticed lot of little holes in the roof and windows and hoped it would not rain, then the penny dropped...BULLET HOLES... I was not going to get much sleep tonight.
Very soon an NCO. took the names of everyone to make a guard rota. Every hour the guard was changed and you stood in the caboose at the end of the carriage. When going around a bend you could see the locomotive was pushing a very heavy truck with another truck in front loaded with a large caliber gun manned by two men. I was told that a pilot train was running a couple of minutes ahead of us to make sure the line was clear. It was an uneventful night and we reached KL. about 1600hrs that afternoon.
The usual Bedford was there to greet us outside this magnificent building and set off the few miles to the RAF base. We stopped at the guardroom and I saw the main road ran right through the center of the camp ending at the terminal building and the control tower below which held the elite Malayan Airways Club. A quick call at the orderly room to collect my card which is presented to each section for a signature to confirm your arrival. Because it was nearly time for ending work I just called at the bedding and billeting section. The sweat was streaming down my back as the corp. in charge handed me 3 horsehair pads (my mattress) 2 white linen sheets, 6 wool blankets 1 pillow and a green bundle of some sort. "FOLLOW ME" he said as he crossed the main road and over a footbridge covering a very large and deep ditch and headed for the trees "YOUR BASHER IS UP HERE" he said. I wondered what a basher was, I soon found out, It was a wooden hut on stilts with a straw roof. the hut held about 20 beds and I found out what the green thingy was A MOSSY NET.
Now was the time to settle down to camp life, having found the toilets was a little hut away from the billet and behind the door was a hole in the floor with a footmark at either side, nearby was another hut containing a few wash basins and a shower. Who said the RAF. had it cushy?.
Next day I completed my signatures card and called into my place of work.
THE EQUIPMENT SECTION yes my job was an equipment accounts clerk.
There was 8 clerks and a Warrant Officer in our room with a Flight Lieutenant in an ajoining room. The Warrant Officer was a very quiet man with only a few days to go, I only ever heard him say Good Morning Chaps and Goodbye needless to say discipline was poor and the section badly run but I did not know that until his replacement came.
Warrant Officer Rodger was a big bull of a man and soon made his presence felt. He checked on everything and found lots of things wrong, the chap who I replaced had made loads of errors and this put me in the firing line. I was enemy No.1. Rodger stopped all normal and weekend leave plus we had to work over with no extra pay. The end of our world was near.......
Are you hooked on JUNGLE JUICE?. Stand by your beds for JUNGLE JUICE (3)
JUNGLE JUICE (3) A TRUE TALES STORY
Another day dawns and our world did not end instead a little ray of happiness came our way. New officers accommodation was being built on a hill overlooking the equipment section, we knew it was for officers because of the fittings we had ordered for them. Large fitted wardrobes, pull down writing desks and reading lights for over the beds was to good for us, but we were told they were ours and we would move in on the coming Sunday.
Just by chance this morning I read in PORs the new regulations for bedding to replace worn out items. I quickly wrote out the order forms for 20 steel tubed hospital style beds 20 spring interior mattresses, 20 bedside rugs and 40 Feather Pillows and put the forms in Rodgers in-tray. When Rodger came across the forms he read them and looked up at me, I held up the PORs and nodded to him, he then signed them without question. The bedding arrived on Friday and was taken to our new billet.
The C.O.s weekly inspection took place on Wednesday, he took one look at the new layout of beds and cut short his visit and rushed straight down to the equipment section and demanded we order the same for the officers quarters. I smiled to myself as I made out the forms, I knew that there were no stocks available in Singapore and it would be months before more supplies were received.
During the move into the new billet I met Vince Bingham a storeman and we got on like a house on fire from the start. Bing was somewhat older than me, him being in his twenties and had only a few months to go before demob. He was quite a funny chap and much wiser than me. Our first topic was of course Rodger. Bing said we should put in forms for a weeks leave and I laughed but against my better judgment I agreed. when Rodger picked them from his in-tray I slid down behind a big ledger,DOLAN he bellowed get Bingham and bring him here. I went over to the store and told Bing that the balloon had gone up, we came back and stood in front of him. Now you see some terrible things printed on the internet but I cannot write what he said to us as he tore up the forms in little pieces and dropped them in the bin.
That day after tea sorry TIFFIN Bing said I should come down to the equip. section with him to make a phone call. The section was an arms holding point in case of attack and was manned 24hrs a day. Bing said he knew somebody down at Seletar were he was stationed before coming to KL. He was involved in the theatre club there and they were putting on a show he wanted to see. We walked in and Bing picked up the phone and asked to be put through to RAF Seletar......Would you put Air Commodore....I went into shock and fled outside,we will be Court Marshalled for this. after a few minutes Bing came looking for me, Its all fixed John.... cor you have gone white.
Sitting at my desk next morning I heard Flt. Ltn. Snaith the Equipment Officer call to Rodger to attend to a signal he had received,Rodger brought it into the office and sat down to read it. I watched his face as he read it . it went grey, pink, red and finally Purple.
