Tiger Attack

Sons of the Brave
1st Battalion
New Zealand Regiment
Malaya 1957 - 1959 It may be well to remember that the Official Documentation alluding to the 1st Battalion New Zealand Regiment's role in deep jungle penetration operations during the Malayan Emergency, are compiled as cold facts. Albeit not all explicitly correct. In order to fully comprehend the overall picture, the best image emerges only as when related by those soldiers who were involved in that particular campaign.

I was one of those soldiers . . .
I experienced one particular event that was rather unique, and one that I would not wish upon anyone. Although I have included this incident solely to attract attention, not towards my own personal drama, but rather to highlight the achievements and bravery of other Commonwealth soldiers - especially those who patrolled within the Malayan jungles. It would be a tragedy if the jungle experiences of these soldiers were ever to be forgotten - as the campaign that was more readily known as the Malayan Emergency was quickly forgotten, due to the world's biggest daily tv drama - the Vietnam conflict.

Apart from my own personal experience I have also included extracts from patrol reports on deep jungle operations gleaned from the Malayan Emergency archives in Wellington, New Zealand.These reports are, I am sure, mirrored examples of many other Commonwealth patrols enacted during the Malayan War.

Click to enlarge

This particular campaign's title, the Malayan Emergency, is a misnomer. The jungle fighters during its period did not suffer delusions, as they knew they were engaged in a different type of war - guerrilla warfare. An analysis of warfare standards, as a criterion, allows in itself, that the Malayan campaign be catalogued as a war. The alleged facts pertaining to the circumstances relevant at the time in Malaya remain steadfast, as the London Insurance Market, seemingly, had a sympathetic ear of the British Government of the day. Meanwhile, the Malayan rubber and tin mining economies were all the poorer as a result of opportune decisions made in United Kingdom corridors of power. It seems historians cannot vividly recall, or are unwilling to admit to the whole truth as to why the Emergency was dubbed as such instead of a declaration of war. It has been reported by recent news media in Malaysia that prior to the announcement of an Emergency, the British, who had been dismissive and somewhat callous toward the Malays, were forced to get Malay co-operation to combat the menace posed by the Malayan Communist Party.

The Malays rallied behind the British, not in the belief or condoning of British policy, but rather, they envisaged, as was also the situation during the Japanese Occupation, that the Emergency would quicken Malaya's independence, in which the Malays would play a significant and, if not indeed, a major role. The Emergency (the British euphemism for guerrilla warfare), was a protracted three-phase campaign by the Chinese-led and Chinese-majority Malayan Communist Party (MCP) that lasted for twelve years.

This account of the final phase of this guerrilla war is an honest effort to recognise those "Sons of the Brave" who did their duty in whatever facit of the military and whichever Commonwealth nation answered the call of the "Mother Country" to serve in the Malayan "War".

The prolific English author, Aldous Huxley, once stated that, "No episode in history can be entirely irrelevant to any other subsequent episode. But some events are related . . . more significantly than others." He further added: "It would be impossible to determine fully and correctly all the practically significant causes of complex events. But over-simplification is fatal . . ." he simply warned(1).

Perhaps this analysis should not altogether distract one from attempting to establish an understanding of the military history in the South East Asian region, particularly, the role of the jungle fighter in Malaya from 1948 until the early 1960s.

(1) Grey Eminence, A. Huxley. Harper Collins. ISBN 0 00 754 743 5

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