“In 1962, a proposal was made to create a Malaysian Federation comprising of Malaya, Singapore, Brunei, Sabah, and Sarawak. Brunei was not in favour of joining a federation as they were far richer than any of the other countries and were ruled by a Sultan. Indonesia’s President Soekarno was also opposed to this and took advantage of Brunei’s stand against a federation as he wanted to unite the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Soekarno motivated the local national army to take up arms. In December ‘62 they attacked the Sultan’s palace, police stations and administrative offices along with the Shell Oil Refinery. And so began the “Confrontation.”
I joined the RAF as a Boy Entrant in the early 1960’s, training to be a supplier at RAF Hereford. After passing out from RAF Hereford, I found myself stationed at 16MU RAF Stafford, stuck behind a desk, so I applied to go on an Air Movements course. In 1964, I was posted to the Air Movements squadron in RAF Changi for a 2 1/2 year tour. In ‘66 I was detached to RAF Kuching in Sarawak for six months. The confrontation with Indonesia was intensifying with Indonesian guerrillas aided by Chinese communists launching attacks along the 970-mile-long border with Sarawak. In their infinite wisdom, the powers that be decided to roll out the big guns and site missiles at the end of Kuching’s runway. A major deterrent, if ever there was one, which would make the Indonesian’s think twice before attacking the airfield. RAF Kuching and Kuching’s civilian airport, shared the single runway with regular civilian flights to and from Singapore, Brunei and Hong Kong as well as various military aircraft such as Hawker Hunters, Beverley’s, Argosy’s, Hastings, Whirlwind and Belvedere helicopters, to mention a few.
One morning, a 215 Sqn, RAF Argosy aircraft arrived from Singapore, nothing unusual apart from the fact, numerous members of the RAF Regiment seemed to appear out of nowhere, taking up positions all-round the airfield! Anticipation was rife, perhaps Royalty or the AOC were making a surprise visit, without doubt, something special was about to happen. The Argosy landed and taxied past its usual parking area to the far end of the pan. The rear jaw doors slowly opened to reveal huge Bloodhound missiles. As a seasoned Mover, I was tasked to supervise the unloading on the very strict instructions to take the utmost care as the boss didn’t want a missile damaged or worse still, being dropped and exploding!
Watching intently from the back of the Argosy
Once the missiles had been off-loaded, they were taken a few yards onto a grassed area. I know many were very concerned, believing that one of the missiles might ignite itself in the heat, it being 32 degrees. A few minutes later, a 66 Sqn Belvedere started to position itself in the hover over one of the Bloodhounds, at which point, a young army lad who’d come to have a look decided to make a hasty retreat in case the Belvedere landed on it!
Note the Army Lance corporal on the right starting his run!
Once the Belverdere was positioned, the crewman lowered a webbing harness which was secured to the missile. It then started to slowly lift the missile, before flying it down the length of the runway, where a group of engineers and RAF Regiment personnel were waiting. Their job was to site the missile at an angle pointing towards Indonesia. I think two Bloodhounds were sited, one at either end of the runway.
Belvedere and Bloodhound
That evening in the mess, the main topic of conversation was about the missiles. Where was the control centre, who would press the button and send them on their way to Indonesia? Numerous ideas were floated, along with quite a few pints of Tiger beer. Later in the evening, a very hot and sweaty RAF Regiment chap appeared desperate for a pint or two. He was immediately bombarded with numerous questions about the missiles. After he had consumed a considerable amount of Tiger ale, he just couldn’t stop smiling. One of the lads asked him what was so funny, to which he replied, “you lot.” He then told us the two Bloodhound missiles were dummies made of plastic and would probably melt! Some six months later I returned to Changi, to my knowledge, the airfield was not attacked, and the Bloodhounds didn’t melt – but there again the regiment guys were always very secretive, as were the SAS and Gurkhas who came and went at all hours of the day and night!
In 1966, I returned to the UK on posting to RAF Lyneham then transferred to RAF Brize Norton when the Hercules, Brits and Comets moved over to join the VC10’s and Tristars. In the 1970’s I was commissioned and then joined the RAFVR(T) serving for a further 25 years, retiring in 2005 as an acting Squadron Leader.
