A BRIEF HISTORY OF LIFE IN REME

A Craftsman’s Story 1948 to I953

 Contributed by: Phil KEMPSTER

Chapter Twelve.

Johore Baru, Malaya. Sept 1951 To Oct 1952

I was posted to a REME Inspectorate unit with 221 Vehicle Battalion, R.A.O.C. in Johore Baru, Malaya, this would be some time towards the end of September 1951.

The road from Johore Baru leading up to Majeede Barracks and the workshops. This road went up to the border check-point and beyond up into Malaya.

Majeede Camp, not the best accommodation I had stayed in. They were large concrete barrack blocks with rooms connected by a long corridor with about ten beds in a room. There were no cooling fans and sleeping under mosquito nets in the heat was awful.

Another view of this very good straight road leading up country.

My time at Johore Baru was very interesting, our Inspectorate section consisted of a small workshops with an inspection ramp. There were about 20 of us consisting of vehicle mechanics, clerks, a welder, and of course our old man, Capt Balsam, and not forgetting myself, driver mechanic Phil (Blondie) Kempster. My memory for names past is not so good these days, the only names that spring to mind are Cfn Vickers, L./Cpl Ted Wright, Cfn Doug Green, Cfn Littlejohns, Cfn Sprake, I think these were all Vehicle Mechanics, then Cfn Tooke, Sandy, Spud, Jock, from Admin and Paddy the Welder.

L/Cpl Ted Wright inside the corridor of our barrack block.

Majeede Barracks.

The Ghurkha troops were mostly under canvas, apart from the married families. The conditions they lived in were terrible to say the least.

A ceremony being performed by the Ghurkhas to a new recruit for him to be initiated into their regiment. The goat’s head had to be severed with one blow. There are some RAOC and REME personnel watching.

He was successful.

Our jobs were to road test all new vehicles coming in from the UK before they went into storage with the R.A.O.C 221 Battalion. The vehicle park covered a vast area, full of all types and makes of military vehicles some were American and Canadian, and dating back to WW2 days.

I remember when I first arrived here Capt Balsam said to me “We are waiting for a new Ford 15 Cwt to come in for you so have a look around the compound and find something we can use as a runabout for the time being.” I thought to myself Kempster this is your lucky day. Off I went and found myself a WW2 type Jeep in good nick, got it started eventually, it took me a while to find the starter button you had to engage it with the gear shift lever. I had a good run round the compound to get used to it, checking the brakes etc. I was used to LH drive from my Dodge days. I took it for the boss to look at and took him for a spin, he approved of my choice and we used it until the Ford 15Cwt arrived. (I think secretly he felt like General Patton, sat there with me driving him around). I sometimes took his wife shopping at Orchard Road Cold Store in Singapore, they had a house not far from the camp and one of my duties was to pick him up and take him to and from work each day.

All good things come to an end, my new Fordson 15 Cwt arrived so it was goodbye to the Jeep, I really loved that vehicle, and hope one day I can own one if I come up on the lottery (some hopes).

To continue with my experiences - during my time in Singapore and Malaya, although most of my time was taken up with driving, I did volunteer for some other duties. I remember some of us from the Inspectorate section in Johore volunteering for a weekend of guard duty on some ammunition barges that were anchored just offshore near the causeway at Johore Baru.

The causeway looking towards Johore.

Myself doing some maintenance on my truck at the REME Workshops in Johore.

L/Cpl Ted Wright road testing an Austin Tilly.

One of the workshop mechanics working on a Daimler Scout Car.

Three REME mechanics working in the very primitive workshops at 221 Battalion, RAOC, Johore, in 1952.

Road testing a new Land Rover, REME Inspectorate, Johore, 1952.

Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me but I do have a photo of me stood on the centre of the causeway that must have been taken at this time by one of the lads. Another thing I remember was to drive the team to and from the docks in Singapore. Parked in a compound within the docks there were quite a number of Army vehicles, tanks, artillery guns, etc., that were being shipped in from Korea, including some captured Russian T34 tanks that the Communist forces had been using against our forces in that conflict. All this was being assembled ready to be shipped back to the UK and our job was to road test and check over some A.E.C. Matador trucks that were staying here. I remember after testing one of these trucks I started to get some pain in my groin, I thought I may have strained myself as the steering on these A.E.C. Gun Tractors was very heavy, (powered steering was unheard of in those days).