After about ten minutes he called me and handed the signal to me and told me to pass on the information to Bing. The signal was from the Air Commodore stating that we were both to be attached to RAF. Seletar for one week. This meant that the weeks holiday did not count against our annual leave. Bing and me enjoyed our weeks leave but were thinking how we would get on with Rodger when we returned.......... WATCH OUT FOR MORE JUNGLE JUICE AT A COMPUTER NEAR YOU SOON.. JUNGLE JUICE (4) A TRUE TALES STORY The weeks leave was over and Bing and me are back at work. There seems to be a change in Rodger and I put it down to rank tremble. At the end of the week Rodger announced to us all that he was a member of the Elite Malayan Airways Club and said he was going there after work for a drink and anyone was welcome to join him as he was paying. There was a barrage of excuses, Rodger said "ah well" and looked at me, "what about you" said Rodger, I opened my mouth and out came "I will be there" I dont know why I said it. The chaps looked at me and shook their heads. In an hour we were seated in the club with a couple of beers, I remained silent because Rodger never stopped talking and was telling me about a visit from the auditors to the section. The section was in a terrible mess, most of you would be on a charge for not doing your job properly not to mention what would happen to me and the Equipment Officer. After the audit you will find I am not Mr.Nasty and I promise you I will make up for all the hard work that you all have put in. Rodger was as good as his word. Rodger made a rota out and we took turns for gash weekends down to Singapore and he even arranged the flights usually when the squadrons of Aussie Vallettas were changing over. It was normal for the last plane taking off to do a shoot up of the airfield at very low altitude (shear madness). Guard duty at the section lasted for one week every couple of months and you slept there. Early one Sunday morning the RAF police found a door open in the clothing store and took a couple of greatcoats as evidence. The Provo Marshal rang next morning and said he was going to charge the two on duty for not checking the security of the building. Rodger said he would charge the policemen for stealing the coats, they should have contacted the duty pair and secured the door. The Provo gave in but Rodger gave the duty pair another weeks duty. Cinema at the camp was an old GB 516 sound projector stood on a table in one of the old Bashers, a portable screen was erected at one end. The projector often broke down during show times.. Bing and me would go into KL centre every weekend and he introduced me to Mr Law and Harry Sway of Swee Electro Radio 5-7 Bukit Bintang Road. just around the corner from the PUDU JAIL. When I told Mr Law about the projector he sent his van to the camp with a brand new GEC model for me to use. Another friend of Mr Law used to leave me a bottle of SUKI YAKI every week as he owned a distillery at Seremban. The chaps in the billet did not believe I knew such people until one day I was given a lift into camp in a large American Cadillac. Bing said he was going to make a radio because nobody had one and I missed his company for a couple of weeks while he finished the task. the whole section gathered around for the great switch on.....Control to Hornet one five was all Bing could get out of it, I will check with the signals section for the frequency that it is on and adjust it. Bing got an awful telling off for stumbling onto a secret frequency and told to clear off. Bing was now getting ready to leave for Blighty,his time was up. I really did miss him but I contiued to see the contacts he gave me. Aircraft guard was about every couple of months with 2hrs on 4hrs off during the hours of darkness. this was a time when you met guys from other sections and there was a few characters among them including one which was wearing more medal ribbons than King George VI and shooting a line about the battles he had been in. A Police Sergeant heard him one night and quizzed him, he promptly put him on a charge for wearing medals he was not entitled to........ HALT! WHO GOES THERE JUNGLE JUICE (5) ADVANCE TO YOUR COMPUTER AND READ SOON......
JUNGLE JUICE (5) A TRUE TALES STORY
My friend and I are walking up and down the aircraft park guarding the Hornets, Brigands,Valettas and Royal Navy Helicopters from attack,mind you The RAF.Reg.were all around us. We were doing our last 2 hours from one till three in the morning and it was now half past three and no relief in sight. Something was wrong, had they all fell asleep? I dought it, time was getting on it was nearly half past four and I could just see them coming. Whats wrong I asked, Get back and find out was the answer,we did. We were met outside the guardroom and ordered to unload our rifles, then we went inside the new guardroom, it was commissioned just a couple of weeks ago. Oh dear! what a mess, our relief had loaded their rifles inside and one chap accidently put one up the spout and pulled the trigger and there was a large hole in the new guardroom ceiling, the duty officer had to be called and the chap was put on a charge.
Another place to guard was the Buildings section compound, it was situated on the edge of the jungle and was about 600yards straight down from the guardroom. the road to it was unlit and I had the privilege of doing the first nights guard on the place. It was pitch black and the only light I could see was at the guardroom, I had a tiny torch of about one candle power. Then I could hear footsteps not from boots but jungle boots, I was straining to see who it was.....Oh no! it was a dog handler and his dog was not on its lead. Now these dogs were trained killers and had several kills to their credit. I was supposed to point my gun and shout Who goes there but I did not instead I lay my rifle on the road and said Hi there. The dog would attack anyone who pointed a gun at it even its handler.
