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ARTICLES FROM THE TIMES NEWSPAPER FOR MALAYA 1948-1965

Details in The Times 21 January 1949 Page 3:

12 DEATHS IN MALAYAN AMBUSH
FROM OUR CORRECPONDENT
SINGAPORE, JAN 20

Twelve people out of a party of 13 were killed in an ambush on Wednesday in Pahang State. They were returning by road to Temer-Lanchang village, 20 miles away. Police believe that a group of bandits lay in wait for eight hours for the lorry in which the party were travelling. They ambushed it at a sharp curve in the road running between high banks. They used hand-grenades, machine-guns, and rifles.

Among those killed were four british soldiers, two detectives, and a Malay Settlement officer, The thirteenth passenger in the lorry is in hospital badly wounded. Military operations have started in the area.

Details in The Times 14 March 1949 Page 3:

FOUR GUARDSMEN KILLED IN MALAYA
BAYONET CHARGE UP HILL
FROM OUR CORRECPONDENT
SINGAPORE, MARCH 13

Four Grenadier Guardsmen were killed in an encounter with bandits near Kajang, 15 miles from Kuala Lumpur, yesterday morning. Twenty Guardsmen who were in a lorry leapt out, led by an officer, and made a bayonet charge up a hillside; the bandits broke and scattered.

The officer and three Guardsmen were wounded. It is beleived that the bandits suffered at least one casualty.

Details in The Times 23 October 1951 Page 4:

BRITISH LOSS IN MALAYA
TEN SOLDIERS KILLED BY BANDITS
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT SINGAPORE, OCT.22

Ten men of the Royal West Kent Regiment, including one officer, were killed and 12 wounded in an engagement with bandits this morning on the New Caledonia estate near Batu Arang, in north Selangor. Three special constables were wounded and one died later in hospital. Five bandits were killed.

The engagement occurred 30 miles from the place where Sir Henry Gurney, the High Commissioner, was murdered in a bandit ambush a fortnight ago. It is thought that bandits may be trying to divert security forces from then operations against the terrorist groups responsible for the ambush; a few days ago three Gurkhas were killed and two wounded some miles away.

No further information on to-day's engagement is obtainable officially to-night from the emergency information service: details are to be made known at a Press conference to-morrow morning.

In Kedha this morning one lance-corporal was killed and four constables were wounded when, it is estimated, 40 bandits fired on a police vehicle.

Details in The Times 14 October 1955 Page 8:

BRITISH TROOPS AMBUSHED IN MALAYA
JUNGLE OUTRAGE
OFFICER AND TWO MEN KILLED
From Our Own Correspondent
SINGAPORE, OCT. 13

Communist terrorists made a mockery of the amnesty offer to-day when they ambushed and killed a British officer and two other ranks and seriously wounded a third, The party were travelling in an Army vehicle on a narrow, twisting road lined by high banks and jungle in the state of Negri Sembilan, and were fired on by terrorists hidden in the jungle. The vehicle was found burnt, and the bodies of the dead men were severely burnt. It is not certain whether the vehicle was set on fire before or after they were dead.

The attack took place be foe 9 a.m. on the road between Tampin and Kuala Pilah, east of Seremban. Three or four years ago this was a notorious area in the war with the terrorists, but most of the state has recently been regarded as having returned to normal. A tree had been felled across the road, but the attack took place before the vehicle reached it. The officer was a captain in The Royal Welch Fusiliers, to which one of the two men who were with him who were killed, as well as the wounded man, also belonged. The second man killed belonged to The Royal Army Pay Corps, and was attached to The Royal Welch Fusiliers.

This is the first attack on British troops and the first outrage in Negri Sembilan since the amnesty offer was made. A month has passed since then, and the prospect is still awaited of a peace meeting with the man thought to command the terrorists, but the question has now most earnestly to be considered whether the offer is not helping the terrorists—whether they are not taking advantage of the opportunity to move into parts designated as "safe" in which they are supposed to surrender, or into areas regarded as cleared.

.......

 

 

Details in The Times 15 March 1949 Page 3:

CASUALTIES IN MALAYA
FROM OUR CORRECPONDENT
SINGAPORE, MARCH 14

The Guards Brigade made public to-day the names of the men who died in a bayonet charge against bandits near Kajang on Saturday. They were Guardsmen T. Ryan, G.E. Martin, J.R. Hall, and V. Herrett.

Four members of the Penange committee which seeks secession from the federation to-day saw Mr. Anthiny Eden. At a press conference Mr. Eden said that planters and miners were having a tough time and deserved great credit. He assured malaya of the deepest sympathy and understanding of the people at home.

Details in The Times 21 May 1949 Page 3:

BRITISH CASUALTIES IN MALAYA
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
SINGAPORE, MAY 20

A British military officer and a sergeant and a Malay corporal were killed, and four British soldiers were seriously wounded, when bandits ambushed a patrol five miles from the Malayan Collieries mine at Batu Arang, in Selangor, yesterday. The patrol is believed to have inflicted heavy casualties on the bandit gang, which is now being pursued by security forces.

Three bandits were killed yesterday by a Gurkha patrol in the Kluang area of Johore. Two Chinese bandits, a man and a woman, were killed in the Tapah area of Perak, and a quantity of ammunition was seized by security forces. In the Kuala Lipis area of Pahang a police jungle squad killed one bandit and made six arrests. In the Rawang area of Selangor a bandit gang ambushed an estate lorry, killing the driver and wounding five special constables.

Details in The Times 24 October 1951 Page 3:

BANDIT AMBUSH IN MALAYA
CASUALTIES NOW 33
FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
SINGAPORE, OCT. 23

The casualties inflicted by Communist Terrorists among a patrol of the West Kent Regiment in north Selangor yesterday are worse than was earlier feared.

One British officer, 10 British other ranks, three Iban trackers, and one Malay special policeman were killed, and one Malay driver died from wounds. One British officer and 11 other ranks, one civil liaison officer, and four Malay special constables were wounded. Six terrorists were killed.

The patrol, which was mounted in two trucks and a scout car, was ambushed by an estimated force of 35 uniformed men armed with Bren guns, Stens, and rifles in a sunken estate road about 30 miles from the place where Sir Henry Gurney was murdered two weeks ago. Most of the troops were wounded and some killed by the first bursts of fire, but the survivors, including many of the wounded, deployed and fought off the charge. No arms were lost. Two platoons, supported by the Royal Air Force, are now pursuing the terrorists.

The ambush is said to be one of the worst since the beginning of the emergency, and those whose business it is to find a pattern in the attack, in the increasingly numerous incidents, tend to believe that it was connected in some way with the murder of the High Commissioner. It is also surmised that there may have been a concentration of terrorists on the Selangor-Pahang-Negri Sembilan border, a theory supported by the recent uncovering of many terrorist food lines and camps by troops seeking the High Commissioner's assassins.

Details in The Times 26 August 1957 Page 7:

MALAYA AIR CRASH
FOUR SOLDIERS THOUGHT TO HAVE SURVIVED
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
SINGAPORE, AUG. 25

Four air dispatchers of 55 Company, Royal Army Catering Corps (Air Dispatch), who were in the Valetta transport aircraft that crashed in the jungle north of Kuala Lumpur three days ago, are now thought to have survived, though only two have been rescued so far. The other men in the aircraft were the crew of three, who were killed.

Rescue teams who parachuted from helicopters found two dispatchers near the wreckage of the aircraft. One of these was injured. The other two had decided to make their own way out of the jungle along a river. A patrol is trying to intercept these men, and voice aircraft have been broadcasting instructions to them. Parachutists who landed at the scene have been using explosives and other means to clear the site so that helicopters may land, and supplies have been dropped.

The four R.A.S.C. men are:- Lance-Corporal R.C. Travis, of Birmingham; Driver E. Roe, of Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham; Driver I.W. Moore, of Mitcham, Surrey; and Driver A.M. Downes, of Romford, Essex.

Details in The Times 16 May 1951 Page 3:

OPENING OF SINGAPORE CONFERENCE
SECURITY PRECAUTIONS
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
SINGAPORE, MAY 15

Strict security precautions were taken as the conference between the military representatives of Britain, France and the United States began at Phoenix Park, Singapore, today. Guards were stationed at all the doors and access to the conference room was barred even to the staff at Phoenix Park, which is the headquarters of Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, Commissioner-general for South-East Asia.

It is understood that general Sir Charles Keighley, the new Commander-in-Chief, Far East Land Forces, who is due to arrive at Kallang by air to-morrow afternoon, will attend the conference if it is still in session.

Army Headquarters, Malaya, announced to-day that Pnvate L. Killick, whose home is at Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, who was wounded with three other members of the 1st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, in operations against the Communists on May 11, has since died of wounds. The others wounded were : Sergeant S. Wright, of Bury St. Edmunds, and Privates R. Ellis, of Dagenham, and B. Chamberlain, of East Ham.

Details in The Times 28 April 1959 Page 9:

R.A.F HELICOPTER CRASH MALAYA
From Our Correspondent
SINGAPORE, APRIL. 27

The pilot and two other officers were killed today when a R.A.F. Sycamore helicopter crashed on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur while on a training flight. Government buildings lie only half a mile from where the aircraft fell.

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