The Malaysian Battalion in Cambodia

MALBATT’s arrival to Kampuchea was immediately followed with the deployment of the infantry elements throughout the countrysides. The deployment coverage was as follows, 1 Company in Siem Reap, 1 Company in Sisophon, 1 Company in Pouthsat minus a platoon in Phum Leach, 1 Company in Phum Treng and 1 Company in Battambang. Within Battambang, the MALBATT HQ was located in the Russian Hospital together with the Rear Communications Unit (Long Range HF radio to Malaysia) and the MALBATT Hospital component, The Sector HQ where the Contingent Commander is located at the airport complex, the logistics and support elements based under tentages nearby the Russian Hospital. The first order of the day was to secure the logistics requirement of the entire contigent and with the public facilities within Battambang town mostly in ruins or disrepair, MALBATT had to improvise from the start. Electricity supply was mainly from our own generator sets that was brought in via Thailand, unfortunately not Kubotas but some unknown Indian made? generators that made lots of noise but provided only a little power. Water was a bigger problem as the only source of water for the entire town was the Sanke River that flows through the town. But try to imagine the river more like a constant mud flow more than a river of water… the water pumps have to work overtime to draw the mud laden water out of the river into our black water bladders installed by the river side for water purification purposes. Upon filling the first bladder, alum is added to separate the sediment from the water, alum makes the sediment settle fast, leaving a layer of clear water on top. For every bladder of raw muddy water we extract from the river, we could only get about half a bladder of clear water for the next process. The next process is the clorination of the water before it is pumped onto a large water bladder mounted on the top of a tower. This back breaking work starts early in the morning before dawn and continues throughout the day until dark as we eventually provided water to ALL the UN components located in Battambang including the Indian Medical Battalion, the Pakistan Logistics Company, the UN civilian component, etc apart from our own units there. The main problem with our water plant location was that it is located about 2 km from our nearest units and the equipment are pretty much left in the open. By the end of the day, most of the assault pioneer platoon manning the water plant are worned out and were almost sleep walking and we were warned that leaving equipment unattended would invite pilfering and theft. So we organized breakfasts, lunches and dinners to be served to the local police personnel who were manning the bridge nearby plus entertainment by way of a television set with the VCR, and soon we were enjoying 24 hour protection from the local police and militia so that our most exposed location actually became the safest and most peaceful one in the end. That settled, the next project undertaken was weapons familiarization for all the troops, ie, to train our troops how to handle the weapons that are being used by the warring factions in Cambodia. Most, if not all our troops have been trained to handle the M16, M40 Grenade Launcher, HK G33, HK 11A1, Experenza 60mm mortar, Commando 60mm mortar and the General Purpose Machine Gun. But most of the weapons used by the factions were Eastern Bloc manufactured or their Chinese/Vietnamese copies. So I called on the local military commander, Battambang province was under the responsibility of the Cambodian People’s Armed Forces (CPAF) 5th Military Region. He was most cooperative and so I collected a full Land Rover load of light infantry weapons from him including the PPSh-41 Sub Machine Gun of WW2 vintage, the Dektarev Light Machine Gun also of WW2 vintage, the SKS Carbines, the AK-47 Assault Rifle or the Type-56 China made copy, the RPD Light Machine Gun, the RPK GPMG, the B-40 Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher and lots more. The DShK Heavy Machine Gun was a little too much to handle so we left that behind. The core group of trainers took about 1 week to familiarize ourselves with these weapons and then began a tour to all the MALBATT component locations throughout the country to conduct training in situ and to meet the troops at all the forward locations. --- to be continued ---