Balikpapan - History - CIA Air Raid

CIA Air Raid

In 1958 the CIA attacked Balikpapan and stopped oil exports. The USA was running a CIA covert mission to undermine President Sukarno's government by supporting right-wing rebels in Indonesia. The CIA, Taiwan and the Philippines had provided the Permesta rebels in North Sulawesi with an insurgent air force, the Angkatan Udara Revolusioner (AUREV). On 19 April 1958 a CIA pilot, William H Beale, Jr, flying a B-26 Invader bomber aircraft that was painted black and showing no markings, dropped four 500 lb (230 kg) bombs on Balikpapan. The first damaged the runway at Balikpapan airport, the second set the British oil tanker SS San Flaviano on fire and sank her and the third bounced off the British tanker MV Daronia without exploding. Beale's fourth bomb set on fire and sank the Indonesian Navy Bathurst class corvette KRI Hang Tuah, killing 18 crew and wounding 28. Before attacking Hang Tuah, Beale also machine-gunned the oil pipes to Shell's wharf.

The CIA had orders to attack unarmed foreign merchant ships in order to drive foreign trade away from Indonesia and weaken its economy, with the intention of undermining Sukarno's government. The day before attacking Balikpapan, Beale had also damaged a Shell complex at Ambon, Maluku. His Balikpapan raid succeeded in persuading Shell to suspend tanker services from Balikpapan and withdraw shore-based wives and families to Singapore. However, on 18 May Indonesian naval and air forces off Ambon Island shot down an AUREV B-26 and captured its CIA pilot, Allen Pope. The USA immediately withdrew support for Permesta, whose rebellion rapidly diminished thereafter.