A Soldier’s Life was Not a Happy One in the Malayan Jungle 1956
A member of 2nd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment recorded a night out in the jungle thus:
“Leeches that sucked the blood and covered the body were so prevalent one eventually ignored them, it was not unusual to find 50 or more in all parts of the body.
Vicious red ants, scorpions and ticks big enough to put a pull through, through a .303 although apart from green harmless tree snakes I saw only two, a Cobra in a base hut at Kuala Kangsar where every one left by the same door and windows at the same time and a python that crawled over Private Jack Tolliday in the night when he was asleep in the jungle mud hole, he thought he had dreamed it but in the morning I confirmed that it actually happened.”
The photograph (and I did not count the leeches) actually came from a soldier in the 3rd Battalion of the same regiment in 1958. Clearly the leeches enjoyed Australian blood!
November 16th, 2009 at 1:34 am
look more like flies than leech?
November 17th, 2009 at 12:06 am
Hi Jas,
although the old photo is not of high quality, I have enlarged it and can assure you there are no wings on these ‘things’. They are generally oval in shape and some are much fatter than others. If they are not leeches then I have no idea what they could be.
Amyone have any ideas?
November 19th, 2009 at 2:03 am
Maybe our ‘friends’ looked in that way, because they sucked too much of blood. Fatty leeches!!