Laurie.
Hope you managed to see the documentry. With regards to other documentary Vat 69. This special Police unit when raised in the late 1960s ? was trained by the SAS at Fort Kemar. I understand that one of the reasons why it was named Vat 69,was because the first CO, a Malaysian, had spent some time during the emergency serving with Brits in Police Jungle Companies which later became Police Field Forces. It was while serving with Brits in these operational units where water was banned ! that he acquired a taste for the Whisky,Vat 69. On being appointed the CO of this newly formed yet unnamed Special Police unit, some wag on seeing how the CO enjoyed this particular brand, said lets call it Vat 69 and the name stuck. True ? The other reason, which to me is a very weak one, but done to get away from the drink image .With the unit being raised in 1969 it was named Vat 69 after the year. Maybe the documentary will come up with yet an other story of why this special Police unit goes under the name of Vat 69.
Roy.

Roy.

VAT 69 also became known as....."THE POPE'S PHONE NUMBER." Maybe the lads in pea green were hoping for a wee bit of divine intervention.


_________________
Mike Barton

Mike.
Thanks for that, I'll give his cage a rattle.

Roy.

Follows wrote:

Laurie.
Hope you managed to see the documentry. With regards to other documentary Vat 69. This special Police unit when raised in the late 1960s ? was trained by the SAS at Fort Kemar. I understand that one of the reasons why it was named Vat 69,was because the first CO, a Malaysian, had spent some time during the emergency serving with Brits in Police Jungle Companies which later became Police Field Forces. It was while serving with Brits in these operational units where water was banned ! that he acquired a taste for the Whisky,Vat 69. On being appointed the CO of this newly formed yet unnamed Special Police unit, some wag on seeing how the CO enjoyed this particular brand, said lets call it Vat 69 and the name stuck. True ? The other reason, which to me is a very weak one, but done to get away from the drink image .With the unit being raised in 1969 it was named Vat 69 after the year. Maybe the documentary will come up with yet an other story of why this special Police unit goes under the name of Vat 69.
Roy.

Roy, watched the programme last night. It lasted for two hours and was quite good. Saw your good self firstly recalling conditions in the jungle (hope the leeches are not still in the parts that other creepies can't reach!) and, later, recalling your days at Fort Brooke. Others who recalled events from that time were Leon Comber, J J Raj, Tim Hatton, Yuen Yuet Leng and several others including ex-CTs. Apart from film clips, no sign of CP himself though.

The VAT 69 story is to be shown next week. According to the trailers, the VAT stands for "Very Able Troopers". Will watch out for that one too.

[quote="LaurieB"]

Follows wrote:

]

Roy, watched the programme last night. It lasted for two hours and was quite good. Saw your good self firstly recalling conditions in the jungle (hope the leeches are not still in the parts that other creepies can't reach!) and, later, recalling your days at Fort Brooke. Others who recalled events from that time were Leon Comber, J J Raj, Tim Hatton, Yuen Yuet Leng and several others including ex-CTs. Apart from film clips, no sign of CP himself though.
The VAT 69 story is to be shown next week. According to the trailers, the VAT stands for "Very Able Troopers". Will watch out for that one too.

Laurie.
Pleased to read that you managed to see the programme. With Chen Pengs book, 'My Side of History ', being banned in Malaysia, the government most likely stopped Novista the producers of the documentary, from showing ole grandpa Chen Peng being interveiwed.
To make sure there's no leeches in my delicate parts I'll have another FFI . In case the one in particular moved further down this sensitive orifce of my anatomy, I was too scared to try burning it off Ouch ! or to sprinkle a few grains salt on it. But when in a desperate situation , it's marvelous what you can do with thorn.
Re Vat 69 'Very Able Troopers.' Maybe it fits the initials, but to me it does not sound quite right. If they are that keen to get rid of the Whisky image they should go for ' Virgins Available Tomorrow ',but the trouble is, this VAT can't be guaranteed.

Roy.

Roy, for the record, Chin Peng's book is available here. I bought a copy just after it was published. Was introduced to, and had a short conversation with, the two "co-authors" in a restaurant here at Batu Ferringhi around the same time. Since then, the book has been translated into chinese as well. Still available from book shops here.

On the TV programme, our friend down south missed the original broadcast and only caught the final 20 minutes or so of a repeat yesterday. I have now provided him with a schedule of repeats early next week. It is being shown on the History Asia channel which I think is seperate from the History channel as shown in the UK.

Hope the FFI went off okay.

Regards,

Laurie.

Laurie.
Re Chin Pengs book. I don't where I had it from, but I always had the impression it was banned in Malaysia ,so thanks fro putting me right. I'm now wondering why he was axed from the documentary, had his interview been shown which I saw, it would have added more interest to it.
I alerted our southern friend a few days before it was due to be screened so I'm sorry to read that he missed most of it.
The producers of documentary should be sending me a DVD of it shortly, so from this they must making them to sell.
Should you see it when it's screened I would be interested to know the out come of VAT 69.
Roy.

Roy, sorry for the delay in posting the reply on VAT69. The programme was quite good. It opened with the incident on 17 June 1968 which kicked off the second emergency. I was here on the Island at that time and remember the reports in the media.

The incident was the ambush of a Police Field Force convoy in the Betong border area. The people in the convoy were returning from a patrol and the ambush left 17 dead and many more wounded. This led to the formation of the "Very Able Troopers". That definition was repeated throughout.

The programme then went on to look at one of the first troops to be formed. Through the medium of interviews with the personnel concerned, it went on to look at their ops into the mid-70s.

Laurie. From what you say the documentary about the Police Special unit VAT 69, appears to be a most interesting one. With regards to the Police Field Force being ambushed when returning after operating in Betong area Thailand . No 1 PFF used to be based at Kepala Batas, not far from your neck of the woods and No 2PFF at Ipoh. During the emergency platoons from both these PFFs often crossed the Thai border to operate in the Betong salient where Chin Peng had his made HQ, after moving there from his previous HQ somewhere north of the Cameron Highlands. So with No1 and No 2 PFF operating in Thailand ,it was most likely it was a platoon from one of those PFFs that were ambushed in 1968. When I was with 4 PFF Johore ,the platoon was sent all the way from Johore to No1 PFF Kepal Batas , to operate in Thailand for a month. On arriving at No 1 PFF I was informed plans had been changed, and instead of going after CP in the Betong salient ,we were to operated in the Gng Bintang area which is some twenty five miles eastish of Kulim. For the whole month while operating in this mountainous terrain never a day or night passed with out it pouring down. With our base camps quickly turning into quagmires,it came impossible to keep our sleeping gear and change of clothes dry . With the rain ,mist it made it dodgy for the aircrafted to find our little DZs amongest the high ground, but surprisingly of the five airdrops only one arrived late .Because of the continous rain this operation in in Gng Bintang region was the most wretched one I ever did.
Roy.