Britain had failed to strengthen their defences in the Far East, and when Japanese Forces landed at Kota Bharu on the east coast of Malaya on 8th December 1941, it was only a short time before Singapore fell, and Malaya was occupied by the Japanese.

A British-led underground resistance group was set up by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) initially with 50 members. Harassing the Japanese Occupation Forces, this hit-and-run guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines was the task of Force 136. No European can live for a day in an Asiatic country without being recognised as a white man, and few Europeans can speak Siamese, Chinese, Karen or even Malay, like a native. It was therefore quickly recognised this called for a high degree of self-sufficiency and coming to terms with surviving in the Malayan jungle.

Intelligence and security was so strict, that one person (Tan Chong Tee) only discovered he was a member of Force 136 after the Japanese surrendered in August 1945!

In a similar way, I only discovered my role in Force 136 after completing several long-range missions from our jungle airfield in Ceylon, 1500 miles across the Indian Ocean, past the Japanese fighter bases at Sabang in Sumatra, then up the Perak River in Western Malaya and into the Malay interior. There we dropped in guerrilla types of all nationalities behind the Japanese lines, and on the way observed many Japanese troops and small, square jeep-like vehicles on the ground beneath us, which even today makes me squirm to see being these driven around in UK. We had experience of very-long-range ops prior to Force 136.

I had spent the past few months with 160 Squadron on 19 hour operations, dropping mines in the Malacca Straits, down the west coast of Malaya from Penang towards Singapore. We later discovered from post-war records that we had accounted for ten enemy ships, thus preventing oil from Sumatra and Borneo, also vital supplies and reinforcements reaching the Japanese in Burma. Based in primitive jungle conditions ourselves, those earlier mining operations had given us valuable experience of very-long-range flying, and proved a valuable preparation for what lay ahead.