"NZ Troops Earn Ghurkhas’ Praise" – Evening Post 16 July 1969

[pardus]

Thought this was pretty cool.

Liked the effectiveness of the tracking that was to be used very soon very successfully by the Kiwis in Vietnam shorty after this article was written.

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New Zealand troops won high praise last week from the 3rd Ghurkha Independent Parachute Company in a jungle search & rescue operation in [Johore]. When two Ghurkha soldiers, who were undergoing a selection course for entry to the crack parachute unit, failed to appear on the last leg of a two-day jungle navigation test, the Ghurkhas asked 1RNZIR to help them search for the missing men. Although due to return to Terendak Camp after an 18-day exercise in the bush, the NZ battalion redeployed immediately to help the Ghurkhas. The Ghurkha company has in the past played enemy to the NZ battalion & has also formed part of the battalion on exercises.

Breaking down into eight-man sections, the Kiwis quartered an 18,000 square yard tract of jungle & in the second day a section found the missing soldiers tracks. A second section cut their track & was able to determine the direction they were taking. The section radioed back the information that one of the soldiers was being dragged by his mate. British engineers quickly redeployed into the area towards which the missing men were heading & began cutting a helicopter pad. As the first ‘chopper’ came in, the missing Ghurkhas staggered out of the jungle. They had heard the power saw & made for the noise. Dressed only in vest, trousers & boots, with a water bottle but no rations, the Ghurkhas lost their way when a herd of elephants scattered them at 3PM on July 8th. They found each other at 1PM the next day, but one of them had blood poisoning in both legs incurred when crashing through 'brambles' [emphasis by website editor] to escape the elephants. Four times they waved at helicopters but the canopy was too thick for the searchers to see them.

The story ended on a happy note: both men were accepted into the parachute company for their feat of survival. The Kiwis for their part received high praise at the end of a gruelling exercise & for the tracking skill that enabled them to pinpoint the missing Ghurkhas movements.

 

[Mac_NZ]

Damn thats a long time ago now. We have a barracks called Terendak nowadays.

 

[pardus]

During my Infantry corps training in Burnham, I was in Ipoh barracks, they were built during WWII, they were next to the Parade Ground that sits in .
front of 2/1sts Bn HQ.

They were so old that if you walked too heavily down the middle of the room the beds and wall lockers would slide into the middle of the room because the foundations were fucked, lol.
I was in the last depot company in those barracks...

Were you ever told why we have such reverence for the Drill Square/Parade Ground? there are a couple of Indian Soldiers buried under one of the Parade Grounds in one of 1 RNZIRs bases (there were three, I'm not sure which one it was) in Singapore, so a Parade Ground/Drill Square is Hallowed ground.

Just a little historical BS for ya...

 

[Mac_NZ]

They rebuilt Ipoh barracks mate. It houses the Support Company now. I had heard something along those lines about the parade ground, the original statues from Dieppe were relocated to Linton in 85 IIRC.

 

[pardus]

We didnt leave Singas until 1989 so prob not until then.

I was on Basic (258) during the closing/final parade for the withdrawal from Singas.