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Puhh-Din map by Deimos-Remus

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Commissioned artwork for 'Shaw - Captain: USMC' by Nathan Anderson deimos-remus.deviantart.com/

    Ceiling fans stirred the cigarette smoke in the air, which was just as well, because there was no cooling breeze entering through the open shutters of the classroom windows.
Seventy two men were crammed into the tropical bungalow type building at 14 Commonwealth Jungle Warfare School, eight were instructors and the remainder students from different regiments and arms.
    Lieutenant Peter Dawnosh, RM, was the officer in charge of this course and Chick Hoana, Dip Rai and Nigel Gill numbered among the instructors listening to Peter describing how the course was going to run.
    The preliminaries were out of the way, everyone had a copy of the course timetable, they knew where the cookhouse was, what day the bed sheet exchange took place and what the BFPO address was for letters home. Now, Peter was getting to the meat of the course.

    “This is Puhh-Din, Gentlemen, known as ‘Pudding’ to the boys and it sits at the foot of these impressively steep hills, all of which are covered in dense jungle growth.”
    Henry studied the map, noting the important features, which Peter was pointing out.
    “We call it the bowl because of its location and what it contains, a rich source of copper at the MacGellan mine, and some of the Michelin rubber plantations.”
    The pointer tapped the wall map where the Serikoop River drained into the South China Sea.    
   “This is where Sarawak ends and Indonesia begins, but as you are all aware, President Sukarno of Indonesia would like to incorporate all of Borneo into a Communist style state.”
    Peter explained how Sukarno had begun raids into the small, independent state of Brunei, as well as the British Crown Colony of Sarawak, seeking to cause instability and dissent among the populace. 
   “His policies, within Indonesia, prevented the country falling apart after the Dutch departed, but he is balancing three power groups, the military, Islam and the IPK… the Indonesian Communist Party,” Peter explained, gesturing to a photo of Sukarno on the opposite wall. 

   “He is a long time anti-colonialist…”
    “Doesn’t make him a bad person though, sir,” interjected an Irish voice.
    Peter smiled but continued without pause.
    “… and anti-European, so if I were you I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a Christmas card and an invite to the anti-English club, O’Hara.”

    Sukarno was courting both Moscow and Beijing, and Communism was not built on power sharing, so if the Reds got their foot in the door the military would be purged and religion would be banned, heavy handedly, as ever, without thought of the fallout that would assuredly follow.
    All that was required here, Peter predicted, was to keep the Indonesian infiltrators at bay until Indonesia reach a tipping point and from then on they would be too busy fighting amongst themselves.
    Getting back to their future operational training area, Peter returned to the map.

    “The port of Puhh-Din was first established by Arab slavers but it now shares the load with a railway in transporting copper ore and raw rubber. The town’s population is a mixture of Chinese and locals, however, across the bridge over the Puhh-Din River a shanty town has grown up over the last year, it is occupied by dispossessed groups from Indonesia and it is perfect cover for Indonesian agents.”    
   Peter explained how the town, and its surrounds, were being defended since the start of the confrontation.
   “We are stretched a little thin on the ground, a Guards battalion, supplemented by a company of Gurkhas, is responsible for Pudding and everything else for twenty miles to the east, so to add some more boots on the ground this school runs its patrolling phase on an operational basis inside the bowl. That means that the instructors accompanying you won’t be wearing white armbands and you won’t be carrying blank ammunition, either, because the enemy you are patrolling against are Indos, not Fantasians, understood?”
    

   

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