1963 1964 1965 The Battle of Babang (12 July 1965) was the fourth and last in a series of successful ambushes conducted between in May and July 1965 by Australian troops from 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR), this time at Babang in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation.

[1] On 12 July 1965 7 Platoon C Company under Lieutenant Robert Guest—again accompanied by the Company Commander, Major Ivor Hodgkinson, the battalion Intelligence Officer and a fire control party—was occupying an ambush position along a well-used track in the vicinity of the Indonesian base at Babang, on the border.

The Indonesian platoon counter-attacked and the Australians withdrew under the cover of defensive artillery fire.

[2] Like the other successful Claret missions conducted by 3 RAR earlier at Sungei Koemba and Kindau, the ambush at Babang inflicted significant casualties on Indonesian forces and allowed it to dominate the border area.

This provided early warning of Indonesian incursions into Sarawak as well as contributing to the wider success of the British-Commonwealth forces in slowly asserting control on the war.