ps and Malaysia troop 19 Signal Regt.
Operations Troop and Malaysia Troop…retold from “Our History”
The start of Confrontation with Indonesia began with the revolt in Brunei on 8th December 1962. This immediately involved the Regiment in an operational commitment and at long last Malaya Squadron, consisting mainly of Malaysia Troop and Operations (Ops.) Troop which had been formed for such an eventuality, was put to the test.
The first detach ment from Ops. Troop arrived in Labuan for active service on 12 December and two further detachments and an officer moved in the next week. Initially they were deployed at Labuan and Brunei airfields, activat ing these to operational readiness. A 40-line F & F switchboard was in stalled at Labuan and a small 10-line magneto at Brunei. The detachment was also given the task in providing some of the communications for HQ COMBRITBOR in Brunei Town, where a further 40-line F & F switch board was installed for Force HQ. By the end of the month one officer and 14 men were deployed in the Borneo Territories. However in the New Year as the situation became more stable it was possible to withdraw two of the detachments leaving behind a few men on the two airfields to main tain the line systems. This maintenance task involved the rehabilitation of UG (Underground) cables mainly on Labuan airfield and this work continued for the next two months. In addition some minor telephone installations at Kuching were completed in February
Confrontation still brought calls on the Regiment for installation and repair work in Borneo. Ops. roop now found itself involved in radio-relay when in January 1964 a small team as sent to Kuching to install a B 70 radio-relay link between Kuching Airport and West Brigade in Kuching Town. This was to be a back-up in the event of a breakdown in the civil line communications. COMBRITBOR then moved from Borneo to a new combined headquarters in Labuan where a line detachment was sent to assist in the combined services project for the new headquarters. The threat of increased Indonesian air activity necessitated the basing of fighter aircraft at Kuching and this in turn meant that the airfield com munication system had to be made more sophisticated. A project was planned which included the laying of cable tails for the transmitter site, the T-type radar convoy, aircraft dispersals and navaids. An additional 10 + 50 exchange was also included. The installation task was undertaken by two detachments of Malaya Troop, and for the first time these included some LEP tradesmen.
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In August 1964 Malaya Troop took over all commitments in North Borneo in order to release Operations Troop for another major SEATO Exercise in Thailand, called AIR BOON CHOO. Three detachments were deployed to the exercise headquarters at Don Muang and the airfields at Korat and Udorn. One of the most complex of circuits from an engineering point of view was a link from HQ FEAF in Singapore to the Exercise HQ at Don Muang. The routing was from RAF Circuit Control at Changi, through Main System Control (Army) Singapore, then via the Golden Arrow (SWB 8) to Bangkok and on to the US Army Microwave System into Don Muang and finally over a D10 field cable run to the terminal. It worked!
In North Borneo the project installation teams at Labuan and Kuching completed their work and returned to Singapore. However a further out post of the Regiment was added to the already impressive list when another airfield required activating, namely Tawau in Sabah; this involved the usual exchange installation and cable tails to the Technical and Domestic sites
