Page "Ambon, Maluku" Paragraph 10

On 15 May a CIA B-26 attacked a small ship, the Naiko, in Ambon Bay.

Naiko was merchant ship that the Indonesian Government had pressed into military service, and she was bringing a company of Ambonese troops home from East Java.

A CIA bomb hit the Naikos engine room, killing one crew member and 16 infantrymen and setting the ship on fire.

The B-26 then attacked Ambon city, aiming for the barracks.

Its first bomb missed and exploded in a market-place next door.

The next landed in the barracks compound but bounced and exploded near an ice factory.

The B-26 in the May air raids was flown by a CAT pilot called Allen Pope.

On 18 May Pope attacked Ambon again.

First he raided the airstrip again, destroying the C-47 and P-51 that he had damaged on 7 May.

Then he flew west of the city and tried to attack one of a pair of troop ships being escorted by the Indonesian Navy.

Indonesian forces shot down the B-26 but Pope and his Indonesian radio operator survived and were captured.

Pope's capture immediately exposed the level of CIA support for the Permesta rebellion.

Embarrassed, the Eisenhower administration quickly ended CIA support for Permesta and withdrew its agents and remaining aircraft from the conflict.