HELICOPTERS in MALAYA

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27858, 5 January 1956, Page 5

HELICOPTERS in MALAYA

OPERATIONS OF FLEET AIR ARM CHRISTCHURCH MAN’S SERVICE Sixteen months of flying helicopters in support of ground troops in Malaya has convinced Mr A. I. R. Jamieson, of Christchurch, that there is an assured future in New Zealand for these aircraft. •*A company with sufficient capital could buy a few of those machines and could operate them throughout the country on crop dustihg, supply, and other work without ever being short of business.” he said last evening. “For crop dusting they are perfect. They can operate at very low levels, and the down-draught from their rotors ensures that every particle lands just where it is wanted.” Mr Jamieson, who returned to New Zealand this week, left with his wife and three sons in 1951 to take up a short-service commission with the Fleet Air Arm. In 1953 he transferred from fixed-wing aircraft, and towards the end of that year joined the Fleet Air Arm’s No. 848 Squadron, which had then been in Malaya 11 months. They were based on Kuala Lumpur, and he and his family lived there during his service, which took him all over the colony. “We flew casualty evacuations, troop lifts, resupply operations to ground forces, and communications flights,” said Mr Jamieson. In 10 minutes a helicopter could carry five troops 10 miles and drop them into a clearing of 100 square feet. In difficult country that trip could take the same troops up to four days on foot. “In some of the swampy districts they were lucky to cover 100 yards an hour.” Guns and Tractors On one occasion they carried a 25pounder gun into one of the jungle forts, and quite often tractors were flown in. “These were taken down into 8001 b to 10001 b loads, lashed to frames, and taken directly in to the forts, where they were used to build airstrips. By the time we arrived -with the last load the engineers were ready to make their final adjustments and drive off,” he said. One of the less popular jobs was bringing out Communist guerrillas, who had been killed by ground troops, for identification. In the steamy jungles of Malaya, where decomposition set in after only a few hours, the bodies were generally referred to by the pilots as “stinkers.” But recently Chinese liaison officers were going on patrol with the troops, and they made their identification on the spot, so that the bodies could be buried immediately. Parachute drops of troops from . helicopters were most successful, said Mr Jamieson. “We could drop a stick of four men to land within 20 yards, while a Valetta transport, dropping about 20 or 30 men, would spread them over half a mile.” In dangerous, thickly-forested coun- ■ try, this could mean that many of the I men could be cut off from each other •for some time, which greatly in- ! creased the risk to each member of the patrol. Three Sorties a Day While he was in Malaya the squad--1 ron flew an average of three sorties a day with its 10 machines—four at a time were withdrawn for maintenance. Up to the time he left, in May j last year, the squadron had flown 10.000 hours with only two write-offs. I “We had lifted 700.0001 b of freight, evacuated 700 casualties and carried

30.000 troops.” said Mr Jamieson. “It could be a very long job to , eradicate all the Communists in f Malaya.” he said. “Large areas of the country—which is the size of England and Scotland combined—have now been cleared and declared ‘white.’ but there are still huge, districts where the guerrillas have moved back into the mountains and are a constant

menace. I “The arrival of the helicopter •quadron in Malaya certainly hastened things,” he said. “If there has been an imorovement there, it could fairly be said that the helicopter has ? played a big part.”