Borneo 1965 – Beware Lots of Pics

The aircraft in your photos is actually Spitfire F24, PK683, the Changi gate guard.

Prior to being displayed at Changi, it had been at Kallang Airport. It now preserved and on display at the Southampton Hall of Aviation.

Spitfire & Sarawak

The spit in the pics was the Gate Guard at Seletar

Darren

I’m pleased to see this surface again, I have put a link to a website that will attract the attention of scores of guys who were there at the time, there might even be someone who knew your Dad

http://www.fight4thepjm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=12721#12721

The King and People of Malaysia have recently awarded 35000 British Servicemen The Pingat Jasa Malaysia for their service all those years ago and in which just a few days time celebrate Merdeka Day and its 50th Anniversary. Your Dad would I think be eligible for this medal.

Sadly The British Government will not approve the wearing of the medal where they recommended to Her Majesty that those in The Commonwealth Nations of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji can wear their medals in honour of their fallen comrades, we are not permitted to wear ours for our fallen 519, 12 of which were from my own Squadron, isn’t that just the pits?:(

Nice to see photos of the Scout in service with the mk 1 back doors. Normally the photos are later and they have the mkII door.

Beautiful shots.
I love the early helicopters…especially Whirlwinds.

Congratulations Darren. A brilliant thread. Makes this forum worthwhile finding stuff like this 🙂

No problem Ken, glad you like them.

Hi Darren, Very nice pictures, they certinally have brought back memories. I had forgotten just how primitive everything was at the Gaat. I spent some weeks there, quite happy memories I must admit. The Belvedere picture I think you will find was the only such machine to land at the Gaat, I recall great concern as to whether it would fit onto the pan, it proved to be a close run thing, If I recall correctly it was not a planned visit, maybe weather had something to do with it. Thankyou for rekindling memories. KenC.

Great photos and stories,nice to see things as they were in real life.Preserved warbirds are nice but theres something about seeing “used and dirty” as they were in operational life.

Cheers for clearing that up, i saw a photo of a preserved one with the sand filter and wondered what it was. Did the Whirlwinds end up in any sticky situations, for example being shot at like something out of a Vietnam War movie?

DarrenB, et al,thanks for showing the photos of a conflict far away and forgotten/unknown to most people. I can commend everyone to read the link to the `forgotten wars` that we undertook a long time ago. I was there as a pilot flying WW`s on 225 Sdn, so I guess your father was on 230 or 110 Sdn, and then when it was disbanded in late `65 ,went to 103; in `67, came back to 230 at Odiham. We were at the end of a very long and slow `food chain` in relation to spares and equipment, as most seemed to end up in the Singapore MaintenanceUnits, especially engines and rotor blades; and we usually found engines lasted about 25-50 hours due to the dusty conditions.Darren, your father , and all who worked with him deserve a lot of credit for all their hard work in keeping us `hooligans` operating.Maybe , if you get a bucket of sand, a palm leaf or two, couple of hairdryers on `max` and a nearby shower, he might tell you a few` stories`.
I`ve got loads of similar pics, but my scanner `wont`, but some were put on another site`Pp….,rotorheads around the world, p19-20, which show some pics of a few `prangs`.
As to the difference in `noses`, the `nobbly` ones are the Vokes sand filters fitted to reduce the erosion of the compressor/ turbine blades , but as said earlier, they only arrived after the` conflict` had finished, and which is why the a/c were then covered in `dayglo`.
During my time, I did fly 85 different Mk 10`s, 1 x Mk9(xm666), 7 x Mk 7,, and 1 x Mk3; last Mk10 flight was in XJ729, 17Dec `81, and it is now in Ireland, I believe……Sycamore 🙂 .

Cheers, by the way does anyone know why some Whirlwind Har.10’s have amore knobbly nose than others? For example the two partly painted dayglo orange on the above pics have it, whereas the 3rd pic doesn’t, i’ve only seen Whirlwinds in real life like the Whirlwind on the 3rd photo.

This is a ‘sand filter’, but I have no idea why Whirlwinds would need this in Borneo? I can only think these are a left-over from when they were operated in desert or dusty conditions like Cyprus or Aden?

Cheers, by the way does anyone know why some Whirlwind Har.10’s have amore knobbly nose than others? For example the two partly painted dayglo orange on the above pics have it, whereas the 3rd pic doesn’t, i’ve only seen Whirlwinds in real life like the Whirlwind on the 3rd photo.

Brilliant! Love the Whirlwind 10’s, if theres any more pics please post them, its bloody hard finding pics of them in camo like this, i wan’t to build a model one in that camo. Cheers, Bob

Great stuff Darren! Bob, here are some Borneo Whirlwinds taken during 1966-67 from my slide archives and hope these are useful.

Wow, excellent pictures, I realise it is a predictable question coming from me but… do you have any more of Twin Pins?

Thanks for sharing 🙂

Will,

I’m still sifting through the slides. If I find any I’ll let you know.

Darren

Terrific stuff. As someone else said – thanks for sharing.
Rob

“Here’s a colour shot of a 110 Sqn Whirlwind. Taken along the beach area near Butterworth around Aug/Sep 1966.
Apologies for the quality.

BR
Laurie.”

The latest edition of Wrecks and Relics lists XP328 as surviving at Tattershall Thorpe in Lincs. She was G-reg’d at one time,but had an accident in 1988 and is listed as being ‘boomless’.
I can’t find anything current on XJ763 anywhere,so presumably she’s met her end.
Thanks for the pics Darren,keep ’em coming. 🙂

Wow, excellent pictures, I realise it is a predictable question coming from me but… do you have any more of Twin Pins?

Thanks for sharing 🙂

Aah, the sweet beauty of a negative/transparency, as opposed to an out-of date computer file type that can’t be read 50 yrs later …

Nice pics.

Aeroplane have run a few Personal Albums from this era and area over the years. Might be worth a look through any indexes to see if you can track down some of your father’s compatriot’s photos Darren?

James,

Thanks I’ll look into that. Must admit the only time I’ve seen similar photos is in a book by Wing Commander John Dowling called “RAF Helicopters – The First Twenty Years”.

Darren