Historical Perspective John Winton’s definitive work “Illustrated History of the Royal Navy” Quadrillion Publishing ISBN 1-84065-218-2 summarised the period as “Confrontation ended in 1966 with the ousting of Sukarno and the signing of an agreement. It had been a full scale war involving a total of 100 warships over a period of nearly three years but it was played down in the media of both sides and the contribution of surface ships, cutting off Indonesian incursions, the helicopters and fixed wing aircraft from HMS Victorious, operating for prolonged periods in Borneo and along the coast of Malaya was, and still remains, largely unsung.” Environment Most of the participants in this action were in their early 20’s. The Commanding Officer of HMS Fiskerton, J.J. Black, was a newly promoted Lieutenant Commander. The oldest man aboard, the Chief Engine Room Artificer, was a veteran in his mid-30’s. Young men, proficient operators in our respective trades, and enjoying the challenge of considerable responsibility, but not a group from which one should expect deep political analysis nor appreciation of international strategy. In 1962 the British government of Conservative Prime Minister Harold McMillan was pursuing a policy of “Withdrawal from East of Suez”. The Royal Navy still had a Far East Fleet - just, but the capital ships (usually one cruiser and one aircraft carrier plus supporting frigates) were rotated out from UK and were not always on station. Incidents like Kenya, Kuwait, Aden and the Confrontation were played down as “Brushfire Wars”. UK press coverage was minimal and the likes of Kate Adie were unknown. At that time in the Far East, apart from the Admiralty broadcast, we were effectively cut off from news from UK once deployed away from our bases in Singapore and Hong Kong. Even in the bases, British newspapers were usually several days old, unless you had a friend in the airlines. Small ships did not usually tune in to the BBC World Service. Mail drops happened about once a fortnight - if within range of Shackleton maritime reconnaissance aircraft from Changi and if they could be persuaded not to bomb in the canisters from 20,000ft. Satellite TV and portable
phones had not yet been invented !!
International Political Context - Early 1960’s |
