Yesterday : The famous Kota Tingg i- 2 SIR up against Indonesian paratroopers from the elite Guards unit

[Sleepyman]

As a NS recruit, I did not know much about the Kota Tinggi details but later as a staff officer I had the opportunity to meet these personnel from 2SIR during the usual Friday Tombolo Night.

 

At that time when Singapore was a part of Malaysia our two SIRs were renamed as 1MIR and 2MIR. 2SIR was operationally responsible for the Singapore and southern Johore area. 2MIR (2SIR) was raised in 1962 and billeted at Holland Road Camp.

 

According to my superior who was then a young 2LTA in 2 SIR, Dalgit Singh was already a platoon commander, together with LTA Mejar Singh. 2SIR's CO was a Colonel Campbell, a British seconded from the British Army.

 

It was the crack Indonesian paratroopers from the "KKI", an elite Guards unit from Jakarta which was sent on this mission. The Malaysian police post at Kota Tinggi were alerted of the parachute-landing and the nearest infantry garrison to Kota Tinggi was 2 SIR in Singapore. 1SIR at that time was deployed to the Sabah border with Indonesia.

 

One platoon of 2SIR was sent inside the jungles of Kota Tingi. For those who have ventured into Kota Tinggi (which I did as a child and as a teenager), it has a waterfall as the key attraction. The killing zone was north of the waterfall.

 

2SIR made no contact with the Indonesians for about a week. However, unknowingly the Indonesians were tailing one of the SIR sections. Not finding them for a week, that section grew tired and went for a bath at one of the nearby Kota Tinggi streams. Everybody left their weapons at the riverbank with no personnel on sentry-duty.

 

For those trained in the SAF doctrine, you are not supposed to do this and at all times, your rifle must be with you. The Indonesians pounded on our boys but one injured personnel managed to sneak away and ran for his life into Kota Tinggi Town. All this time, there was "radio silence" because this was a mission. It was only after the injured personnel emerged from the jungle that the incident became known. When the dead were recovered, their bodies were infested with maggots and were very gruesome

 

Reinforcements were rushed up from Singapore. On that mission were names like James Teo (who was the 5SIR CO for BERSATU PADU in 1971), Jimmy Yap (CO Officer Cadet School), Mahinder Singh (Dy Director SAFTI) and Dalgit Singh (CO 3SIR). They were

Edited December 15, 2008 by Sleepyman

[Viceroymenthol]

I heard the Indonesians were brutal in the slaying of our soldiers. They cut off the men's genitals and stuffed them in their mouths.

[Tanjkp]

Good history lesson to the N/gen SGPs. Specially we are now living in peace and calm environment...

[Sleepyman]

The 2 young Lts at least garang... I cant imagine my PC leading me... Hes quite a blup chap...

 

During FIBUA he told me to take my section to do a 'pincer' attack on the building... Immediately kena f*** by my encik...

 

Then again i cant imagine leading my men against crack troops...

[Genie47]

Only an older man who has served his dues can tell you how to face such action.

 

I will echo the last words of the movie "The Kingdom" that was revealed by Jamie Foxx and the Saudi girl. ....

 

"We'll kill them all."

 

A soldier must go to war abandoning all hopes of returning alive. This means giving up his humanity. To kill with extreme prejudice. That is a soldier. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

Soldier on a peacekeeping mission? That is an oxymoron. A soldier is anything but a peacekeeper to be effective.

[Dynaway]

aiyah... pls lah.... if u are fighting for someone else's aS5.... i think nobody wouldnt bother in the first place...... not unless tat AS5 really take cares of u....

 

but if u r fighting for someone u love or treasure... then its another different story....

[Hiphiphoray]

Errrr...why were the indonesian doing there in the first place ?

 

Paracute into kota tinggi ? Security so slack in those days ?

[Scion]

which is why the japs were so brutal during the genocide of the chinese during WWII?

[Scion]

this is new to me...

did this incident escalate to a conflict/war between the 2 countries?

[Genie47]

War itself is brutal. So far all these Geneva Convention and what have you tries to sanitize war. War is insanity. War is unholy. War is a human condition. And we refuse to accept it.

[Genie47]

This is the Konfrontasi.

 

Indonesia basically wants to deflect domestic issues abroad. SG and MY formed into the MY Federation. Indonesia under Sukarno then viewed this as a threat to their sphere of influence.

 

Edited to change the spelling to the Indonesian version as it is now known as.

 

Link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia-Mal...a_confrontation

 

Basically they don't like parts of Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak) joining the Malaysian Federation.

Edited December 16, 2008 by Genie47

[Hiphiphoray]

Wahhhhhh.....thanks for the link.

 

Didnt know it was so messy during that period.

[Ironstarz]

Geneva Convention, if u were to follow it, u will be the first to be shot, sad to say thats the fact

 

Terrorist do not follow Geneva Convention , i've trained with US soldiers who been deployed to Iraq numerous time and this has been proven to be true

[Sosaria]

Hmm... don't they teach this in schools these days? Or is it no longer compulsory to learn History?

 

I notice that the history here often emphasize post-'65 events after formation of singapore where the govt shines in nation-building. But there is very little attention given to the messy events leading up to '65 where there were many rival leaders and factions vying for power. We get an impression that it was a chaotic time (and so you'd better be thankful for your current situation... still want to complain?? ), but very little details are taught to the general student population

 

Anyway, as for the Confrontation, luckily the brits were still hanging around and had an interest to defend the survival of the malaysian federation, else who knows what might've happened?

[Nolicense]

i guess we'd all be speaking indonesian..

[King]

for those grand father come from you know where hor

 

we have 4 thousand year of war......war is in our blood............

[Chongster]

This time, the Indonesians scattered in different directions. It must have been somewhat of a surprise that no Indonesians were caught alive. I leave it to you to guess what must have happened next because I saw some of the photographs taken at that time. Don't forget our jungle-weapons also included the machete. The two Singhs were later involved in the Labis incident and again credited with many enemy killings.

 

the indonesians who were not caught alive. were they caught and killed or not caught at all? my chinese teacher used to be a isreali trained officer, and in his recount of this story, there was only one indonesian caught, and who was executed on the spot.

[Davidklt]

Thats why i never support any views for defence expenditure to be cut. I am glad the current party recognize this and refuse to cut defence expenditure even in uncertain times.