Bogey Bogey Bogey

By Geoff (Tex) Webbon

..........On one particular section deployment to Biawak I had just shut down comms to Coy HQ at Lundu when the sound of high performance aircraft engines approaching shattered the normal peace and quiet. Nipping outside I was in time to see three P51 Mustangs flash overhead, followed by what turned out to be a B25 Mitchell bomber converted with a side door for dropping. The Mustangs then returned overhead so low that we could quite easily see the pilots. The sentry had by this time mounted the section LMG on to a post from the nearest sanger. I heard him shout “shall I open fire?” to which I think we all shouted “No!!” in unison. I was thinking of the 18x 0.50 Brownings carried by the aircraft as being at odds with 1x 7.62 LMG!
..........I leapt back on to the radio and called Coy HQ with the standard Bogey Bogey Bogey call, at which point Pug Davis asked what we had seen. He then came back with the order “Do not open fire unless you are fired upon”, which suited us down to the ground!
..........It transpired that the Indonesians were deliberately overflying many of the border posts trying to provoke an incident whilst resupplying their own positions on a 400 mile stretch on their side of the border. We at Biawak were the first position that they overflew.
..........Crab air scrambled a pair of Javelin aircraft but the Indonesians were long gone by the time they arrived.

© Copyright Geoff (Tex) Webbon 2014.