Marksman unit

Information was received as to a communist/terrorist camp had been established in the NT area. It was defended, trip wire devices the whole lot. That night I actually made my will and set off on the raid. I took my car a Rover 2000, some MU members and full kit. SDU Fan Ling were mobilised to conduct outer cordon security. One of their vehicles broke down so we crammed 3 in with us and off we went. At night on scene with the bomb training I and 2 other MU disarmed the trip fragmentation bombs and alarms and sneaked into the compound. With our ability to overcome locks we took out the  various sleeping areas. The head communist was in the block I took and creeping into his room found him asleep. He was woken up by the barrel of a fully loaded Sterling MG (the one above actually) being pushed between his eyes and the noise of "Shusssss"- (dont make a noise) Nice and clean no shots the camp secured. In the morning light the Gurkas were let loose with metal detectors and we found the guns, bombs and nasty stuff hidden in oil drums and buried.

The Marksman Unit became quite good at creeping up on badies without them knowing we were there and stories of ghosts began to circulate amongst the criminal element, which was good for us and a frightener for them. At one stage HK-side an armed robbery went wrong, the police arrived too quick and the criminals ended holed up in rooms on the first floor of a housing block. When they heard that we ghosts were sent for and at the scene looking at them they surrendered without a shot fired and were arrested. Little did they know that we had actually 'ghosted in' as it were, and were in the room with them, looking at them, not outside looking in. The story only added to the myth but it was the start of a deterrant. 

The location I cannot say but it was on the flat top of a small hill surrounded by overlooking hills where the MU oversight units kept watch for us as we approached. Some of the things recovered from the drums were food cans of bean sprouts. These were genuine food tins with correct weights from the mainland china food factory but had a special packing numbers. When opened they contained an equal weight block of plastic explosive, wired detonator and instruction sheet. other similar tins but different packing numbers held a timing clock, less plastic, wires and instruction sheet. The clock was swiss made and the numbers were anticlockwise so when you set it for a 2 hour bang then the clock hands were set to the figure 2 which was at the 10 oclock position. Interesting thing. We found some of these things set up ready to go at some locations about town and disarmed them we reckoned that the food factory had been infiltrated by the other-sides secret  agents because at the timing clock disection later it was found that some gooey stuff had been placed on the clocks escarpment wheel and the stuff had gone as hard as a bullet and the clock wouldn't go. Yet you couldn't see it from the outside as the unit case was secured shut. It was plain to see that this was an act of sabotage of the clock and really giving us a helping hand. You just had to be careful as we found that not all the bomb clocks had been doctored. It appeared that several operators/positions were assembling these things and not all of them were doctoring the clocks. If you have a look at RHKP bomb squad section there is a picture of me crouched beside a large round hole in re-enforced concrete, that was us practising with one of these plastic explosive cans. The blast would take out rooms and bring the upper floors/roof down and all with an instruction sheet on how to do it, where to place it etc. enough instruction for a 6 yrs old. Interesting stories?

On various pictures in the marksmen unit and bomb squad  folders I have added other interesting stories that may be of interest so have a peek at them. Elephant/ Tiger/ Bull... However as you are looking at this picture another brief story to show the unusual relations between peoples. The Unit was night searching/stalking HK by the army base for some Chinese Rep. guard agents intent of causing some mischief. (SB Intel) Included with us were some invisible men of the Gurka Regiment. One of the Gurkas was having a bit on the side with anothers wife and that Gurka was also with us and he knew about the affair. Now this is dangerous because of personal honour and family honour and if this got back to their homes then a family blood feud could erupt that could see no end in the future. Anyway we didn't know anything about this until later and as we 'ghosts' located, tracked, got up really close to (they had no idea we were so near watching them) and lined up on some suspect persons creeping about there was an almighty bang and two things happened at once. The suspects became aware of their predicament, thought we were shooting them and gave up. This was a big surprise to us as we expected another ending. The baddies were trained agents but limited experience in live field work, they were taken in. The second thing was me..medic..giving aid to someone big time. What happened; The one Gurka had got his rifle and loaded into the chamber a ballistite round (used for shooting rifle grenades long distances) he then crept up to the other Gurka and fired the round, blowing off the others foot and all at a most delicate time in this armed operation. However no one panicked, the boss raised hell as he thought one of us had taken it upon ourselves to shoot someone, and the situation was brought under control. As we found later, in the de-brief, this satisfied Gurka honour both personal and family, ended the family blood feud both became good friends again and were dis-hon discharged from the army and sent home. The matter was ended and buried and no one was ever the wiser and I got to further my medic training and was allowed to carry and give morphine jabs. Hows that for an unknown story. But knowing the surprises that can arise from viewers of this site someone will prob write in to say "that was my brother with the foot" Who knows. Enjoy that?

Have a look at the other stories below some of the other photos in the MU file. Go to the photo of me in the grass, back to a wall cap on back to front and have a read of that story, that was a close call. Ray