MALAYA 16th. June 1948. Early in the morning, 3 murders of Rubber Planters took place. All within the area of Taiping Perak North Malaya. The names of the Planters were: - Mr. Arthur Walker. Manager of the Elphin Rubber Estate. and Mr J.M. Allison, along with Mr. I.D. Christian of the Phin Soon Rubber Estate. The two gangs of Murderers all Chinese, were Members of the Malaya Communist Party, under the then Party Chairman Chin Peng. Chin Peng had been trained and fought alongside the British Special Operations Executive Force 136. During the Japanese Occupation of Malaya from 1942 until 1945. Chin Peng’s objective was, to create a Communist Dictatorship in Malaya, after the cessation of hostilities. Then take over from the British Government in Malaya, The Malaya Communist Party, began to cause unrest creating strikes and acts of murder amongst the law-abiding Malayan people, whose population was mainly of Chinese origin. In February 1947. Under a Treaty arranged by the British Government. The Federated and Unfederated States of Malaya became one. Much against the Malayan Communist Party’s wishes. Retaliating, they creating more havoc and unrest amongst the civilians, until finally decided to. ‘Take up Arms’ against the British Government. The murders of the three Planters, had the British High Commissioner Sir. Edward Gent forced to take action. Initiated a State of Emergency in Perak, quickly followed throughout other States. Chin Peng ‘Declared War’ against the British. Subsequently, the atrocities spread throughout Malaya. The Civil Police were unable to control the speeding violence and mayhem. Necessitating, the existing British and Gurkha Troops to take control. Nevertheless, the Communist had taken their fight into the jungles of Malaya. Where for the next 12 years, a Bloody War took place. It was called ‘THE EMERGENCY’ by the British Government, due to the possible Insurance claims from both the Rubber Plantation and Tin Mines Owners. It cost the lives of 1,818. Commonwealth Forces. & 1,026 Federation of Malaya Police. Over the following 12 years, it is estimated that in excess of 22,000, lost their lives consisting of, Commonwealth Forces of the three Service’s, Federation of Malaya Police. Civilians, including the Chinese Communist Terrorist. Chin Peng survived, escaped with the remains of his beaten Army, numbering less than 400 across the Malay border into Thailand to remain an exile.

'A splendid, exciting book' Daily Mirror 'The story of the first all-out struggle in Asia between Communism and the West, vividly told in an exciting and engrossing book' Sunday Express Only three short years after the end of the Japanese occupation, war came again to Malaya. The Chinese-backed guerrillas called it the War of the Running Dogs - their contemptuous term for those in Malaya who remained loyal to the British. The British Government referred to this bloody and costly struggle as the 'Malayan Emergency'. Yet it was a war that lasted twelve years and cost thousands of lives. By the time it was over Malaya had obtained its independence - but on British, not on Chinese or Communist terms. Here is the war as it was. Here are the planters and their wives on their remote rubber estates, the policemen, the generals and the soldiers, the Malays, Chinese and Indians of a polyglot country, all fighting an astute, ruthless, and well organized enemy.

The struggle with Communist terrorists in Malaya known as The Emergency became a textbook example of how to fight a guerrilla war, based on political as much as military means. This book deals with both the campaign fought by British, Commonwealth and other security forces in Malaya against Communist insurgents, between 1948 and 1960, and also the security action in North Borneo during the period of Confrontation with Indonesia from 1962 to 1966. Both campaigns provided invaluable experience in the development of anti-guerrilla tactics, and are relevant to the conduct of similar actions which have been fought against insurgent elements since then. The book written with the full co-operation of various departments of the UK Ministry of Defence contains material that untilrecently remained classified.This is the first full study to cover the role of airpower in these conflicts. It will be of relevance to students at military colleges, and those studying military history, as well as having a more general appeal, particularly to those servicemen and women who were involved in both campaigns.

Forfatteren beskriver selv sin bog, som en journalists rapport om kampen mod kommunismen i Malaya, dens dramatiske højdepunkter og dens nedslående fejltagelser.

As early as the 1920s Communist Soviet and then Chinese agents had been infiltrating Malaya and in 1929 the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) was formed with the intention of overthrowing the Malayan Administration and establishing a Communist-controlled democratic republic. When Japan invaded China, support for the MCP grew and, ironically, following the Japanese occupation of Malaya in 1941, it was the MCP which received backing from Britain as the principle force capable of mounting guerrilla operations against the invaders. After the end of the Second World War, the MCP revived its original aims through peaceful means but found little popular support amongst the Malayans. So the Communists turned to violence, with a program of murders and sabotage. By the summer of 1948 the scale of insurrection was such that Emergency Powers were invoked by the Federal Government on 16 June and the military authorities were called in to assist the civil administration in restoring law and order - and this included squadrons of the RAF, RAAF, RNZAF, and the local auxiliary and national air forces. The difficulties of operating in a country the size of England and Wales, of which 80 per cent is dense jungle, against a mobile force of less than 10,000 were immense. Yet over the course of the Emergency a highly-effective system of rapid response to guerrilla attacks and planned offensive strikes was developed. Though never amounting to more than six or seven squadrons, typically equipped with Spitfires, Beaufighters, Tempests, Lincolns and Sunderlands, and later with Vampires and Venoms, the RAF and Commonwealth crews helped the British and Malayan authorities defeat the insurgents.

The Malayan Emergency of 1948–1960 has been scrutinised for 'lessons' about how to win counterinsurgencies from the Vietnam War to twenty-first century Afghanistan. This book brings our understanding of the conflict up to date by interweaving government and insurgent accounts and looking at how they played out at local level. Drawing on oral history, recent memoirs and declassified archival material from the UK and Asia, Karl Hack offers a comprehensive, multi-perspective account of the Malayan Emergency and its impact on Malaysia. He sheds new light on questions about terror and violence against civilians, how insurgency and decolonisation interacted and how revolution was defeated. He considers how government policies such as pressurising villagers, resettlement and winning 'hearts and minds' can be judged from the perspective of insurgents and civilians. This timely book is the first truly multi-perspective and in-depth study of anti-colonial resistance and counterinsurgency in the Malayan Emergency.