Indonesian Confrontation

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#000033" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>RAN Clearance Divers Association</B></FONT><B>     |   </B><B> </B><A HREF="articles.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Articles"><U><B>Articles</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="More Branch History"><U>More Branch History</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bomb Mine Disposal WWII"><U>Bomb & Mine Disposal - WWII</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CDT1 in PNG"><U>CDT1 in PNG</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CDT2"><U>CDT2</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CDT3 in South Vietnam"><U>CDT3 in South Vietnam</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id79.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CDs who served on the Gunline"><U>CDs who served on the 'Gunline'</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id49.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CDT3 in KUWAIT"><U>CDT3 in KUWAIT</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CDT3 in Iraq"><U>CDT3 in Iraq</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Operation Iraqi Freedom"><U>Operation Iraqi Freedom</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Recollections of a Clearance Diver"><U>Recollections of a Clearance Diver</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="An Aussie CD with the USN"><U>An Aussie CD with the USN</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="History of Demolitions training"><U>History of Demolitions training</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Personnel Exchange Program with USN"><U>Personnel Exchange Program with USN</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Past Team/School COs, XOs and WOs of the"><U>Past Team/School CO's, XO's and WO's of the CD Branch</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MCDOs reaching Star Rank"><U>MCDOs reaching Star Rank</U></A>   |   <B>Indonesian Confrontation</B>   |   <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IRAQ 2007"><U>IRAQ 2007</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#000033" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="833b4db0.jpg" border=0 width="180" height="219" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> This is a <B>c</B><B>opyrighted</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>©</B></FONT><B> </B>draft article by Ian Pfennigwerth 2007</div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:ipfennigwerth@kooee.com.au" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:ipfennigwerth@kooee.com.au"><U>ipfennigwerth@kooee.com.au</U></A></div> <div> The author is looking for comments and corrections/ additions.</div> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=398 BGCOLOR="#000099" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <I>Indonesian Confrontation</I></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Confrontation Diving </B><B>©</B></div> <bR> <div> The comparative ease with which Indonesian infiltrators could, potentially, enter Singapore, together with the existence of active anti-British and anti-Malaysian elements in the city, meant that the threat of attack on ships in the Naval Base and those moored in Johore Strait was commensurately high. While the landward approaches were secured and the water boundaries patrolled, assault by underwater swimmer was always possible. Under these circumstances, Commonwealth ships took precautionary measures - Operation AWKWARD, and the RAN deployed for the first time its newly formed Mobile Clearance Diving Team to Singapore.</div> <bR> <div> There were two categories of divers in the RAN. The first were ship's divers, who were members of a ship's company who had undergone some preliminary diving training. Their tasks were relatively simple - bottom searches to detect ordnance attached the ship's hull by enemy swimmers, the clearance of a ship's underwater engineering intakes, removing cables and nets which had become entangled in a ship's underwater fittings and the recovery of items dropped over the side. Ship's divers performed their normal duties until called upon to perform diving duties.</div> <bR> <div> Clearance Divers formed the other category. Qualified first as ship's divers, they undertook additional training in more complex diving operations and ordnance disposal, and in delivering attacks on enemy ships. Some were posted to ships, while others were formed into an independent team based at HMAS <I>Rushcutter</I> in Sydney, where they were employed on demanding general diving tasks. Their call to battle came abruptly.  