Deep Behind Enemy Lines, page 34
‘Absolutely, Sir. We were fully briefed during our early meetings with Major Birtwhistle on arrival in Borneo, not forgetting our incursion into Long Bawan recently which was a Sandstone approved operation where the unilateral diktats applied,’ Bill confirmed.
Bill had decided the length of patrol time in the different areas would be based on the local environmental situation and circumstances, particularly since the rains and high winds were currently escalating in Division One. He and his team wouldn’t adhere to a strict time schedule as recommended by McBride. However, it was good to know armed back up was in the region should it be necessary.
‘Very well, Mr Scraggs. I suggest you spend the next few hours making ready and I’ll get back to you as soon as I get any update regarding the emergency channel availability with the security forces. Also, the extra manpower you request. We’ll leave it there for the time being. Good afternoon, gentlemen.’
They saluted the captain, thanked Miss Soo as they left and headed for the mess and scouts’ quarters. ‘We meet at the secure stores at 0830 hours tomorrow,’ Bill called over his shoulder to Tuki.
‘Will do, Sir.’
Back in the mess lounge they got coffee and sat down to discuss the present and forward situation.
‘Well, we’ve got our instructions and departure details to Pasar Serikin. Darren, as well as our visit to the secure stores tomorrow, I want you to collect our compo and dry rations from the mess caterer.’
‘Will we need to take all of our equipment?’
‘No, our requirements will be selected tomorrow.’
‘OK. You thought four weeks, so I just need to up the order to cater for an extra team member.’
‘You got it sunshine,’ confirmed Bill. ‘So, we can stand down for the rest of today.’
The following morning, McBride called Bill to inform him the security forces were able to use emergency channel twelve and a border scout by the name of Aslam had been nominated to join the team and would meet them at the store on Sunday. After thanking the captain for the update, they assembled at the secure store and selected all items required for their assignment; weapons and ammunition were high on the inventory list, especially for the purposes of a reconnaissance foot patrol and any unexpected and urgent self-defense requirements that could arise.
‘Let’s ease the springs on the 7.62 SLRs and oil the working parts of all our weapons,’ instructed Bill. The team carried out the jobs as directed.
Darren left for the mess kitchen with the four-wheeled trolley and returned an hour later with the dry rations. All other items of equipment were loaded onto the trolley, not forgetting the lifting net for loading and lowering the equipment to/from the helicopter.
‘OK, guys, all done here. I want you three, together with our new team member named Aslam, to collect all this gear at 0700 hours tomorrow and take it to the Wessex. I’ll meet you there ready to lend a hand loading into the helicopter. So, we can now go for lunch. The rest of the day is yours to do what packing you think you’ll need and generally rest up. A few games of snooker wouldn’t go amiss if you feel so inclined? For myself, I’m going over to the gym to work out for a couple of hours. Tuki would you locate our new border scout Aslam and ensure that he accompanies you to the secure store in the morning.’
‘Yes, Sir, I know Aslam. He comes from the next village to mine. He’s a good man and capable scout.’
‘Thanks, Tuki.’ Then they went their separate ways.
Chapter 57
Operations in the Pasar Serikin jungle region of Division One
On Sunday morning the five-man team included Aslam, who clearly displayed the physique of a strong young Murat warrior whom they were encouraged to know, had been well recommended by Tuki as a reliable and responsible individual, and who detested the Indonesians for the problems they had caused to his tribe. Tuki introduced Aslam to Bill who shook his hand and made him welcome. The team met at the waiting Wessex helicopter with all the equipment that would go with them. With the assistance of two RN despatchers they loaded everything into the aircraft, which was secured to the floor. Despite the high winds and torrential rain, these large helicopters were far more stable in this sort of weather than fixed wing aircraft, so the journey time would be less than an hour. When the five-team members were seated and belted up the rotor blades, supported by the powerful Rolls-Royce Gnome twin-coupled turbine engines, commenced turning and with a loud roar the Westland Wessex lifted off.
