Butterworth

From “Emergency” to “Strategic Reserve”

The On Target column in September AustAvn outlined how the RAAF began what was to become a longstanding Australian engagement in South-East Asia. It commenced with Australia’s involvement in the Malayan Emergency in June 1948, which was indeed a war although a war by a different name.

The Malayan Emergency also foreshadowed the long timescales involved in conducting counter-insurgency warfare. This was evident not only from the 12 years it took until the Malayan Emergency was declared ended in 1960, but also from the reality that even after the declared end of the war, small groups of Communist terrorists continued to evade and operate, especially in the northern border areas of Malaya, until well into the 1970s.