Ealier japs landed in kota baharu, going fast from kota baharu to grik , accelerating to reach kuala kangsar in order to cut the communication of the 11th Divison in Kedah. The division is falling and withdraw to line of perak river. Unable to hold the line, 11 th Div moved down to kampar when bulk of artillery gun position had their reach for covering fire. Eventually japs were expected to cross the line bfore christmas, and during this desperate moment Spencer arrived at Kuala Lumpur in the middle of air raid exactly on december 22, 1941. Knowing british going to leave major bulk of their force from malaya for retreat , his mission was very clear : to remain in the primer jungle of malaya and to train the native guerilla forces and battle on. He spent 3 year plus in the jungle until his success to built strong guerilla forces to resist japs througgh deadly encounter with the enemy and horrifying diseases.
The tactic adopted was hit and run raids behind the enemy lines and operations are focus at night time. first operation was executed at the trong river, targets are aimed particularly along the jap line of communication from taiping to the tanjung blanja over perak river. to further assist the operation, spencer had supplied of malay speaking who knew that part of perak. jungle always give great assurance of cover and concealment, for spencer diving to the ground would completely hidden him in the dense undergrowth and best methode to elude any pursuit. after sometime in the jungle, spencer had learned a lot about jap and the country. he managed flock back to kuala lumpur the sent his reconnaissance report and start to craft the plan for further actions to train the guerillas.
Spencer mentally awared how critical to recruit volunteers especially in the dense of malayan. for him the jungle is neutral, it provides unlimited for friend and foe, only attitude of mind whether you will go under or survive. some locals already are forced to provide information to the jap and they have closely align to to for protectection or fear of atrocities that jap may incur. volunteers among planters a favourable to spencer due to their robust nature and great sense of humor. they were group in to six and then operate in three pairs . they must be stronger in attack and defence and having ability to cary more explosives . during night, they are expected the operate in smaller group even a single person. from all his experience spencer sees the group need to have nature of run the lines of polar or climbing expedition than conventional millitary exercise. he managed to get the right people to run his business and confes brit like himself taking more long time to adapt to this kind battle space. he admitted that the length of british soldiers to sustain in the malayan jungle was only for few month or NCO perhaps could withstand a year. the hostility of malayan jungle is too severe with man eating tiger , deadly fevers, venomous snakes and scorpion and native with poisoned dart. luckily spencer manage to live with his new diet of rice and vegetables.
in keeping himself to daily events and getting information clear, spencer was keen on writing his war diary. he captured every name of places, locals , and would write every event in precise detail. the diary was consider valuable appaaratus and not to be loosed to anyone. in one situation, spencer had encounter an ambush and was slightly shot to his arm, he desperately crawled to ground to bury his diary before get captured by the japs and confiscate his diary. througout the years in the jungle , he kept very full diary and wrote it up each evening. but in one of the month he was down very ill and thought of going to die, he started to write his will and dictated it his war buddy , Haywood. at another occasion , he jumped from his ill bed panicking because has not written anything on his diary for two consecutive days. Hayward then tellling spencer the real truth that it was not two days, but he has been unconscious for seventeen days and had completely in comatose due to severe illness. Spencer also a keen reader and lacking of book in the jungle poorly effecct on his mind. when new loads of resuplly landed, he come to elate to see wonderfull selection of war books, among them John Brophy Target Island and Gibbs Battle Within. One of his nobel initiatives was producing illustrations of guerilla tactic manual , updated gun drills procedure and explosion methode which then become essential reference for guerilla volunteers.
guerilla camp was designed convienint as possible for the new volunteers to undergo their training. it was like any soldiers recruitment center routine, time were meticulously set for every recruitees to follow. as early at 4 am when the cook already start to heat up the kitchen bfore the whistle blew up at 530 for morning master parade. they are fully dressed up with complete weapons, fully armed within the 5 minutes of the whistle blowing. subsequently PT take place on the parade ground with mild strenous considering the volunteers low diet. after cleanup they will resume with formal parade, singing the ' red flag' and followed with talk that last for half an hour on several topics ; politics, camp disciplines include soviet war success. prime time training proceed with military training, arms drill , grenade throwing perfecting marching . many of the volunteers keen to learn the exact distance which rifle could kill , muzzle velocity of tommy gun , how many rounds per minute of lewis gun capable of. they were true learner and very fascinated with all the weapons. as the got any new type of weapon they eagerly strip it down with great enthusiasm. bfore last light call, a general debate will take place in main hut of the camp, on diverse subject smoking, how malaya fall and more serious topic that should jap prisoner be put to death or converted to communism and liberated? spencer felt that he had succesfully gathher the potential volunteer of winning the war.
in order reorganize this covert stay behind operation, force 136 was established to get things worked effectively. with former intructional 101 STS staffs that highly equipped with guerilla tactics, this force main intention was to disrupt the jap tenure of all occupied countries in any possible way. they have to work with chinese agents and ensure the member of the force are capable with the language and country background. they european member of the force have to join the guerilla in the jungle with their radio communication equipment and sent out information colllected by their chineese agents. the first operation know as Gustavus 1 was for a european and several chinese embark on Dutch submarine from Colombo and shipped by night using chinese boat north of malacca straits. they furher landed on the west coast between penang and port swettenham. subsequently the chinese in the party then contact the chinese ashore and link them to the guerilla. in duration of a month, they force come out by chinese fishing craft to be contacted again with the submarine. spencer was one of the member in the final expedition of this operation.
On august 6, 1945, the historic event took place, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and three day later a second bomb devestated nagasaki. On august 17 the cease fire order was sent to all force 136 peronnel in the field. spencer who had left malaya earlier being parachuted back to malaya at Kuala Lipis drop zone for final cordination of cease fire. spencer accepts the japaneese surrender in kuantan on september 30, 1945.
During his 3 years of fighting battle in malayan jungle , major spencer chapmen didnt realise that he was alredady promoted to Leut Colonel, until he received a letter that stated to his name and rank. upon his bravery and perseverence he was knighted as Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and Efficiency Decorations (ED) by british royal.
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