“Plastic and Demolitions Co” is the nickname of “force 136”. We are indeed, every day, initiated into sabotage, sabotage by explosives or by any other means at our disposal.
Plastic, soon to be replaced by "808", comes in the form of a kind of modeling clay that we mold around the piece to be cut. Rails, blockhouses, bridges, locomotives, ships, vehicles, planes, switches, power plants, dams... Everything is good for our destructive rage.
We familiarize ourselves, under the kind guidance of two "sappers", White and Whitlow, with the time pencils (pencils with delay) where an acid gnaws a wire which releases the detonator; with limpets, magnetic boxes filled with explosives intended for the hulls of ships; with fake coal bricks for locomotives.
Visits to a large station with its locomotive depots and switches, or to roadblocks, studies of metal bridges, factories make us dangerously expert.
We put our knowledge into practice by carrying out distant exercises where it is a question of blowing up tracks or destroying a power station. We walk in the mountains with our loads on our backs, avoid the villages and the countless half-wild dogs that never stop barking, cook our little meal in the bottom of a dry stream, and approach with caution. of the place of our exploits.
We have to thwart the attention of the sentries, local home guard or police, prepare our charges, shape them, connect them with primers and detonating cords, install the fire, put them down, camouflage our work... and come back by thwarting the traps of our adversaries, while we are broken or sleepy...
Important part of the sabotage, the traps, the booby traps (the traps with... imbecile). Traction traps, pressure traps, release traps, we are familiar with all of them. We walk around with detonators in our pockets without realizing it now. The tests are done in the "trap house", prepared first by our instructors according to the (sometimes bitter) experience learned in Burma. The threads are invisible. You enter this room:the plate is trapped, the chair is trapped, the coat is trapped, the stairs too, the wounded man too. We compete in ingenuity, team against team, to who will blow the other. We also familiarize ourselves with the terrible traps that the Japanese sow on the tracks or on the side of the tracks:a rifle cartridge placed on a firing pin which worked when the foot crushed the circular rim which crowns the whole of the tube; the bullet goes through your lower abdomen...
The tactics of commando groups are taught by means of short theories followed immediately by detailed exercises, constantly repeated in various forms, and group exercises that take us far away, for schemes of two or three days and which combine boat trips, marches, climbing, attack, sabotage... Attack on a post, a power station, raid for escape a prisoner, attack on a small village (with snipers), landing at night, ambushes of all kinds, in the plains, in the mountains, in the forest, by day, by night. We are destined to fight in small groups, 3, 6, rarely 12 men. It is an action where the composure, the decision, the speed of each man counts intensely, where the slightest fault of one leads to debacle or death. We are nourished by the stories and experiences of the famous Wingate chindit expedition. We are told about the Japanese fighting methods in the jungle, their habits in defense or attack, their reactions to ambushes. We study-the uniforms of the Japanese army, its insignia, its ranks, the marks of units and vehicles, the emblem of the terrible "Kempetai", how it practices camouflage, how its patrols are carried out, how it is guarded its cantonments.
We must be able to survey our routes in the jungle and know the general lines of our area of action, in order to be able to recognize ourselves there day and night, to avoid tracks and beaten paths and do without guides. We must be able to prepare an operation attack against an enemy post, ambush, sabotage of a power station - and, for that, to be able to establish simple, but telling sketches, taken from point of observation to point of observation, likely to be immediately understood by other team members. At each point, we must draw up a rapid panoramic sketch covering the hundred meters in front, concrete enough to be of immediate use to any comrade:it must indicate the gray areas, the hidden areas of the enemy, the path to follow... Equipped with this series of sketches, any member of the group can find their way in complete safety towards the opposing objective. Orientation by compass, by the sun, by the stars, clues given by the vegetation, everything is indicated which should allow us never to get lost. We practice this during “treasure hunts”. where the correct orientation takes us to one cache, and from there to another. We take the necessary automatisms to find ourselves on the right path after a long and complicated detour. We familiarize ourselves with British maps and their conventional signs, as well as Japanese maps.
The lake allows us an infinite variety of practices. We swam a lot, in the reeds, fully clothed, with gear and weapons. We assiduously practice rubber dinghies and fold boats. These are rigid canvas boats mounted on a light wooden frame. Take them apart and put them back together in minutes. We spend hours paddling, day and night. We often also have to tow a heavy dinghy loaded with personnel. explosives or weapons necessary for a major operation. The longitudinal crossing of the lake, when there is a bit of wind and we go against the current, is long, tedious, tiring, but we gain full experience of this boat and thus prepare ourselves for the next sea stage We also familiarize ourselves with other types of boat. “Force 136” brought together various types of boats common in Southeast Asia. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma... We have to be able to
keep by. We can also go sailing. We learn how to make rafts, we get used to swimming with the help of a beam on which we put our equipment and our weapon. We practice compass rendezvous in the middle of the lake and clandestine landings on the patrolled coast.