On 23 February 1965 the team was ordered to HMAS <I>Melbourne</I> which sailed for Southeast Asia two days later. It was only then that the divers were informed that they were bound for Singapore to join up with the RN's Far East Diving Team. </div> <bR> <div> The integration of the RAN team with the British was accomplished quickly and with little difficulty. There were no differences in tactics of techniques used by the two navies and, although the British had more advanced diving equipment, the Australians were fitter and seemed to have more endurance; it was a happy mix. Located in the Naval Base, the combined group formed two teams to operate as directed by COMFEF. Principally, they maintained the capability of responding to underwater incidents in the vicinity of the base which were beyond the capabilities and experience of ships' divers, such as the discovery of ordnance attached to hulls. </div> <bR> <div> <I>There were a couple of occasions when we went into a two-watch system, Red and Blue, with Red on watch and Blue on standby. That was just after one occasion there, when a leading hand, Bill Burrows, and I and some of the RN-ers were called out to one of the RN ships. We don't really know, but it looked like a home-made bomb made out of a coconut held on by magnets. It was obviously not something natural, and whether it was a joke or not we didn't know, but we treated it as live. We put a metal shim underneath it, tied it off, and towed it out on a long rope and put 1 pound charges on it and blew it up down in the Straits. </I> </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I>Denis Appel, interview with author, 15 March 2007</I></div> <bR> <div> The team was also called out to investigate sightings of bubbles alongside a ship, but these were almost always assessed as frivolous attempts by the ships' companies to dodge work. When the presence of a diver was suspected the standard drill was for the ship to be secured at the highest state of watertight integrity and for the ship's company to muster on the wharf. Only when the CD team had given the all clear could they return onboard to resume work. But it was unpleasant work for the divers.</div> <bR> <div> <I>Ships alongside there used wooden fenders, about six metres long and two metres wide, as buffers between the ships and the wharves, with about six metres between them. To get in the water you dug a hole, literally, like digging in ice: it was twelve to eighteen inches thick, with rubbish, scum, slime, and that was your entry and exit out of the water if you had to get in the water between the ships and the wharf.</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><I>Appel Interview</I></FONT></div> <bR> <div> There was, however, a more serious incident in HMAS <I>Yarra</I> on 4 June 1965 - `the extraordinary affair of the missing diver', as the Report of Proceedings termed it. Briefly, bubbles were seen alongside the ship, which was berthed in the Stores Basin at the Naval Base. Underwater lights were switched on and 1 Lb scare charges dropped as the ship went to Action Stations. The following morning the ship's divers were sent down in pairs to investigate, and Electrical Mechanic Michael Olden was one of them.</div> <bR> <div> <I>At about 0800 the next morning (5 June) five of us started a Bottom search. One diver was in the motor whaler. We were in the dirty water for about half an hour, when my mate pulled the communications rope hard. I flipped over to him, taking up slack at the same time. He pulled me down about six feet below the hull. He guided my hand onto what I am certain was the suit-covered arm of a dead diver. We both went quickly to the surface, to the dive boat and thence to the Quarterdeck of </I><I>Yarra</I><I>. The dead diver would have been directly below </I><I>Yarra's </I><I>[ASW] mortar well, I think. </I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I> Michael G. Olden, correspondence with author, 9 February 2007.</I></div> <bR> <div> Contrary to what Olden and his `buddy' diver might have expected, instead of an immediate search of the ship's hull and an alert to the rest of the Fleet being instituted, they were disbelieved.</div> <bR> <div> <I>My dive mate and I were ushered into the starboard mortar magazine and were questioned by the Diving Officer and later by the Jimmy [Executive Officer]. This took about fifteen minutes and was interrupted by a 1MC [ship's broadcast] by Dulcie Loxton [Commanding Officer] who wanted to know how things were going. We were escorted by the Jimmy and the Diving Officer up to the operations room, where we were questioned by the Captain and First Lieutenant, on and off for another hour. I had the feeling they thought that we had panicked in the gloom and, being young, that our imagination had got the better of us.</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I> Olden correspondence</I></div> <bR> <div> A subsequent search of the water under the ship revealed no trace of the dead diver, but after the time elapsed between the discovery of the body and the search that is not surprising. The tidal stream would have carried the body well clear of <I>Yarra</I>. The ship's report on the incident conceded that Olden and his partner could not be budged from their account, but classified the incident as improbable.  This seems an odd conclusion, given the effort that was put into ensuring the integrity of the hulls of warships in the area throughout Confrontation.