1948-50



Malaya was a British Colony which had been invaded by the Japanese in December 1941. The British surrender in February 1942 was the beginning of three years of cruel occupation.
 
The Malay Peoples Anti Japanese Army (MPAJA) was a communist resistance movement which was supported and supplied by the British to harass the occupying Japanese. Although the population of Malaya consisted of Malays, Chinese, Indians and Europeans, the MPAJA and the Communist Party consisted mainly of ethnic Chinese.
 
As the war approached its end in September 1945, the communists intended to seize power and turn Malaya into a communist state, but the British Military Administration was very quick to take control and thwarted their aim. Although the MPAJA was disbanded, many of its members simply remained in the jungle with their weapons and equipment.
 
The Malayan Communist Party was still a legal political party, but it was behind many strikes, attacks on rubber planters and their workforce, and the intimidation of the Malayan population, so in June 1948, it was banned. However, the communists simply moved into the jungle where many of the former MPAJA comrades were still holed up, and they reorganised for their armed struggle. Murder and terrorism increased, and a State of Emergency was declared shortly afterwards.
 
Consequently, extra troops were required and the 2nd Battalion deployed as part of the 2nd Guards Brigade along with 3rd Bn Grenadier Guards and 2nd Bn Scots Guards.
 
The Battalion arrived in Singapore in early October 1948, and spent the next three weeks acclimatising and training in the jungle. Towards the end of October they moved up country to their base at Tapah where, less one company detached to the Cameron Highlands, they spent the best part of the next two years. On arrival, most of the accommodation was tented with a few nissen huts and atap huts for stores and messes. However, by the end of 1949 everyone was accommodated in atap huts.
 
Initially, the Battalion had numerous small parties detached guarding various key and vulnerable points as the Malayan Police were very short of manpower and extremely stretched. The Communist Terrorists (CT) were very active in the tin mine and rubber plantation areas, and they would regularly attack mine buildings and fell electricity pylons, or slash rubber trees and murder the planters and their workforce. The Battalion’s other task was patrolling the jungle in and attempt to either kill or capture the CT, or to force them deeper into the jungle making it more difficult for them to operate.
 
By early 1949, the civil police was much stronger and so was able to relieve the Battalion of many of their static guard duties, thus enabling the Battalion to concentrate fully on patrolling tasks. This had the effect of reducing terrorism in the more built-up areas and forced the CT deep into the jungle, which meant that they had long supply routes and had to march long distances to carry out any worthwhile attacks. As a consequence, their chances of being killed or captured by a military patrol were greatly increased.
 
Patrols lasted from a few hours to a few weeks, and were carried out in section strength up to full battalion operations. Some patrols made contact with the enemy, some found empty or disused camps, some set ambushes and some were ambushed, but the vast majority were taken up with hours or days of energy-sapping jungle bashing with very little to report or show for it. However, when contact with the enemy was made the engagements tended to be at very close quarters and very intense. Many of these occasions led to the award of gallantry medals to members of the Battalion. There were no helicopters at this time, and re-supply was by parachute and casualties were evacuated by the patrol carrying them on a stretcher.
 
At this point, the remainder of the Battalion’s tour fell into two phases; firstly the screening of villages for CT and patrols into the jungle to eradicate them, and secondly, the resettlement of squatters.
 
Squatters were in the main ethnic Chinese who lived illegally in small groups on cleared areas of jungle. The government had tended to turn a blind eye to them and generally ignored them, and so the squatters as a whole felt no allegiance or loyalty to the government, and paid lip service to law and order. Consequently, these people were susceptible to coercion and intimidation by the CT. Squatters tended to supply the CT with food, clothing and shelter, sometimes under duress and sometimes voluntarily.
 
It was a generally held maxim that the fewer squatters there were in an area, the fewer CT there were. Working on this theory the Commanding Officer, Lt Col R.G.V.FitzGeorge-Balfour, CBE,MC, came up with the idea of resettling the squatters into government controlled villages or kampongs, thereby removing materiel support to the CT. The government approved the idea and approximately 30 new kampongs were built. Each had its own police post, well and village hall, and was surrounded by an 8ft high wire fence. Each squatter dismantled his existing house and re-erected it in the new kampong, while the army provided transport and manpower to assist. The squatters were allowed to keep there existing land and were allowed out each day to tend it and grow food. The two Coldstream schemes were known as Kampong Coldstream and Kampong Balfour. Kampong Coldstream is still in existence today. The scheme was a great success in denying the CT access to supplies and support, and was soon copied across the country.
 
The Battalion were relieved by 45 Commando in July 1950 and returned to the UK in August having received twenty-four honours and awards. Sadly six Coldstreamers had died as a result of ‘enemy’ action.
 
The Emergency in Malaya continued until 1960 with varying levels of terrorism and disorder. The Coldstream did not serve in this theatre again although many individuals served on attachment to the Malay Forces, the Special Air Service and various Headquarters etc.
 
 

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