Confrontation

Military Campaign in Borneo

For over four years in the Swinging Sixties the armed forces of the UK were engaged in a little publicized but crucial jungle war against communist aggression on the vast island of Borneo. At any one time up to 50,000 troops were deployed along a 1,000 mile front. Their enemy were the communist-led Indonesians whose leaders were determined to seize the states of Sarawak, Sabah and the oil-rich Brunei, all of whom for their part wished to maintain their Commonwealth links. The catalyst for the war was the 1962 uprising in Brunei which was quickly crushed by the bold intervention of British army units.

Leadership and Operations

The arrival of Major General Walter Walker, himself a controversial figure, gave the subsequent campaign a clear direction. Indonesian incursions were rigorously defended and ruthlessly pursued. Top Secret Claret operations took the fight to the enemy with cross border operations initially using Special Forces and later with Chindit-style long-range patrols. The outcome was a textbook military victory thus avoiding a British Vietnam debacle.