Another new building had sprung up, The Astra Cinema and the Royal Air Force Cinema Corporation was looking for Projectionists and I applied. I had a perfect CV. you see when I was at RAF Acklington I had a Pathescope 9.5mm center sprocket hand driven projector which I used to show Charlie Chaplin silent films on, needless to say.......... I got the job. I was trained by a smashing guy and great engineer who taught me all he new, on opening night he was delighted with the smooth change overs from reel to reel and the sharpness of the picture. I had saved up for many months to buy a tape recorder which were just coming on the market and after a while started a request show which was recorded and played back half an hour before the start of the film.
There were no servicewomen on the camp so during one of my gash weekends in Singapore I called into The Cinema Corporations office to arrainge for some MGM colour musicals to be sent up to us.
Also during this weekend I went to Radio Malaya To see the Ong Pow show being recorded and spoke to Ken Thorne who invited me to the studios to be with him putting out his early record program. Ken moved up to the KL studios and made some of his Ong Pow Shows on the stage of the Astra cinema.
Not having women on the camp led to a few guys falling for the local girls but if they asked to marry them they found that the next day they would be on a plane for British Honduras or somewhere like that. in our section one guy wanted to change his religion and only ate native food and had on native clothes. This prompted a visit from a very high ranking Chaplain. When sitting at my desk I could see the main road going past the end of the building and it was not unusual to see staff cars with flags flying and stars on top, the High Commissioner for Malaya General Sir Gerald Templer often went to the airport. This day I saw a staff car with all the usual flags and stars go past, in a second I heard The Equipment Officer Stamping his feet, YES SIR, Mr. RODGER, he steps inside YES SIR, Rodger comes back out, DOLAN, What on earth have I done ,Its alright Mr. Rodger I will just have a little talk with John. It was the Chaplin-in-Chief Armed Forces from the War Office in London and he had more scambled egg on his hat than the cookhouse does for breakfast. He was a curate at my home town Parish were I was born..................
DONT MISS THE LAST DROPS OF JUNGLE JUICE (6) THE BOTTLE IS NEARLY EMPTY BE THERE......
JUNGLE JUICE (6) A TRUE TALES STORY
I had now climbed up to the dizzy height of Leading Aircraftsman, Rodger had promoted me and wanted me to take the corporals trade test but I refused. I told Rodger that I would pass it no problem but within a short space of time I would be posted to a camp without a corporal and I did not want to move.
The demob calender I had was getting towards the end of the year (1953) just four months to go and I started to get my packing case ready. I looked back on the many happy times I had and the lovely people I had met, Mr. Canoo (a Tamil) was in the desk behind me and what a great help he had been, many times he would take over some of the ledgers and bring them up to date when I could not cope with all the work. Mr. Gomez ( Indian) worked as a storeman and was a big gentleman, one day when I was acting clever with a powerful magnet I went round the guys checking to see if their watches were anti-magnetic. All the watches fail to stop when the magnet was applied except one, Mr. Gomez had an expensive Omega and it stopped dead but started going again when the magnet was removed. It was about two weeks later that Mr. Gomez sheepishly approached me, his hands clasped together like an alter boy, Mr. Dolan I am sorry to tell you that I had to take my watch to the jewellers to be demagnetised and it cost me $M10 Dollars. That was a lot of money to a guy like Gomez so I learned my lesson and said sorry and gave him the ten dollars.
There was an incident at the camp when a bomb dropped off a Brigand aircraft as it was taking off and the camp was on alert, the bomb was fused and we were all pleased when it was removed. Rodger somehow found out my birthday and made plans. On the day we went to Malayan Airways Club had a load to drink after which we called back at my billet to change into long trousers and then to Rodgers Married Quarters, Mrs. Rodger was preparing dinner and I was invited. The dinner was going to be another hour or so , Rodger got out another half dozen bottles of his favourite lager(SWAN) and we started to get through them, dinner was nearly ready and I felt awful,Rodger nipped in to see to something.........Thats all I remember. I woke up in my billet on my bed, Oh! you are back with us then chirped in the guys. Later that next day I met Rodger and said I was sorry about what had happened," not as sorry as I was ,John, the missus gave me some stick for getting you in such a state.
Four servicewomen from the WRAF came to the camp as a trial, I did not see much of them except at the cinema with different boyfriends each time, well they had plenty to choose from.
The time had come leave KL and Rodger told me that he had discovered a fraud going on among some of the civilian store workers but was keeping quiet till I got demobbed in case it affected my departure. He also said that he was thinking of going for a commission if he could go in above Pilot Officer rank.
Singapore looked even better now that I was going to leave. I had worked it out that I would be going back on the troopship Empire Fowey but it was fully booked. I was told I would be going back by air.I stood and watched the large transport planes flying down Changi runway when I was told to get fixed up with a civvy passport. Next morning I left Singapore on a B.O.A.C. airliner to arrive at London Heathrow the following evening. I was met and taken to the officers quarters at Hendon and sent home the next day. In about a month I met Sheila and my new life had begun.
Months later I received a letter from Rodger telling me of the fraud and the termoil it had caused. A year later he contacted me again saying he was a Flying Officer. One afternoon forty years later Sheila answered the telephone and after answering a couple of questions said "ITS FOR YOU", It was my old friend Vince Bingham.
SORRY BUT I HAVE RUN OUT OF JUICE................ THE END.