For almost 30 years, Mike Kelly has maintained his silence over what happened in the jungle in Borneo. Now for the first time, he is able to tell his story. Neil Hunter reports.

GROWING up in one of the toughest parts of the North-East was doubtless a good grounding for Mike Kelly. But nothing could prepare him for the horrors of war and the ordeal of having to carry the body of his best friend's brother from the killing fields of Borneo.

One of five children in a two-up two-down terraced house without a single luxury - and with little money - life was rarely easy for Mike as a young lad growing up in Hartlepool. Like his elder brother Ernie, Mike spent more time out of the classroom than in - playing truant on the beach while Ernie gathered seacoal to make sure his family was fed.

He couldn't write by the time his formal education was over in 1963, and started work as a metal fabricator before moving to the local steelworks. But his home town was dealt a devastating blow with news the steel industry was to be nationalised and more than 2,000 men would lose their jobs.

Mike felt he had little to stay around for, and visited his local army recruitment office where he asked to enlist in the Parachute Regiment. He was persuaded, instead, to join the Durham Light Infantry and went on to serve in what turned out to be the regiment's final battle before being disbanded.

The Borneo "Emergency", as it became known, was a secret war in which British troops were engaged in jungle border conflict against Indonesia. It was a war which was kept so hush-hush that not even Parliament was told of it by the Defence Minister of the time, Labour's Dennis Healey.

Only recently have details of the conflict become known publicly, and only now is veteran Mike Kelly, a 56-year-old grandfather, able to tell his story. As he says in the forward to his book, The Last Conflict: "If these soldiers, who fought so bravely for their country, have been forgotten, I at least will not forget them."

Mike had been brought up in what he describes as "the roughest part of Hartlepool", where he and his three brothers and sister shared a bedroom, had no bathroom and a toilet in the back yard.

Their father seldom handed over his pay to help the household, so it was left to eldest child Ernie to make money in whatever way he could. This often involved selling bags of seacoal around the town for two bob a go, but when the tides had been unkind and failed to provide, Ernie would use his horse and cart and diversify into the rag and bone trade.

Although Mike often helped out after finishing his shift at the steelworks, he wanted more from life and was sure his future lay away from the town he loved. When he approached his parents - he needed them to sign a consent form as he was still just 17 - and they surprised him by supporting his plans, he was even more convinced.

Initial training for 15 weeks was at Copthorne Barracks, in Shropshire, but Mike didn't get off to the best of starts - finding himself in two fights in the first six weeks. The first was an act of self-defence when another soldier lunged at him with a bayonet, but the second landed him with a GBH charge, 28 days in the guardhouse and a dishonourable discharge.

It was only after some serious pleading when Mike was finally given the chance to put his side of the story forward that he was allowed to continue with his training. "Can you give me one good reason why I should keep you in the army?" his commanding officer bellowed.

"Well sir, my father was in the DLI and the airborne forces, as was my grandfather in both World Wars," he replied. "My ambition was to go in the DLI then, after a couple of years, do a Parachute Regiment course and transfer. I do regret what I have done and probably will continue to regret it for the rest of my army career, if I am allowed to continue."

In his book, Mike says: "The commanding officer could see I was upset. I was nearly crying. I thought that the shame of returning to Hartlepool with a dishonourable discharge would be too much to bear. The shame of meeting my father.

"My grandfather had been a great man who, during his career, had been decorated by his regiment, the DLI. He had also gained the Africa Star, the Burma Star and others too numerous to mention. More than that, he was my hero. He had fought Philidelphia Jack O'Brien for the light welterweight championship of the world in 1923 - unfortunately he had to come second."

Mike was given a second chance and was determined not to throw it away, finally passing out after being "back squadded" a month and keeping well clear of trouble. It was early November and with his 18th birthday approaching, he was looking forward to going home for Christmas.

After the ceremony, the 32 new recruits changed into their civilian clothes, collected their pay and picked up their travel warrants for a six-week leave. But for the seven who were joining the DLI, there was a shock in store. They were informed of the troubles in Malaya and told all leave had been cancelled.

They were put on 24-hour stand-by to join their battalion, which was already in the northern territories in Borneo, waiting to go into the troubled Sarawak area. Mike says: "I never imagined that I was to spend my Christmas in the Indonesian jungle and to come within two or three feet of enemy troops in virtually hand-to-hand fighting. I would see some of my friends wounded and killed and wouldn't see my family again until the following June."

BY February, Mike's worst fear had come true when the brother of one of his closest comrades was shot through the heart. Private Thomas Griffiths was killed instantly.

Mike then had the awful task of being one of the stretcher-bearers as the platoon tried to get the body, and three other wounded, out of the danger zone. The stretcher party lost grip when a mortar exploded nearby, and the body fell between two rocks, but they eventually managed to struggle to safety. Pte Bob Griffiths was sent home on compassionate grounds, never to return to Borneo, and his brother was buried on March 2.

By May it was time to return to the UK and Mike went on to serve with the Parachute Regiment for the rest of his career, before being medically discharged in 1971 because of recurring nightmares about the battle to get Thomas Griffiths' body out of the killing fields.

On returning to the UK, the soldiers were ordered to sign the Official Secrets Act, which meant they were unable to discuss the conflict for 35 years. The time has now come for Mike to tell the story publicly for the first time.

"We were not allowed to tell anyone about the operations in Borneo," he says. "I didn't even tell my mother and father. All they had had was our British Forces Field Post Office number and my father always thought I had been in the Middle East because there was never anything in the British press.

"The secrecy went on for years and that is why we called it the Forgotten War, but I am determined these men and what they did will never be forgotten."

* The Last Conflict by Mike Kelly (Broadcast Books) £10.95