Woolley & Wallis
Lot 1024
PLEASE NOTE AMENDED DESCRIPTION AS FOLLOWS:By Order of the Recipient: the Indonesia operations group of three medals to Sergeant M.D. Watkins, South Wales Borderers, who formed part of the regular army contingent which supported S.A.S. operations across the Indonesian border during the Borneo Confrontation of 1963-66: General Service 1962-2007, with bronze oak leaf emblem, three clasps: Borneo, South Arabia, Northern Ireland (23980302 PTE. M.D. WATKINS. SWB.); United Nations Forces in Cyprus, unnamed as issued; Regular Army Long Service and Good Conduct, Elizabeth II (23980302 SGT. M.D. WATKINS.), lazer engraved in plain capitals; recently mounted for wearing and accompanied by dress miniatures for the first two and a small quantity of photographs. Good very fine or better.The following details are taken from the recipient's personal account of his career: he joined the Welsh Brigade in Brecon in 1963, and following training he was posted to the South Wales Borderers, joining the regiment in Hong Kong, where he spent six months, before being selected for a six week jungle training course at Kota Tinggi in Johor. Before he could return to Hong Kong his regiment was required to provide men to join the military presence in Borneo, where the British were fighting to contain armed incursions from across the Indonesian border. Private Watkins and his companions were the obvious choice for this role, and H.M.S. Albion took them to a point from which they flew in helicopters to join men of the Scots Guards at a jungle camp 5,000 yards from the border. Forbidden to cross the border they spent two weeks defending it, until the arrival of elements of the S.A.S. who's brief was to take the fight into Indonesia. From this point the recipient says he began crossing the border as part of fire teams giving support to the special forces, and on occasion, extracting them from difficult situations. He recalls one incident in which his patrol found two troopers who had been captured, had their hands cut off, been covered in tar and left to die in the jungle. The recipient says that a commendation was earned, as represented by the oak leaf emblem, when his patrol was ambushed: he advanced along to the left to provide suppressing fire with his LMG, enabling the rest of his platoon to manoeuvrer. In constant danger and coming under fire both in camp and while on patrol, they had to move in total silence during the day, often living off the land owing to the impossibility of carrying sufficient rations for extended operations. Following a brief return to the UK, the recipient next served in Aden, patrolling the border, searching houses for arms in Radfan, and, once again, providing support for the S.A.S., at times extracting men who had infiltrated enemy forces posing as Arabs. He recollects coming under more fire here than he had even in Borneo. Peacekeeping duties in Turkey and Cyprus and a spell in South Africa were followed by an advanced firearms training course in Warminster, from where he was posted to the Devon and Dorset regiment in Osnabruck, his regiment by then having been amalgamated to form the Royal Regiment of Wales. He passed a gruelling course in resisting interrogation, before being posted to Belfast, where he performed in an undercover role at the Old Bakery in Snugville Street. Following the capture of a senior I.R.A. man in the Falls Area his identity became known and beside a subsequent spell in Armagh, his time in Northern Ireland was at an end. He saw further service in Malta, where the riots following independence called for police work. His final role included giving instruction at various weapons training facilities, and the demanding job of testing security at government building in the UK. Posing as a hostile he would allow himself to be captured and interrogated to judge the capabilities of the security personnel.
