Jungle ambush: ‘We got into this cutting and all hell broke loose’

Sir Donal Keegan, Lord Lieutenant for the City of Londonderry, handing over the award to Fred Cappendale during a recent ceremony in the Services Club. Included are George Black, left, Northern Ireland Chairman of the Royal British Legion, and Jim Thompson, who was also presented with a medal for his service in Singapore from 1964 to 1967. INLS4113-101KM

SIXTY-FIVE years ago this winter Waterside native Fred Cappendale was ambushed by communist guerrillas whilst escorting money and explosives to the Sungei Lembing tin mine in the North East of the Malay peninsula.

Fred’s 4th Queen’s Own Hussars had been tasked there in September 1948 after the outbreak of hostilities between communist and commonwealth forces in what soon became dubbed the ‘Malayan emergency.’

Their role was to help secure the colony and shore up its tin mines and rubber plantations.

On December 14, 1948, Fred was in the rearguard of a convoy that included civilians from the local mining company.

The eighteen-year-old had a perfect view of the Malayan Races Liberation Army (MRLA) attack, which occurred as the trucks entered a defile in light jungle in Pahang province.

“All I can remember is that we were in the last GMC (General Motors manufactured army transporter) in the back of the convoy and we could see everything that was happening in front of us. We got into this cutting and all hell broke loose,” he says.

Fred and his colleagues were strafed with heavy automatic fire as the rebels used the natural bottleneck to pin the commonwealth forces down.

“I was in the GMC as a radio operator,” said Fred. “Fudge was the driver of the GMC. There was a planter - a civilian from the Sungei Lembing tin mine and there were three Sergeants who were all going up for a hoochie poochie [signals drinking motion].

“Suddenly, there was this bang, with the machine gun and the lorry load of explosives went up. And all I could see was this boy coming from an open 1500 weight Dodge police vehicle.

British Police Sergeant, Sgt. Jones, had been travelling in a police vehicle with the convoy and had taken the full force of the blast.

What happened next earned Fred the British Empire Medal (BEM), which he received in 1949.

Fred takes up the story: “They (Sgt. Jones and colleagues) were behind the lorry that blew up and he must’ve got caught in the blast of that, you know. He made his way as best he could out of the vehicle. All the Malay police and all bucked off as quick as they could get away.

“So I looked at Fudge and he looked at me and we thought: Right, off we go, We’ll go and get this boy.’

According to the official recommendation Fred and Fudge left the cover of their armoured vehicle and made their way 70 yards to Sgt. Jones, all the time under heavy and accurate fire from enemy forces. They showed no regard for their own safety.

Modestly, Fred recounts: “But they say we ran seventy yards and they say they were firing on us but I’ve no appreciation of that at all.