ABSTRACT

The British and Indian armies had fought in jungles for years before the onset of the communist insurrection in Malaya in 1948. As war with Japan loomed in the Far East, the majority of British and Indian troops on the Malayan Peninsula remained unprepared for operations in the jungle. In April 1948 the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, the Malayan Races Liberation Army, intensified its terror campaign by murdering European planters and foremen on rubber plantations and tin mines, and by attacking the police, army and government. This was the beginning of the open insurgency and in June 1948 the Federation of Malaya Government declared a state of Emergency. Thus the insurgents’ organisation and methods of operation, along with the cover of the rainforests, were important determinants of the British response. Patrolling and ambushing remained the key elements of the tactical doctrine in Malaya, but these were based upon ‘time-honoured methods’.