26 February 1942. Grik, Malaya.
Major Tom Craig accepted the cup of strong sweet tea with gratitude. As 7th Bn RTR D Squadron’s Officer Commanding, any kind of fluid replacing all the sweat was a relief. With temperatures above 80° (F) and humidity about 80%, life inside a tank was pretty awful. At least Craig could stick his head outside the turret’s hatch, though the smell of the jungle decay and unburied dead wasn’t much better than the fug from three men in a hot confined space.
His Squadron had made it up the trail to Grik, surprisingly only losing one tank from the ten that had started. Unfortunately, that tank had rolled down a steep embankment, killing two of the crew and severely injuring the others. Once they’d arrived at 53rd Infantry Brigade’s HQ, his nine Matilda IIs had had a few days to get some much-needed maintenance. A and B Squadrons were also present at Grik, and between all three, they had 24 tanks capable of action. The miraculous arrival of a Workshop lorry from one of the Light Aid Detachments had allowed some of the harder jobs to be undertaken, otherwise there would only have been eighteen tanks available.
The infantry of 53rd and 54th Brigades were holding position as the RASC transport attempted to get enough supplies for them to be able to move forward again. The 5th Battalion Norfolk Regiment were furthest forward, pushing patrols forward towards Kroh. So far, they had only been meeting rear-guard actions, so just where exactly the main body of the Japanese army was unknown.
Craig had finished his tea as the meeting with the other Squadron commanders and troop leaders continued to discuss the current situation and figure out their next moves. The good news was that a fresh round of tea was passed to him, and he knew he could savour this one a bit more. The two Brigade Commanders, Cecil Duke (53rd) and Edward Backhouse (54th) were under orders to hold in place until enough supplies were on hand. The senior Quartermasters in both Brigades estimated that it would take another few days before sufficient material was on hand to allow forward movement.
Lieutenant-General Percival had decided to have the Australians move forward to positions around Gurun and to hold there until his successor, Lieutenant-General Alan Cunningham was in place at the beginning of March. 18th Division were to retake Kroh and to establish themselves on the Thai border and protect the Australians’ right flank. When Brigadier Duke had received his orders regarding occupying Kroh and sealing the road from Thailand he requested a Squadron of tanks to support him. Lt-Col Jock Holden (CO 7th Bn RTR) had decided to merge the running tanks into two Squadrons of twelve tanks each. Since D Squadron had nine of the runners, a troop from B Squadron was added to Craig’s command. The rest of A and B Squadrons would merge. Craig’s D Squadron would support Duke’s 53rd Brigade, and A Squadron would support Backhouse’s 54th Brigade.
Once the meeting had broken up, Craig made his way to Duke’s Brigade HQ to sort out the details of what the Infantry CO wanted. Very sensibly (from Craig’s point of view) Duke wanted the twelve tanks to stick together with his Brigade HQ and be allocated to one of the Infantry Battalions as and when required. Craig had worried that the he’d have to allocate one of his troops to each Battalion, so this was a better way of going about things. When Craig requested that each Battalion should have at least a few hours training and familiarisation with his tanks, Brigadier Duke was happy to oblige. During the previous fighting the tanks and the infantry had learned that they needed to work together to defeat the Japanese. Going forward over the terrain towards Kroh would need every bit of that cooperation.
To Craig’s delight the meeting with Brigadier Duke had included another cup of tea, and for the first time in quite a few days Craig felt that his liquid levels were about where they should be. The advantage of tea was that the water had to be well boiled, so avoiding any kind of stomach upset was a bonus.
