Borneo Boys: RAF Helicopter Pilots in Action – Indonesia Confrontation 1962-66

412 Pages·2013·9.94 MB·English

By the same author
Drop Zone Burma: Adventures in Allied Air-Supply 1943 – 45
(Pen & Sword Books, Barnsley, 2008)
Lifeline in Helmand: RAF Battlefield Mobility in Afghanistan
(Pen & Sword Books, Barnsley, 2010)
Drop Zone Borneo – Life and Times of an RAF Co-Pilot,
Far East 1962 - 65
(Pen & Sword Books, Barnsley, 2010)

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
PEN AND SWORD AVIATION
an imprint of
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
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Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS

Copyright © Roger Annett, 2012
9781783469161

The right of Roger Annett to be identified
as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Table of Contents
Also by
Title Page
Copyright Page
Foreword
Author’s Note
Introduction
Glossary
Prelude
Chapter 1 - The Brunei Rebellion
Chapter 2 - Tern Hill Tyros
Chapter 3 - The Sharp End
Chapter 4 - Into the Fray
Chapter 5 - The Pace Quickens
Chapter 6 - Frontier in Flames
Chapter 7 - RAF Navigator on Naval Base
Chapter 8 - At Full Throttle
Chapter 9 - Transfer to 225
Chapter 10 - Over the Border
Chapter 11 - Conversions to Rotaries
Chapter 12 - Holding the Line
Chapter 13 - Showdown at Plaman Mapu
Chapter 14 - Counter-Punch
Chapter 15 - Views from the Ground
Chapter 16 - The Sparring Continues
Chapter 17 - Stalemate
Chapter 18 - The High Tide Turns
Chapter 19 - Jungly Mission to the Gaat
Chapter 20 - Shadow-boxing
Chapter 21 - The Bumpy Road to Peace
Chapter 22 - Mopping Up
Postlude
Appendix 1 - Post-Borneo Curricula Vitae
Appendix 2 - A Week in the Life of Colin Ford
Appendix 3 - Self Athorisation Certificates
Appendix 4 - Mike McKinley’s Flying Logbook Extracts
Appendix 5 - Presentations made to 225 Squadron RAF during their two years
in Borneo
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Foreword
by

Wing Commander F.D. Hoskins
OBE RAF (Retd)

During the Borneo Confrontation the Army’s operational radio traffic sometimes
clashed with similar traffic in Vietnam and on at least one occasion the British
officer was told to ‘Get off the air! Don’t you know we’re fighting a war here?’
The response was, ‘So are we, but we’re winning ours!’ And we did win our war
in Borneo, even though it was officially not a war but only a ‘confrontation’.
Perhaps because it was not called a war is why it has never received the level of
public recognition given to the conflicts in Korea, the Falklands, Iraq and
Afghanistan. Nevertheless, when men are seeking to shoot at each other at the
behest of politicians, and some are killed, then surely it is a war.
No one service or unit can claim that they alone were responsible for winning,
but that the war in Borneo was won by the British and Commonwealth forces
was certainly helped in no small measure by the use of the helicopters of all
three services. The Royal Air Force contributed four squadrons of Whirlwinds,
Nos 103, 110, 225 and 230, and one squadron of Belvederes, No. 66. Helicopters
not then being at the top of the RAF’s priorities, many of the pilots were officers
with some seniority as flight lieutenants but without prospects of promotion, or
else Master Pilots and some sergeants, a group evidently not deemed suitable to
fly the latest jet aircraft. This situation changed so that, by the mid-1960s,
younger officers, even those only recently awarded their wings, began to be
allocated to helicopter squadrons, thus gradually replacing the old regime – but
not before learning from those men who had done an excellent and very valuable
job, largely without the thanks and recognition they so richly deserved.
In 1965 I was privileged to be appointed to command No. 103 Squadron,
based at Seletar, in Singapore, but with most of the squadron in Borneo,
operating from what had previously been the purely civil airfield near Kuching
and from several forward bases. Shortly after my arrival No. 225 Squadron was