Military history of Australia during the Malayan Emergency
| Background | |
|---|---|
| Battles | 1948
1950 1951 1954 1956 |
| Foreign involvement | |
Australian involvement in the Malayan Emergency lasted 13 years, between 1950 and 1963, with army, air force and naval units serving. The Malayan Emergency (Anti-British National Liberation War) was a
guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, from 1948 to 1960 in Malaya. The Malayan Emergency was the longest continuous military commitment in Australia's history. Thirty-nine Australians were killed and 27 wounded.[citation needed
]
The Australian Government sent
Butterworth air base, from which Canberra bombers of No. 2 Squadron (replacing No. 1 Squadron) and CAC Sabres of No. 78 Wing carried out ground attack missions against the guerillas.[citation needed
]
The
Commonwealth Strategic Reserve forces for three to nine months at a time. Several of the destroyers fired on Communist positions in Johor State.[citation needed
]
In 1973 an Australian Army
resurgence of the Communist insurgency in Malaysia.[2] While the base was handed to the Royal Malaysian Air Force in 1988 and the insurgency officially ended in 1989, Rifle Company Butterworth was maintained as a means of providing Australian soldiers with training in jungle warfare and cross-training with the Malaysian Army.[3]
Notes
- ^ "Malayan Emergency, 1950–60". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
- ^ Horner 2008, p. 256.
- ^ Horner 2008, p. 340.
References
- Horner, David; Bou, Jean (2008). Duty First: A History of the Royal Australian Regiment (2nd ed.). Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-74175-374-5.
Further reading
- Bannister, Colin (1994). An Inch of Bravery: 3 RAR in the Malayan Emergency, 1957–59. Canberra: Directorate of Army Public Affairs. ISBN 0-642-21207-4.
- ISBN 0-19-555914-2.
- Dennis, Peter; Grey, Jeffrey; Morris, Ewan; Prior, Robin (1995). The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History (1st ed.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-553227-9.
- Dennis, Peter; Jeffrey Grey (1996). Emergency and Confrontation: Australian Military Operations in Malaya and Borneo 1950–1966. OCLC 187450156.
- Macdougall, A. (1991). Australians at War: A Pictorial History. The Five Mile Press. ISBN 1-86503-865-2.