Looking through the porthole, Bill was amazed to see how dense the jungle was in this particular region, with its rich green shine and reflection on the treetop canopies caused by the heavy rains. It would, no doubt take the team backbreaking effort, time and machete clearing as they progressed through such primary jungle. He was thankful they had Tuki with them, who was an excellent tracker and also Aslam, who would remain at the long house during their absence to guard the rest of the equipment.
The journey was less turbulent than expected. At 0840 hours the helicopter started its descent over a clearing close to the already selected long house location. It was a short distance, probably two miles, to the village of Pasar Serikin to the north, and approximately two miles to the Sarawak/Kalimantan border to the south.
Seth and Darren were the first to be roped in from about forty feet, followed by the netted equipment, which they manhandled into an acceptable position on the ground after releasing the winch hook. Last to be roped in were Bill, Aslam and Tuki. The helicopter despatcher recovered the winch line. Bill and the team gave the pilot the thumbs up and the Wessex ascended, cleared the surrounding treetop canopy and headed back to Kuching.
‘Tuki, will you and Aslam see if you can secure permission from the village elders for our temporary use of the building, and rally some village manpower? A couple of strong men should do.’
‘Yes, Sir, we’ll go to it now.’
‘Thanks.’
Tuki and Aslam returned thirty minutes later accompanied by two strong-looking helpers. The new arrivals making a total of seven persons available to undertake the carrying work. Tuki also confirmed that the chief of the village had agreed to the team using the long house on a temporary basis.
All the men moved the goods and equipment and a unified clean up was undertaken inside the long house ready for their temporary occupation. When the job was completed, the two village men were thanked by Tuki in the local language and sent back to their kampong, with unexpected payment for their assistance. It was an important part of the coalition forces’ strategy of winning over the hearts and minds of the local villagers.
Tuki and Aslam erected a small bamboo table on which they placed hexamine cookers, billycans and small pots ready for cooking, whilst Seth and Darren got sleeping facilities underway by installing hammocks.
‘OK Seth, Darren, when you’ve done, get the radio and antennae organised for me so I can send a sitrep to the captain.’
‘Will do, Skipper.’
Once the radio equipment was up and running Bill made his call to McBride on the secure channel.
‘Good afternoon, Vulture. What’s the news?’
‘Just to let you know we are now installed in the long house, and tomorrow we’ll commence planning our reconnaissance duties and will continue with our daily sitreps to you as we progress.’
‘Very good Vulture. I look forward to your next communication. Over and out.’ The captain closed the call.
At 1800 hours hot compo meals were prepared, served and hungrily devoured. Then for the next couple of hours they sat around making small talk until it was time to turn in. The mosquito nets were erected above each of the hammocks and then they climbed gratefully into them to sleep. Bill had prepared a guard duty roster giving Tuki first watch, followed by a three hour stretch for each of the men.
Reveille was called at 0730 hours. It was still raining heavily so once their compo breakfast was done with and cleared away, Bill got them all seated on the floor to discuss a modus operandi for the operation ahead of them. He laid both the OS and local terrain maps of the region in front of them and asked Tuki to describe the area immediately surrounding them; the topography heading northwest towards Jalang Kampong Stass and beyond, then heading southeast from Serikin. He also asked Tuki for his further knowledge of the border in the region between Sarawak and Indonesian controlled Kalimantan.
‘Afterwards, and where appropriate Aslam, the floor will be yours.’
‘Thank you, Sir,’ they both replied and Tuki stood with a pointer stick and started his explanation as requested.
‘As you’ll have noticed during the flight here, the jungle is very dense in this region, especially where we’re currently located, and is typical tropical rainforest, with plenty of rain, surprise, surprise!’ He smiled at the comment.
