March 3rd, 1962 - When The Sky Turns Red From Blood

First Blood

The carrier HMS Victorious was enroute returning to Singapore after participating in the scheduled “exercise” alongside the combined Anglo-American fleet. On board was the flag officer, Commander of the British Far Eastern Fleet, Vice Admiral Desmond Dreyer. It was early morning, 0600 local time when he received the notification from his staff.

The Indonesians took Sorong, an entire Australian battalion was wiped out. Operation Centurion is a go.

The worst has come to pass. The clock will tick one tick closer to midnight, but British resolve remains firm as their Commonwealth brethren falls under the Indonesian Red Menace. Immediately, 892 Squadron NAS of 12 Sea Vixen FAW.1 and 803 Squadron NAS of 16 Scimitar F.1 are readied on the Victorious’s decks. The carrier that launched the strikes that killed the legendary Bismarck will now do the same against the new Axis of Evil.

Before the strike package could be launched, at 0711 a flight of 3 Indonesian Tu-16 was detected by the Victorious’s Type 984 radar. A typical feature throughout the Anglo-American exercise, the Indonesian bombers often mimic Soviet tactics in the Northern Atlantic, buzzing NATO ships with mock attacks to test the Western resolve. To the crew of the 3 Tu-16, this would be one such regular occurrence. Unbeknownst to them, the Victorious had directed the 2 Sea Vixen FAW.2 on Combat Air Patrol to intercept the bombers - their missiles lock and loaded.

“We’ve acquired target tracking on the bogey”

“Fox 2, Fox 2”

The Tu-16 realizing what was going on immediately sets forth for violent maneuvers, pushing the airframe to its limits as they dive down, try to make themselves a more difficult target for the hail of Firestreaks that had been launched at them. No dice. 8 Firestreaks launched, 5 found their mark. Only a single Tu-16 would get out of the engagement, heavily damaged, its crew having to ditch at sea. This was only the beginning.

At 0728, the American Task Force 71 launches Operation Anvil, the American counterpart to the British plans. At 0822, the 28 strong strike package launches for Morotai, the nearest target to the south of the British forces. The goal was the destruction of the Indonesian airbase and associated infrastructure. They will be joined by a 70 plane strong American strike force heading from the East of the island.

At 0749, the hammer struck. The Indonesian radars showed a blip, then 2, then 100. If the Indonesians didn’t know about the Anglo-American’s hostile intent, they sure do now. MiG-21s, MiG-19s and MiG-17s are scrambled from the airport to intercept. The ensuing air battle would be the largest engagement directly between American and Soviet forces since the Korean War.

The USN F-8 lead the strike package, charging into the merge. Fireballs lit up the sky as MiGs after MiGs are downed at the hands of the Sidewinders (the C variant though showing much worse performance than its B counterpart) and the Crusader’s guns, though doing some damage to the Americans in return. The battle was lost though, as the British Sea Vixen descended from the north undetected, creeping up behind the mountains. Firestreak salvos struck as the hammer to the F-8’s anvil - the result was devastating. Local air defences put up valiant support, downing additional Western aircrafts during the fighting.

But the coast was clear, and with the strike package of 62 planes (24 Skyhawks, 10 Skywarriors, 12 Skyraiders and 16 Scimitars) descended on the airport. Bullpups and 1000lbs bombs rain in 3 waves and in their wake, nothing remained.

Anglo-American Casualties

2 F-8U2 Crusader

1 Sea Vixen FAW.1

3 A-1E Skyraider

2 A-4C Skyhawks

2 Scimitar F.1

Indonesian-Soviet Casualties

24 MiG-21, 9 MiG-17 destroyed in the air, 13 MiG-17 destroyed on the ground

March 5th, Judgement Day

The Indonesian Fleet at Teluk Ambon was aware that it was a prime target, and thus a decision was made to either relocate to the safety of ports in the East, though doing so essentially abandoning the West Papua campaign, or remain and potentially face the judgement of the Americans and Brititsh. To withdraw would be cowardice, and orders from the top made it so that the fleet would remain in harbour. Battlestations would be manned, as the Indonesians and their Soviet comrades brace for combat.

The Americans would get the entirety of the glory for the strike on the Indonesian Fleet. Midway and Coral Sea’s air group descends on the harbour, nearly ten dozen strong. The scene was set for the Battle of Ambon Island.

The defending Soviet/Indonesian force put up a valiant defence. The MiG-21s delayed the F-8, though being scattered after around 3 minutes of engagement and for the most part mauled, a few managed to sneak past and fire at the strike package, before being themselves destroyed.

The S-75 Dvina proved to be relatively unreliable, yet still credited with the majority of the missile kills on the American forces - a testiment to the K-13 Atoll’s unreliability. Yet it was the traditional, gun based AA forces that put the largest dent into the American numbers - the wall of AA fire blanketing the mouth to Ambon bay from the hills on either side, as the Skyhawks flew in, barely 3 meters higher than the water. Each carrying 2x 1000lbs bombs, they ripped through the hulls of the Soviet ships, though at a cost of a great many Skyhawks - over 2 squadrons were essentially destroyed.

The Skyraiders, unlike their jet counterpart, were mostly left behind. But this ended up working out brilliantly for them, as the AA defences of Ambon Island was for the most part saturated, the mass of Skyraiders tore through everything with their massive armaments, ripping to threads an entire S-75 Dvina battery alongside dozens of 100mm, 37mm, 23mm AA artillery pieces with their incindiary bombs before plunging their HVAR and armour piecing bombs into the Sverdlov-class cruiser. Despite the best efforts of the crew, the Sverdlov went under in the shallow waters of Ambon Bay 2 hours later.

By the time the first wave withdrew, the Soviet defences have been thinned out with essentially what’s worth a singular squadron of MiG-21 remaining in defence of the harbour alongside the land based AA. But they were not to get any respite - for USS Ranger’s strike group is here.

Ranger’s F-8s tore into the remaining scattered MiG-21 one by one, while their Skyhawks and Skyraiders focused on obliterating the port facilities and AA facilities. Target selection on the part of the American forces was poor though, as the defenseless Soviet/Indonesian Landing Ships/Landing Crafts were left mostly untouched.

Lasting for a total of 23 minutes, the Battle of Ambon Island is the largest air battle since the Korean War and is responsible for the destruction of Indonesia’s entire capability to wage war. Yet, it came at the cost of significant American live. 1 in 3 American pilots on board the 3 Fleet Carrier were to not return.

American Casualties

11 F8U-2 Crusader

14 A3D Skywarrior

40 A-4C Skyhawks

4 A-4E Skyraider

Soviet/Indonesian Casualties

48 MiG-21s and countless MiG-19s/-17s/15s

5 S-75 Dvina batteries

Dozens of AAA batteries

1 Sverdlov-class cruiser

4 Skora-class destroyers

4 Riga-class frigate

3 Kronstadt-class corvette

6 Komar-class missile gunboat

2 Landing Ships

Conclusion

The long term damage of the 2 days of operation the Anglo-American forces did to the Indonesian war effort is severe. While most of their landing ships remained operational, the threat of the Western task force make it so that Indonesian troops in West Papua are essentially surrounded and cut off from supplies barring the rare ships that may be able to make it past. The Soviet volunteer force in Indonesia is essentially close to extinction, with the number KIA lying between 1000-2000.

The American forces came out of this with the largest air losses in a single engagement since the Korean War, while also having effectively destroyed an entire island (Ambon) through collateral damage.