Battle of Bau

Overview

The Battle of Bau, or the Battle of Gunong Tepoi, was an engagement that occurred on 21 November 1965 in the border area of Sarawak in Borneo between British and Indonesian forces. It was part of the wider Indonesian–Malaysian confrontation, that consisted of a series of small-scale engagements involving Indonesia, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, and which took place over the course of 1962–1966. The engagement involved an attack by a 16-man advance squad of British Army Gurkhas on a company-sized Indonesian position. The Gurkhas were then supported by the 104 men in the rest of the company which resulted in the last Indonesians withdrawing after having virtually been destroyed. The Gurkha company, having suffered relatively light casualties but coming under increasing pressure from another Indonesian company nearby, retired from the position. As a result of the action, one Gurkha—Lance Corporal Rambahadur Limbu—received the Victoria Cross.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Bau was one of the small-scale cross-border engagements that characterized the Indonesian–Malaysian confrontation in Sarawak, Borneo. A company-sized Indonesian force of 100–120 men was attacked and virtually destroyed by a Gurkha company, representing a significant tactical success for British forces in the border region. The engagement's lasting consequence lay less in its operational effect than in the individual recognition it produced: Lance Corporal Rambahadur Limbu of the British Army Gurkhas was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during the battle, making it one of the most noted single engagements of the confrontation from a regimental and Commonwealth military history standpoint.

Tactics

Forces & casualties

Commanders (1)