Introduction   Historical Perspective   Minesweeper Life   Picture Gallery   Cartoons   Call to Arms   Planning   Limbang Raid   Tidying Up   Combined Ops   Harbour Routine   Ayo Gurkha   Kampong Ayer Christmas 1962   After the Party   2002 Reunion   E-mail   Guest Book   Britain's Small Wars   Acknowledgments

Call to Arms Scramble - 8 December We had returned to Singapore Naval Base from a patrol in the South China Sea and, before we had commenced storing ship, were warned to prepare to go on “an active service footing”. The captain was summoned to a briefing in HMS TERROR, the Naval HQ, and the rest of us fell to speculation.  The favoured buzz was that we were to intercept and board “something” on the high seas. We cheerfully ignored the bigger, faster, more heavily armed destroyers berthed round the corner and the fact that, at our top speed of 15 knots going down hill with a following wind, most merchant ships could outrun a minesweeper - such is the confidence of youth ! We sailed at about 21.00 with Chawton, our chummy boat, in company. It had been the fastest store ship ever, with an unusually generous depot - below decks looked rather like a U-boat with goodies everywhere. The spirit in the boat was very “Battle of Britain”. Morale was very high and contagious.  Intelligence Briefing  Once out of the Johore Strait, JJ called all officers and Senior Rates to the Wardroom for a briefing. Intelligence was pretty thin, but it appeared that there had been an insurrection in Brunei, led by the North Kalimantan Liberation Army(TNKU), a group backed by Indonesia.  The fear was that the insurrection might overthrow the Sultan of Brunei a friend to British interests and enable Indonesia to occupy the oil fields of Seria as part of its opposition to the newly created Federation of Malaysia. Indonesia was, at that time, backed by Russia . They had recently received gifts of a Sverdlov-class cruiser and two Kotlin-class destroyers which, although indifferently crewed, outgunned anything the Royal Navy had in the area. Our minesweepers had been selected for the task because their shallow draft enabled them to navigate upriver to Brunei city. The extent of direct support for the insurrection from Indonesia was not clear. We anticipated some re-run of  “the natives are revolting” scenario which figured in the “Aid to Civil Power” training. Opposition was expected to be in the form of spears, shotguns and the odd rifle, accompanied by murder of officials and sabotage of power lines and communications centres. Passage to Borneo It was a two-day transit across the South China Sea. We had fine weather, so were able to plan some reactions to possible scenarios and exercise every gun, including Lanchesters and pistols. We even sharpened some bayonets! We also discovered that we had little in the way of First Aid kits and no Elastoplast or Band Aids! (no NAAFI in a sweeper). On 10 December we made a rendez-vous at Labuan with Lima Company, 42 Commando, Royal Marines who had flown in from Singapore. Many were old friends and a somewhat surreal holiday atmosphere prevailed as we topped up with fuel, received an intelligence update. We learned that Gurkhas had already been in action and taken casualties in Brunei City and further south towards Sarawak. Other members of 42 Commando had flown to Brunei in Argosy troop carriers and occupied the airfield - there are some hairy Royal Marine dits about them driving their armed Land Rovers out of the aircraft before it had stopped taxiing - but don’t believe the stories about them driving off while still 50 foot in the air.

There were rumours of hostage taking and the “customary atrocities”  by the rebels. Clearly we had to regain control of Brunei and assure the safety of the Sultan.

For this expedition JJ was to be Senior Naval Officer and Captain Jeremy Moore RM was Military Commander - both on the end of frequent radio routines with Singapore.

Brunei City (correct title Banda Seri Bagawan) is some twenty-plus miles from the sea, across a large shallow bay and up a very winding jungle-clad river. There was a suggestion that the navigation lights in the river might have been extinguished or moved, so it was decided to navigate upriver in daylight.

Brunei Bay had been the last stronghold of the Japanese 68,000 ton super-battleships Yamato and Musashi in 1944 before they sailed for defeat and humiliation at the Battle of Leyete Gulf, their nine 18-inch guns untried in action. The bay also figured in the exploits of Rajah Brooke a century earlier. He had put down the dyak pirates and had been rewarded by the Sultan of Brunei granting him the kingdom of Sarawak, which his family ruled up to 1947. The historians among us had a good look round as we crossed the bay.

We expected some opposition, possibly concealed fire from the riverbanks (we had also seen  the film “Yangtse Incident” about HMS AMETHYST), so  we cleared for action, shut all watertight doors, manned the Bofors and Oerlikon, mounted our only Bren gun on the bridge wing and invited the Royals to line the bulwarks - the Nelson touch again. We didn’t tell the Booties that our bulwarks were only aluminium not armour plate.

JJ had won a large ensign which we wore as a battle ensign. It looked well against a clear blue tropical sky and the dark green of the jungly river banks. The scene was complemented by the tannoy playing “Hearts of  Oak” as we steamed upstream. For many it was a very emotional experience: doing what we had joined for - the risk of danger, sailors and marines grimly joking , determination of a high order.

I observed from my action station position in the steering gear compartment that the Royal Marines were on full alert, safety catches off and eyes scanning the jungle foliage on both banks of the river.

Although very much on the alert, the Marines relaxed slightly and one young Marine offered me a packet of “Spangles” from his “K” rations. Being a stoker I was partial to a bit of “nutty ration”. The RM Sergeant observed this transaction and some leg pulling and lamp swinging broke the tension.

It is sad that I have to remember such an incident because both the young marine and the sergeant were killed two days later during the raid on Limbang.

Our arrival in Brunei was rather an anti-climax. We had not been attacked en route and the Navigator had managed to miss the mud. Fiskerton secured starboard side to facing upstream alongside a concrete jetty beneath the port offices. Chawton berthed alongside us. The river widens into a lagoon over a mile wide opposite the town. The Sultan’s palace was about half a mile on the starboard bow and abeam to port a small town on stilts (Kampong Ayer - Water Village) had been constructed over the shallows.

The Marines secured a perimeter round the town. JJ and Captain Moore conferred with the civil authorities. The Harbourmaster, Captain Moutrie, an ex-Merchant Marine Master Mariner, came aboard. His knowledge of local waters and personalities was to prove of great value.

We established arcs of fire, posted armed sentries fore and aft and maintained a duty gun’s crew between the two boats. Conscious of the risk of sabotage, we strung a necklace of lights to illuminate under the jetty.