There were no ifs ands or buts; it was a simple choice at a time when all our Empire was gaining their own independence. There had been terrorist activity on the border of the British and French Cameroons for years, more so on the French side. The French military had quite a substantial force stationed in the Cameroons that had been trying to suppress terrorism for years.

Our Regiment had been in a state of readiness for quite a few months, for any part of the world, if required.  Everyone was fit after the many hours of route marches and battle training on the nearby Bowes Moor and being sent abroad was a relief from all of this.

After an overnight journey on a special troop train to Southampton the battalion, along with detachments of RE, REME, RAOC, RS, RAMC, RASC, ACC and QUARANCS set sail on August 31st on the SS Devonshire for the Cameroons. The voyage took two weeks and the Devonshire anchored just off Victoria in the British Cameroons. The country itself was 250 miles by 80 miles and was, until our arrival, being policed by the Queen's Own Nigerian Regiment. We were the first British regiment to be stationed in the Cameroons.

This was the last time the Regiment was together as a regiment for nearly ten months; this was because the Regiment was being split up into three camps.

 Camp one was at the capital, named Buea, about twenty miles from Victoria, and the occupants of this camp, were “C” company and “HQ” company. The billets were made of aluminum corrugated sheeting divided up into sections for three or four men, which was quite good accommodation.  The advance party of Engineers and local native labour had erected these billets only weeks before the main party arrived. The camp itself was on the lower slopes of Mount Cameroon, which naturally had good views of the surrounding countryside.  “C” company patrolled all the delta regions, sometimes using motorized boats, and had quite a few successes in apprehending terrorists and smugglers in these areas.

Camp two was allocated to “B” company at Kumba about 50 miles from Buea; this camp was in a jungle clearing where the climate was hot and sticky. The billets were open planned, made of aluminum and housed forty to fifty men. I have to mention mosquito nets and a paludrine tablet were essential commodities.

“B” company had, during their stay at Kumba, many successes in capturing known terrorists etc, and they also captured a large terrorist camp.

One hundred and fifty mile from Kumba was a place called Mamfe, a very flat jungle area where the RAF had made an airstrip and camp.  The climate was the same as Kumba, very hot and clammy. I must add the RAF were not very sociable but I won’t go into that

The last camp, named Bamenda, was in the savannah upland, 90 miles from Mamfe. This camp was high up on an escarpment, which gave wide views of the surrounding countryside below.  The camp was allocated to “A” and “S” Companies, of which I was a member of the latter.

All billets at this camp were large tents on a concrete base that housed 8 to 10 men, and huts were erected for dining and stores etc as time went on.  Between the tent lines, in the early days, was just a stream of mud, which got everywhere in the tents, clothes, bedding etc. The arrival, after a few weeks, of duckboards was a much-needed bonus.  On arrival at Bamenda the rainy season was just coming to an end, and things certainly got better when the dry season started, as the mud turned to red dust making the occupants of the motor patrols, look like red Indians. Basically everyone got a kick up the backside in life.

The Bamenda region was very hilly with valleys infested with bamboo thickets and patrols were mostly on the border regions of the British and French Cameroons. The French had been having trouble with terrorists for years and one could witness now and again a lone propeller plane bombing a hillside close to where we patrolled.

My own company, which was “S”, had only a month prior to embarkation, been turned from a support company into a rifle company for the duration of the stay in the Cameroons. The patrolling was arranged that one company stayed in camp for a month doing fatigues, weapon training and the odd motor patrol showing the flag etc, while the other company went to the out stations. These out stations were tents in specific areas near to the French and British Cameroon border, where one set out on patrols.

One station was named Sante Coffee, which was an abandoned coffee estate. One was named Sante Customs, which was close to a terrorist burned out custom building and the other was named Pinyin. All patrols mostly started out from these camps, which were occupied by platoons of that company, with sections of the platoon patrolling different areas, and always one section stayed behind at the out station. “A” and “S” Companies had many successes in capturing known terrorists over the months.

I personally was in a large patrol that was backup to another large patrol led by a Lieutenant Olsen, that went into French territory, looking for a terrorist camp that intelligence had reported in a certain vicinity. Each member of the first patrol carried a Sterling submachine gun, while the backup patrol, barring the NCOs, carried the SLR.
 More by luck, the first patrol stumbled on this camp during the night and waited until the daybreak.  In the early morning mist the terrorist camp was completely over run in typical British fashion, catching them all with their pants down!  I won’t go into details about fatalities etc, but I will say not one of our lads got a scratch.

The camp itself was truly amazing, being well camouflaged with corrugated sheeting accommodation twenty yards long, stepped down at different levels of a bamboo infested hillside. It must have housed, at its maximum, a hundred people. It had pens for stolen livestock and poultry, and there were areas for stores such as food and cigarettes, etc. There was even a primitive forge for making weapons that fired a twelve bore cartridge.  There were plenty of weapons of an age gone by lying all over the place, with plenty of ammunition to go with them.  I never saw one automatic among the stockpile, because I am sure if these terrorists had automatics, I think it would have been a different ball game in the Cameroons.  The camp had been so well camouflaged that the French had been bombing the wrong hillside for weeks, which was truly amazing. There was no doubt these terrorists had been trained by professionals, but better ones had trained us in the Regiment.

 Lieutenant Olsen deservedly was awarded the Queens Commendation for this action. Patrolling and roadblocks went on all the time, mostly routine with the odd one having success, but it had to be done and the people of the Cameroons were happy we were there. I must add the people of the Cameroons were very poor but friendly and considering they had nothing, we were always met with a smile.

The vote for the inhabitants to see if they wanted to join Nigeria or the French Cameroons went off quite peacefully with just the odd bit of violence.  The outcome of the vote went overwhelmingly to join the French and form the now Cameroon Republic.  The result came as no surprise to the battalion, because the people in our area alone hated the Nigerians. This was probably because Nigerians had policed them for years and it must have swayed the vote in the long run. With the plebiscite over and done with, the handing over had to be done peacefully.

The battalion had been in the Cameroons 9 months and was being replaced for the handing over by the First Battalion of the Grenadier Guards. The main body of the Grenadier Guards arrived late in May 1961 on the troopship Devonshire.  Our regiment, The King's Own Royal Borders, handed all equipment and camps, bar our rifles, over to the Guards and we sailed home on the Devonshire.  The Regiment's venture in the Cameroons was over.

Considering the Regiment was spread out over the 250 miles, on hindsight they did a fine job in helping to bring peace and stability to the Cameroons.  At the time the Regiment had quite a lot of National Servicemen in the ranks, who were lucky to have been trained by men such as CSMs, Sgts., and other NCOs who had fought in the Second World War and Korea. To their credit and experience not one man lost his life on any patrols in the Cameroons.  The only fatality was due to an unfortunate road accident when a Lance Corporal named Gardener was killed.  I have no information about the Grenadier's time out here

Known terrorists captured by the KORB, were 73
Suspected terrorists captured by the KORB, were 239
Although mentioned on the initial itinerary, no medal was issued.

I can not finish without mentioning the wonderful work done by the various Corps, in particular the RASC drivers and 59th Field Squadron of Engineers; they were absolutely magnificent in making life a lot easier out there.

Alan E Parkinson