‘There are many large rivers on both sides of the border, and these are the main means of movement. High-sided hills and hilltop ridges are usually very narrow to negotiate, and the intense rainfall means large rivers that provide the main means of transport for the enemy and are formidable tactical obstacles.’
Again, using the pointer stick, he identified the village of Gumbang, southwest of Kuching. He explained how poor maps made navigation difficult, but important.
‘However, the local knowledge of the border scouts and me have compensated for the poor maps. Jungle paths and tracks are sometimes used unless ambush is considered possible, or there’s the danger of mines. Crossing obstacles such as rivers is also handled as a major activity.’
‘Thanks for the update, Tuki. I think we should involve ourselves in reconnaissance duties southeast of Serikin for the first few days or, at the outside a couple of weeks, along the section of the border in that area. During the second two weeks we will concentrate our patrols northwest towards Jalang Kampong Stass. However, the time scale is going to have to be flexible. Could be longer, could be shorter.’
Chapter 58
Operations in the Jalang Kampong Stass jungle region of Division One
Weekly patrols and enemy location reports were continued in the Serikin region during April and it was whilst the four men were reconnoitring the Jalang Kampong Stass region in the third week of May 1964 that disaster struck.
Of course all their training was geared to the awareness of the extreme dangers of such work but however observant they were, they weren’t blessed with laser sight. Tell tale signs of buried IEDs were not easily detected on the jungle floor so rock tossing was employed simply because the explosives did not need too much pressure to detonate.
Darren was front man, tossing small rocks to pinpoint and explode any buried IED in their path when it happened. One of his tossed rocks missed a crucial spot and as he moved carefully forward he had the great misfortune to put his foot straight down on top of one and the upward blast claimed one of his legs just above the knee along with a great deal of his clothing and showering him with jungle vegetation and dirt.
His scream of pain as he toppled sideways to the ground froze Bill and the others in their tracks. They looked in horror at the debris of his severed leg and the blood pumping from it. Darren, of course, was writhing and screaming obscenities as scalding tears coursed down his agonised features.
Bill galvanised into action and screamed ‘STAY EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE! I want you Seth to get over here but be bloody careful how you do it, I’ve got no doubt that there’s plenty more of these suckers around. One man down is quite enough for one day. Bill got on the blower immediately to call up casevac assistance and Tuki keep your eyes open for any hostile presence. I’ve absolutely no doubt we’ve attracted attention.’
They made their way quickly and without incident to Darren’s side and with Seth’s help Bill fashioned a tourniquet below the femoral artery to stem loss of blood. He gave Darren a strong morphine shot and fashioned a crude pillow for his head to try and make him a little more comfortable. It was the best he could do under the dire circumstances.
‘OK, son. This is a bitch, but we’ll have you out of here in double quick time. The morphine will kick in pretty soon.’ They’d brought tea-making essentials with them in their rucksacks so when Tuki got beside them, Bill told him to haul out the bag of sugar. He knew that infection was the biggest danger and in extreme circumstances sugar was a good temporary antibiotic. Tuki handed it to him and he sprinkled it liberally over the stump and bound it tightly with fresh gauze and bandages. Tuki also handed Bill a small bottle of whiskey, which he put to Darren’s lips.
‘How bad does it feel now, Darren?’
‘Christ, it hurts like hell, Skipper. No more dancing for me, eh,’ he said through gritted teeth. Bill gave him a wry smile and patted his face gently.
‘Hang in there, Darren. We’ll get you out of here and back to safety and hospital PDQ.’
An RAF Whirlwind helicopter with medics on board was immediately scrambled and told to fly directly to the Labuan medical facilities after collecting the injured personnel.
As expected the explosion had alerted a nearby platoon of around forty Indonesian Black Panther troops who rapidly found and ambushed them.
Their situation couldn’t have been worse and they hunkered down in what seemed a hopeless attempt to defend themselves. Bill immediately opened emergency channel 12 and contacted the security forces, which confirmed they were nearby, gave their coordinates and was told they would be with them in about ten minutes. Meantime Bill, Seth and Tuki returned fire but were dramatically out-gunned with only the use of three 7.62 SLR automatic rifles.
