Australia's involvement in the Malayan Emergency from 1950 to 1960 and later in a Confrontation with Indonesia in the 1960s is little remembered today. Yet the deployment of over a third of the RAAF to support the British and Malayan governments in what became a long war of attrition against communist insurgents in the former case, and against Indonesian regulars and militia in the latter, kept the RAAF engaged for over 15 years. Wars by another name, these two events led to the birth of Malaysia and the establishment of an ongoing RAAF presence in South East Asia. Until recent operations in Afghanistan, the Malaya Emergency was Australia's longest conflict. Malayan Emergency and Indonesian Confrontation recounts the story of the politics, strategies and operations that brought these two conflicts to a close.
For over four years in the Swinging Sixties the armed forces of the UK were engaged in a little publicized but crucial jungle war against communist aggressive on the vast island of Borneo.At any one time up to 50,000 troops (half of the Armys strength today) were deployed along a 1,000 mile front. Their enemy were the communist led Indonesians whose leaders were determined to seize the states of Sarawak, Sabah and the oil rich Brunei, all of whom for their part wished to maintain their Commonwealth links. The catalyst for the war was the 1962 uprising in Brunei which was quickly crushed by the bold intervention of British army units.The arrival of Major General Walter Walker, himself a controversial figure, gave the subsequent campaign a clear direction. Indonesian incursions were rigorously defended and ruthlessly pursued. Top Secret Claret operations took the fight to the enemy with cross border operations initially using Special Forces and later with Chindit-style long range patrols. The outcome was a text book military victory thus avoiding a British Vietnam debacle.
The 'Confrontation' between Malaysia and Indonesia in Bornew (January 20, 2006), the war against Indonesian raids across a 900-mile border in some of the world's worst jungle terrain, eventually involved nearly 20,000 British and Commonwealth troops, with air and naval support; and yet, by mutual consent, it was astonishingly little reported at the time. This 'secret war' saw the perfection of SAS jungle tactics; a Parachute Regiment action described as 'a second Rorke's Drift'; and audacious secret missions deep inside enemy territory, including the award to a Gurkha soldier of the British Army's only 'living VC' for 40 years.
The Malayan Emergency, the confrontation with Indonesia and the Brunei Revolt are fundamental to an understanding of Southeast Asia during the 20th century. This bibliography brings together 4575 sources which should provide useful information for scholars researching these developments and Southeast Asian history in general. Sources include books, theses, newspaper and magazine articles and unpublished manuscripts.
This book fills an important gap in the history and intelligence canvas of Singapore and Malaya immediately after the surrender of the Japanese in August 1945. It deals with the establishment of the domestic intelligence service known as the Malayan Security Service (MSS), which was pan-Malayan covering both Singapore and Malaya, and the colourful and controversial career of Lieutenant Colonel John Dalley, the Commander of Dalforce in the WWII battle for Singapore and the post-war Director of MSS. It also documents the little-known rivalry between MI5 in London and MSS in Singapore, which led to the demise of the MSS and Dalley’s retirement.
On discovering the tragic news that his worst fears have been realized by the sudden sinking of his MTB boat, ‘The Wilful Lady’ and the loss of all her crew at sea, Rex our intrepid adventurer decides to forge a new life for himself as a soldier of fortune. This was not to be as the tide of war was coming back again to Malaya but this time the enemy of my enemy is no longer my friend. An eight thousand strong well trained and equipped communist terrorist insurgency had begun with the murders of British rubber plantation owners and rubber tappers alike. Rex is coerced into working for the British once again despite his objections. To make matters worse, the terrorist who became known to the locals as ‘bandits’ were financially well supported by the Communist Party of Malaya with an active membership of tens of thousands of civilians predominantly Chinese squatters and displaced citizenry. Only this time Rex our protagonist would take up the role of a European Police Sergeant working for the Federation of Malaya Police Force. Before his war was over, Rex will have made new friends and face daring challenges that would change his world.
"Dialogues with Chin Peng: New Light on the Malayan Communist Party includes background papers, previously unseen Communist Party documents, propaganda posters, and other data. These materials, from both sides of the conflict, shed new light on the Malayan Communist Party, and present history as dialogue and debate."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
"Emergency and Confrontation is the first sustained and scholarly account of Australia's military involvement in the Malayan Emergency, waged against the armed forces of the Malayan Communist Party between 1948 and 1960, and in Confrontation, an undeclared war initiated by Indonesia to destabilise the emergent Federation of Malaysia and fought largely along the common border in the northern part of Borneo between 1962 and 1966. In each case the conflict was determined by the wider movement for decolonisation in Asia, and by the context of Cold War competition which saw Western forces pitted against Communist, or Communist-backed, movements." "As part of the British Commonwealth Far East Strategic Reserve, Australian soldiers engaged in protracted operations in northern Malaya and along the Thai border, while Australian airmen flew bombing sorties against suspected enemy concentrations, usually in deep jungle. With the Emergency concluded, Australian forces saw service again in the 1960s as part of a Commonwealth force in Borneo. Operations in both campaigns were gruelling, drawn-out, and often inconclusive, but their overall success helped to protect the emergent democracy of post-colonial Malaysia, while they also provided valuable experience for Australian soldiers in the skills of jungle warfare, counter-insurgency and small unit action." "Australia's involvement in the Emergency and Confrontation forms part of the prologue to the more assertive and self-reliant engagement with its region which has come to characterise Australian policy in Southeast Asia in the 1980s and 1990s. The defence of Malaya/Malaysia from internal subversion and external threat was a success - and an important one in the subsequent development of the ASEAN states."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved