However, Walker had to apply a certain level of destructive power to cow the aggressive and assertive Indonesians. The combination of these tactical and political necessities shaped Walker's eventual stratagem, which culminated in what would be known as Operation Claret. This involved elite British light infantry roaming the jungle, attacking Indonesian bases and patrols at will and trying to give the appearance of being everywhere at once for psychological effect upon the enemy. Initially launched only over short distances, seaborne raids by Indonesian volunteers into peninsular Malaysia caused the range to be extended throughout 1964 and 1965. Walker continued the Claret raids to great effect until the end of his tenure, being replaced by Major General George Lea as commander of British forces in Borneo. Lea, however, had the ill fortune of being ordered to take command just as the conflict began to reach its climax in the spring of 1965. Sukarno, desperate for a decisive victory and apprehensive of the effect that the fruitless conflict was having upon his country, was beginning to order stronger attacks to win a decisive military victory and drive the British from the border lines. Battle Plaman Mapu was a tiny Malaysian village situated only half a mile behind the western part of the border between Sarawak and Kalimantan. There the British had established a base for 'B' Company of the Parachute Regiment. Apart from the two 3-inch mortars stationed there, the place had little strategic value beyond serving a lookout point for the detection of Indonesian raiders crossing the border. By the low standards of the makeshift British jungle bases, it was fairly well defended, being equipped with aforementioned mortars, an interconnected trench network, and a command bunker, with supporting artillery weapons within range of the base to supply cover. The defenders of the base, by contrast, were wholly unprepared for combat. The undermanned 'B' Company had recently been supplied with a platoon of inexperienced troopers who had little experience with jungle warfare. Due to the intensity of recent fighting, the base commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ted Eberhardie, had only been able to spare a few of the new men for a training course in such combat at Singapore, but one of those was Sergeant Major John Williams, who would play a crucial role in the coming battle. Tension had been building among the base's staff in recent days, and most suspected that an