Next Bill put through an urgent call to McBride in Kuching to update him on Darren’s injuries, what actions he’d taken thus far and to report that they were under intense enemy fire. McBride immediately relayed this information to Major Birtwhistle who called Bill back and asked if Darren’s injuries were life threatening.
‘Yes Sir, and urgent evacuation has been requested and is on its way from the RAF. I’ve also sustained a shoulder injury.’
‘OK. You’ll both be taken direct to the Labuan Medical Centre and I’ll arrange for a Royal Navy Surgeon Commander from HMS Bulwark to be in attendance. When the recovery helicopter arrives let me know your ETA at Labuan so we can have an ambulance standing by at the airfield. The operating theatre and medical team will be in place ready to go to work on both of you.’
‘Wilco, Sir, Bill replied and closed the call.
Relief flooded Bill as the RAF Whirlwind swept in over them. At this point he was only interested in the protection of his team, primarily Darren who was unable to defend himself. All four hunkered down behind a large stand of big-bowled trees. Bullets rained down on the enemy from the belly of the chopper and from the security forces ground troops who had also just arrived and had surrounded the enemy. The result was a complete rout with most of the enemy killed; those who survived took to the jungle. The whole engagement was over and done within just forty minutes from start to finish, and to Bill’s knowledge no casualties were sustained by the coalition forces.
Throughout all this, the helicopter pilot had maintained hover under fire from the enemy and once it was safe to do so, two despatchers winched down and prepared Darren on a stretcher to be lifted out. When Darren had been safely lifted and made comfortable, Bill was lifted next. The bullet wound to his shoulder was not life threatening but did nonetheless require urgent medical attention. Seth and Tuki were the last of the team to be lifted. The superior armed security forces were left to continue with their engagement of the insurgents and a mop-up job, by the Gurkha element summarily disposing of any captured insurgents and ensuring that no other errant wanderers remained in the vicinity. However, those fleeing were pursued to the borderline and several more shot in the process. The enemy had suffered heavy losses in this particular skirmish.
Paramedics on board examined Darren’s leg and declared there was little else they could do until the surgeons saw him. However, they expressed admiration for Bill’s ministrations, particularly the sugar trick. Bill’s wound was temporarily dressed whilst the still hovering helicopter was under fire, and covered by the security forces’ own firepower. Luckily the chopper escaped any collateral damage safely ascending and heading to Labuan on its long-range fuel tanks. Bill requested a diversion to pick up Aslam and the rest of their equipment at the long house.
‘Can’t do that, I’m afraid. We need to get you men to the hospital urgently. You both need immediate medical attention and I suspect the theatre is being prepared as we speak for the leg injury. We’ll come back for your other man when we’ve handed you both over.’
Safely back at Labuan, the two wounded men were deposited with the medics. The pilot wished the wounded all good luck and informed Bill that they had been ordered to return to the long house at Serikin to collect Aslam and all equipment and to return them to Kuching. Bill was relieved with this news.
Chapter 59
Darren’s operation took several hours. The surgical team had no choice but to amputate more of the leg due to the extreme damage of the exposed flesh and bone so, once back in the ICU, he was out for the count for several more hours. Sadly, his army days were over. He would be transferred to BMH Singapore for further intensive care, and then repatriated back to the UK once he was sufficiently healed and strong enough to make the journey. Bill had never experienced such heartfelt pain for a fellow soldier, going through a plethora of emotions from tears to anger at his mate’s rotten luck. All through Darren’s operation he stayed at the hospital and then sat by his bed until he regained consciousness.
When Darren was finally awake and able to converse, Bill sat and talked with him, attempting to put a positive spin on the situation. However, at the moment it was a losing battle and he knew it would take time for Darren to come to terms with his disability.