I thought no more about it until a couple of days later when the pain started again, this time a lot worse. I reported to the M.I. room, this was on a Sunday morning, I saw the duty Doctor and he diagnosed it as acute indigestion, he gave me some white medicine to take and sent me back to my quarters, the next morning I was in terrible pain and I had a high temperature, I refused to get out of bed to get ready for work. Ted our L/Cpl threatened to put me on a charge, I told him where to go and said you had better get me to the MI room, I think I am dying he realised then I was not having him on and got me to the duty Doctor rapidly.

The doctor took one look at me, took my temperature, that was about 100 centigrade. He said “I think you have Appendicitis and I am sending you off to hospital.” An ambulance arrived, I remember it being an Austin K3 Ambulance with canvas sides and big red crosses all over it, and being driven by a Ghurkha driver (not the best drivers in the Army). It was raining cats and dogs and when it rained in Malaya driving was very hazardous indeed. Anyway they strapped me to a stretcher, put me into one of the four racks inside the ambulance, and off we went at a fair rate of knots and as some of you will remember, wet roads and cross country tyres on army trucks don’t go well together. There I was, laid there saying my prayers, the canvas sides were flapping about like the sails on a ship and me feeling like hell. Of course the inevitable happened, there was a screeching of tyres and a hell of a bang and we came to a sudden halt. I could hear raised voices outside but could not understand a word, after a short while the back door opened and the medical orderly that was travelling with us must have thought he’d better check if the poor bugger in the back was okay. Apparently our driver had skidded into the back of a car being driven by a Malay civilian, so you can imagine the conversation between a Ghurkha, a Malay, and a British squaddie, all speaking different languages to each other, to top it all this was in the middle of the causeway between Johore and Singapore with sea on both sides. I know who would have come off worse if the ambulance had gone over the side into the drink. Eventually we got going again, arriving at B.M.H Singapore with a very sick man on board.

The British Military Hospital, Singapore, 1952.

I was seen by a doctor and taken straight to the operating theatre. When I woke up I was in a ward feeling terrible with the surgeon and nurses waiting to tell me they had removed my appendix just in time before it ruptured and I would remain in hospital for at least two weeks to recover. I awoke during the early hours of the morning feeling terrible and had a very high temperature, the smell from under my bedclothes was really bad. The night nurse came to see what was wrong with me, at first they thought I had messed the bed but on closer examination they realised that the horrible smell was coming from the dressings and my wound was leaking. She called for a doctor straight away, he took my temperature, it was 105c. On removing the dressing a nasty smelly grunge oozed out through the wound, the Surgeon was called, I had an infection, they told me not to worry and they would drain it out and start injections of Penicillin.

After a couple of days I started to feel better and my temperature had come down, the doctor told me that I was responding to the injections and he was quite pleased with my progress. By this time I was beginning to look around this ward I was in, and was shocked to see how many really sick men there were in the ward including some Ghurkha infantrymen with gunshot wounds, they had been ambushed by Communist forces whilst on patrol in the jungle up country in Malaya. One of them in the next bed to mine had two bullet holes in his chest, I used to watch the nurses change his dressings and push long strips of gauze into the holes in his chest to clean out the horrid smelling gangrene that was infecting his wounds. I remember seeing a male nurse faint while this was being done, they just left him lying there until they had finished then carted him away, no way could I have done their job.

Another lad in the next bed had been shot in the foot and had to have his foot amputated due to gangrene, another had wounds to his stomach but he did recover from this quite quickly. I will never forget this experience and will always have a lot of respect for the Ghurkha soldiers, I never once heard them complain, and they always looked cheerful in spite of their wounds. I continued to recover due to the excellent nursing and attention I was having, I think the medics of the R.A.M.C. and the Q.A.R.A.N.C. Sisters and Nurses are second to none.

I had a visit from Capt Balsam, my C.O. and some of the lads came in to see me, we did not get many visitors in this ward, probably due to the unpleasant smells, most beds had air wick bottles on our bedside tables. After a few more days and some torture from the Sister on the ward, she used to make me do exercises in bed, and every time she walked past my bed she used to shout “Kempster sit up straight and hold your shoulders back.” Oh boy was that painful but for my own good of course. Eventually I could get out of bed and walked to the toilet etc. on the mend at last. After a couple of more days I was examined by the doctor, told I was fit to travel and was going to be flown up to Epoh, and then by road to B.M.H. Cameron Highlands, where I was to spend two weeks convalescence before being discharged fit for return to my unit.

Published: 1st November 2007

Chapter Thirteen..