The story today is similat in Kuantan where
the 1/10th have been for just over two months,
and where the rise in public morale had kept
pace with each new Gurkha gain.
The people’s handgrenade us information
and when there was a time when they; feared
it would explode in their face, the Gurkha successes
have encouraged them to use it in the knowledge
that it would explode with certainty among the
Communists.
The Gurkhas’ achievement in this area
cannot be judged by statistics alone although
31 terrorists killed seemed a very creditable
score.
A company under the command of Major Purne
Rai had just returned to camp when Brooke-Wavell
visited it. Mr. Brooke-Wavell described the
major as “a remarkable man,” aged
53 with 36 years of continuous fighting. He
can outmarch and endure more hardship than any
of his men.
The company’s achievement is typical
of other companies of the 1/10 who are still
deep in the jungle. Their target was remote
unexplored territory. Their intention was to
find the 7th Regiment headquarters if they could,
if not least to destroy the terrorist food growing
areas and kill us many Communists as possible.
They succeeded in finding the Headquarters
camp but it had been evacuated two days previously.
However, the Gurkhas certainly did justice to
the rest of their program. A large number of
secret food growing areas have been discovered,
one or two very large indeed, and 31 terrorists
have been killed, nine of these by Major Purne
Rai’s Company.
Until the Gurkhas probed deep into the jungle
to find them it was not realized how extensive
these terrorist food growing areas were.
The Communists thought they were so remote
that they would be safe until the end of the
Emergency, but they failed to reckon with the
Gurkhas.
The success of the 1/10th in this operation
is once again a tribute to their skill in tracking,
speed of movements in jungle and power to strike
in ambush, and persistence.
