Battle of Bau The Battle of Bau was an engagement that occurred on 21 November 1965 in the border area of Sarawak in Borneo between British and Indonesia n 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 – 66 . The engagement involved an attack by a 16 - man advance squad of British Army Gurkha s 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 . Prelude . After relieving the 3rd Battalion , Royal Australian Regiment in August 1965 , the 2nd Battalion , 10th Princess Mary ' s Own Gurkha Rifles ( 2 / 10 PMOGR ) under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Peter Myers had been tasked with reducing a series of Indonesian camps along the Sungei Koemba river , about south of Bau . On 21 November 1965 , ' C ' Company , under Captain Christopher ' Kit ' Maunsell , had been sent out to locate and destroy ‘ J ’ Parachute Infantry Battalion that was attempting to establish a base near Serikin in the Bau district of Sarawak , Borneo . Leaving the majority of the company in a harbour , the company commander and a small patrol set out early in the morning , moving through the dense jungle to search for signs of Indonesian infiltration in the area . Battle . Hearing movement in the dense jungle , the patrol carried out a close reconnaissance which revealed a platoon - sized Indonesian force entrenched on top of a sheer - sided hill , while another group — estimated to be about company strength — was also located about away to the west on a lower spur . Moving back to the patrol base , Maunsell began giving orders for the company to carry out a deliberate attack on the Indonesian position . Because of the way in which the Indonesians had located their positions , it was necessary for the platoon - sized element on top of the hill to be dealt with first by an advanced party using the element of surprise if possible , so as not to alert the support position before the main assault could be undertaken . A support position was established about from the Indonesians , from where the attached forward observer would be able to call in artillery support if required . In addition one platoon was positioned in a location from where they could provide support by fire on to the company - sized position in order to distract them during the initial assault . By noon the battle preparation had been completed and Maunsell led his two assault platoons in single file up the ridge towards the summit . An advance party , consisting of 16 men under the command of Lance Corporal Rambahadur Limbu , led the way , crawling silently up the steep ridge and clearing the way for the rest of the company . It took over an hour to cover the before the forward machine gun pit was located . The plan was to kill the sentry manning the machine gun silently , however , when the party was from the pit , the sentry spotted them and opened fire , wounding one of the Gurkhas . Seeing the danger that they were in , Limbu rushed the machine gun and destroyed it with a grenade . Alerted , the rest of the Indonesian platoon began to fire on the forward pit , thus making it an untenable position from which to provide support for the company attack . In order to report this fact to his platoon commander , Limbu exposed himself to enemy fire before returning to his section to continue on with the assault . At the same time , Maunsell had decided to launch the main assault . The lead assault platoon , 8 Platoon , under Lieutenant Ranjit Rai , a Queen ' s Gurkha Officer , suppressed one of the enemy machine guns before clearing a hut that was located inside the Indonesian position . The Indonesian resistance to the assault was increasing , so Maunsell gave the order for Rai ' s platoon to carry out an assault on one of the secondary pits . During this assault , one Gurkha was killed and another wounded . However , it proved successful , and Indonesian resistance began to falter . On the left flank , the second assault platoon , 9 Platoon , began receiving fire from another Indonesian machine gun pit and its advance was halted . Under the cover of fire laid down by a two - man Bren light machine gun crew , Rambahadur Limbu charged the machine gun pit and again silenced it with a grenade . The three men pressed on , jumping over the destroyed gun . However , one of the Indonesians was still alive and fired a burst as the men passed , hitting the Bren crew , before being killed himself by a grenade . Limbu turned back and over the course of twenty minutes — during which he was almost constantly under fire — he proceeded to rescue them both . He carried the first man to shelter in the hut that had been cleared , before going back out to bring back the second . Both soldiers died of their wounds shortly afterward . Limbu returned to retrieve their Bren and provided covering fire to the final stages of the assault . Limbu killed four more Indonesians as they attempted to escape across the border . After a fire fight that lasted over an hour , the Indonesians were cleared from the top of the hill . However the fire from the company - sized position on the lower spur began to increase and the Gurkhas found themselves under pressure to withdraw . Realising the danger if they remained in the location , Maunsell gave the order to retire and the company began to withdraw from the position . Under the cover of accurate howitzer and mortar fire directed by the Forward Observation Officer , Lieutenant Douglas Fox , C Company was successfully extracted . The column was met by the Medical Officer , Captain Jack Wynters RAMC , who treated the wounded and , while holding the intravenous drip of one , accompanied them on the march back to Serikin in the pitch dark . Aftermath . After the battle it was estimated that the Indonesians had suffered at least 24 men killed in the action , while the number of wounded remains unknown . Against this , the British lost three men killed and two wounded , one of them seriously . Two of the dead had been the two men that Rambahadur Limbu had attempted to rescue . Nevertheless for his bravery during the action , Limbu was awarded the Victoria Cross . For their leadership Maunsell , Rai and Fox were all awarded the Military Cross . References . Online sources