Primary jungle in contrast to secondary jungle (belukar), a cleared area reverting to forest. Landing-points can be seen at right.

Hard going through belukar.

Expecting trouble, in light order with belt and weapon only; bergen cached.

Wrong. Bunched and exposed. One burst from near the camera could wipe out the whole patrol.

George Stainforth (left), who for many months commanded the isolated patrol at Long Jawai in the Third Division of Sarawak, and Eddie Lillico; 1953.

Right. The distance between them is constantly adjusted so that the man in front is only just visible.

A jungle village.

A medic at work. (Soldier).

Semi-nomadic Punans in the Third Division of Sarawak, with SAS boots and clothing hanging out to dry.

Major John Edwardes, GM, in characteristic pose. He commanded ‘A’ Squadron in 1963 and Cross-Border Scouts during 1964-66.

Part of 1 Troop, spruced up. Back row, left to right: ‘Mau Mau’ Williams, Bill Condie, ‘Lofty’ Winmill, George Shipley, Bob Zeeman and Alec Kilgour. Front row, left to right: ‘Geordie’ McGaun, ‘Gipsy’ Smith, Ray England, ‘Paddy’ Freaney and ‘Spike’ Hoe.

The Three Camps operation.

The second of the three camps discovered by Sergeant ‘Smokey’ Richardson, belonging to the TNKU guerrillas and showing signs of general sloppiness.

Probably the camp where Trooper James Condon was murdered.

Hole in the forest.

Any fool can be uncomfortable. Even in a swamp, it is possible to sleep dry and cosy, but these bashas are too complex for quick dismantling if an enemy is thought to be near.

This basha is rigged for a hammock, which is just visible. Few signs of occupation need be left in the morning if nothing is cut and care taken not to bruise leaves, snap twigs or make rope-marks on the trees. Finally, footprints would be obliterated and leaves spread naturally.

The vulnerability to enemy ambush of a helicopter and its passengers at a border landing-point may be imagined.

Sergeant ‘Gipsy’ Smith’s hydro-electric generator at Talinbakus, Sabah.

Construction.

Teething troubles.

On stream.

Breakfast in the Haunted House, Brunei, 1964. Majors de la Billière (left), commanding ‘A’ Squadron, and Johnny Watts, ‘B’.

Iban Border Scout. The tattooing is largely religious and the crucifix wholly so, signifying a double insurance against the hazards of jungle life. The high brow and fine features, however, give the lie to any assumption of primitiveness, other than by environment.

Trooper Billy White, ‘a harum-scarum lad’ (left), killed in action in the Long Pa Sia Bulge, 6 August 1964.

A slim George Shipley at the end of a Borneo tour; the result of 2,000 calories a day instead of 3,600.

Boating could be convenient and at times delightful, but Very, very untactical’ if an enemy were to be on the bank.

The other side of the picture. This boat on the River Siglayan in eastern Sabah is passing an SAS OP to deliver a load of stores to an enemy camp upriver. Two hours later when it returned, all six soldiers on board were killed; the civilian helmsman was spared, unhurt. The story is not told in the text.

Swamp (photograph taken in Malaya).

Special Air Service: the Army’s Borneo strategy depended entirely on the skill and daring of RAF and Navy helicopter crews, the SAS making particularly challenging demands of them.

Longhouse (with hot tin roof) in Indonesian Borneo.

George Shipley (left) and Bill Condie looking apprehensive.

Joint planning session. SAS and Cross-Border Scouts on ‘The Island’.

Captain Malcolm McGillivray and Sergeant Nibau.

Corporal ‘Rob’ Roberts and Trooper Franks returning to ‘The Island’.

The wrong side of the river; looking back over the Bemban from Gunong Kalimantan.

How they crossed the Bemban.

The enemy camp on the River Bemban at which George Shipley in Bill Condie’s patrol found himself staring up a hillside completely cleared of undergrowth. Surrounded by a firing ditch and reinforced parapet with benches on which to keep watch in comfort were machine-gun dugouts, a mortar pit, a radio aerial ready for hoisting, basha frames needing only ponchos to keep out the rain and what could only have been a pair of parallel bars. ‘Keep-fit fanatics, the Indos’, says Shipley; curiously, the SAS themselves not being backward in that regard.

A fulfilled Cross-Border Scout (Iban).