</div> <bR> <div> The RN/RAN diving team was engaged on other tasks as well. One of the strangest was the recovery and disposal of World War Two ammunition dumped by both the British and Japanese in Johore Strait. Both nations had picked the same dumping ground, and this readily accessible cache of high explosive proved irresistible to those who had a use for it. The divers were told that the people who were diving down and retrieving the bombs and shells, and then `sweating' the explosive contents out, were Communists. The description is plausible but not confirmed. </div> <bR> <div> <I>One of the roles we had there with the RN-ers was diving down, picking up some of this stuff and walking into deeper water with it, and others were brought to the surface, put on the boat and examined, and then some were taken away to be destroyed. Others were just dumped into deeper water. They stopped bringing a lot of it up, because on a couple of occasions when we got it onto the deck it started bubbling. I don't know if it was just air escaping from the rusty casings of the bombs, or the ordnance; I don't know, but it deterred some of the Chiefs [team leaders] from bringing too much of it up onto the deck.</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I>Appel Interview</I></div> <bR> <div> The Chiefs were right - it was a hazardous practice, even if no attempt was made to disturb the explosives. But that is what the alleged Communists were doing.</div> <bR> <div> <I>There was an explosion in the Straits, and we drove out there at first light. I can remember there were over a dozen dead bodies caught in the trees - blown to bits. It was explained by the Chief that what they had been doing was cutting ordnance open and getting explosives. There must have been a group of them there; they had tripods made up for the bombs, and they were cutting them with hacksaws and one must have gone off. I remember there were at least twelve dead there.</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I>Appel Interview</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I>I didn't go out for the second one, but about two weeks afterwards there was another explosion and there were a couple dead, I think they said. But what they'd done was moved away from where they were, although not far away, set up and they had buckets of water in the trees with wicks out of them dripping water. They must have thought it was the heat of the hacksaw blades that had set the bomb off, not realising that it was just old ordnance and friction which had set it off.  After that there were no more incidents.</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I> Ken Monk, correspondence with author, March 2007.</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> One of the teams was dispatched to Borneo in April where it was engaged in attempts to recover two Royal Navy `Wessex' helicopters which had crashed in the water. The Wessex was designed to operate over the sea and had flotation arrangements to keep it afloat long enough for the crew to escape, but it usually toppled over shortly after. Salvage attempts were unsuccessful, as was the attempt to raise another Wessex which had crashed from an aircraft carrier off Penang in March.</div> <bR> <div> Other team duties included exercise underwater attacks on  the ships of the Far East Fleet, recovery of exercise mines laid by submarines, the surveying of a submarine bottoming area off the east coast of West Malaysia, training the Ghurkha engineers in explosives demolition, and diving on the wrecks of  HMS <I>Prince of Wales</I> and <I>Repulse </I>north of Pulau Tioman. But by 23 June, the Australian team was back in <I>Rushcutter</I>, following its passage home in <I>Melbourne</I>. It had had an interesting four months, and one which confirmed the training and equipment readiness of the RAN divers to undertake deployed operations. </div> <bR> <div> While the Mobile Clearance Diving Team had been engaged in its specialised duties, the procedures for defence of their ships against underwater swimmers kept the other divers of the Fleet busy, particularly at berths in Johore Strait. Outside the ambit of the naval base boat patrols and with pristine jungle to the north - which might conceal underwater saboteurs armed with those explosives salvaged from the Strait - diving bottom lines and underwater lights were rigged, upper deck sentries were armed and placed and boat patrols started.  The aircraft carrier <I>Melbourne </I>experienced two incidents of possible underwater attack while in a Johore Strait berth. </div> <bR> <div> Shortly before 10 pm on 27 April 1965 underwater lights were reported off the port beam of the ship. A higher damage control status was ordered and within fifteen minutes the ship's diving team was in the water searching the hull. The search continued until 2 am the following morning, without result, although the boat patrols were continued. Then at 0040 on the morning of 30 April, knocking on the hull was reported under the starboard side forward. Shortly afterwards bubbles were sighted emanating from the same section of the hull. Again, divers were sent to investigate.</div> <bR> <div> <I>I was ordered into the water to follow a line of bubbles towards the source where the knocking came from. On my way down in pitch black darkness underneath a 20,000 ton aircraft carrier looking out for maybe an underwater saboteur armed to the teeth with an unexploded limpet mine or spear gun or whatever, was an extremely scary situation, for all I was armed with was the standard issue anti-magnetic knife. Fortunately, all I found was trapped air bubbles under the bilge keel seeping their way to the surface.</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I> Commander R.J. Elley Rtd. 'The Thoughts and Duties of a Young Clearance Diver on Active Duty in 1965'.</I></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>