| MESSAGES | PHOTOS | GUESTBOOK | VESTING DAY | LI HISTORY | LI RINGS | FUNDRAISERS | LI REUNITED WALLPAPER | SITE TERMS/RULES | CONTACT |
|---|
|
|
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
THE DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY |
|||||||||
|
In 1966, the Durhams fought their last campaign and suffered their last casualties in the jungles and mountains of Borneo. In 1965 The Durham Light Infantry was in the last months of a most enjoyable tour in Hong Kong when the Ministry of Defence (MOD) posted the unit to Borneo for a tour of active service. The British government, at the request of the Federation of Malaysia agreed to provide a military presence in Sabah and Sarawak, areas which were experiencing incursions from adjoining Indonesian Kalimantan. These border violations, part of a policy of destabilization and undeclared war, became known as the ‘confrontation’. |
||||||||
|
 Denis Fudge DLI relaxes after a Lengthy patrol in the Jungle |
||||||||
On arrival, the DLI was immediately launched into an intense programme of training at ‘Paradise Camp’ in the north of Borneo before moving to its operational area in the south-west near Kuching. At Kuching, companies were dispersed into forward jungle bases and by aggressive patrolling were able to drive the Indonesians completely out of Sarawak and so eliminate the threat to the integrity of Malaysia. The Battalion, superbly led by Lieutenant olonel Gil Maughan, successfully countered the Indonesian aggression. For many of the young soldiers it was their first taste of active operations while for others it was the culmination of years of active service. It proved to be the final operation for three of them, and for the Durham Light Infantry itself. Thomas Griffiths, George Miller and Thomas Slimmings did not survive the Borneo tour and by 1968 the regiment had ceased to exist, having been abolished under the MOD restructuring of the British Army. |
 Attached to each Fire Support Base were RA 25 Pounders. Denis Fudge helps load for a fire mission |
||||||||
 |
|||||||||
