The reading follows 845 Naval Air Squadron at Nanga Gaat, where local communities cleared landing sites and helped handle stores and fuel. A Royal Marines pilot built ties with community leaders, learned the local dialect, and sometimes acted as a magistrate as well as an aviator. The small naval sick bay reportedly saw about thirty local patients a day, while helicopters carried serious cases to the nearest hospital. Hiller reconnaissance aircraft and Wessex transports also supported patrols through mountainous country where low cloud and seven-thousand-foot peaks restricted usable routes. The episode shows naval aviation supplying mobility, medicine, and political trust as well as combat power during a counterinsurgency.
Chapter · 29:24-32:31
Fleet Air Arm helicopters in Borneo's hearts-and-minds campaign
Helicopters moved troops and patients through difficult Borneo terrain while naval personnel built relationships with isolated communities during the Indonesian Confrontation.