Medical Problems of the Operational Infantry Soldier in Malaya

FOR the last two years* the author has been medical personnel research officer to the Army Personnel Research Committee. His field has been the problems peculiar to the infantry soldier. In 1955 he made a six-month survey in Malaya of the problems of the soldier engaged in jungle operations against. the Malayan communists. After preliminary training in jungle warfare at the Far East Land Forces Training Centre, Kota Tingi, he took part in a number of operations, thereby gaining first-hand experience of the soldier's life in the jungle. The aim of this paper is to give a brief outline of the major problems encountered. The term "medical" has been interpreted in a very broad sense and includes anything· peculiar to this type of warfare which adversely affects human performance. Malaya is a peninsula stretching south-east for 400 miles from the southern border of Thailand towards Indonesia. At the broadest part it is 200 miles wide, and in area is about the same as England and Wales. Running almost the whole length of the country is a backbone of jungle-covered mountains rising up to 7,000 feet. Four-fifths of the country is a trackless evergreen forest: a hundred feet above the ground the trees make a solid roof of greenery shutting