LEST WE FORGET : NZ SOLDIERS IN MALAYA (1948-1966)

Royal New Zealand Army as an army was NOT in Malaya during WWII.

That's a key difference between Australia and New Zealand:

Australia: 8th Division fought the whole Malayan campaign Jan-Feb 1942 and surrendered in Singapore.

New Zealand:

"The New Zealand Army was not present in Malaya or Singapore during World War II."

When war broke out in 1939, New Zealand committed its main Expeditionary Force to the Middle East / Europe to fight Germany.

What NZ did have in Malaya in 1941-42 was:

• 400 RNZAF personnel sent to work on aerodrome construction
• RNZAF No. 488 Squadron stationed at Kallang from early October 1941 — flying obsolete Brewster Buffalos. They suffered appalling losses and were withdrawn days before Singapore fell on 15 Feb 1942
• Pilots for No. 243 Squadron RAF — including Bert Wipiti, the first Māori airman to leave NZ for active duty, who destroyed five Japanese aircraft in Malaya before being evacuated to Java
• A small number of yachtsmen sent in 1940 to man naval craft

35 NZ airmen and 40 naval officers were killed in the fighting for Singapore and subsequent operations.

The Royal New Zealand Army

The Royal New Zealand Army — they served in Malaya for almost exactly the same period as the Australians, as part of the same Commonwealth Brigade.

Overall 4,000 New Zealanders served in Malaya/Malaysia between 1948 and 1966, 15 lost their lives. For the NZ Army it was a huge milestone — the first time Regular Army units were deployed overseas in peacetime with their families.

Here is the timeline:

1. Malayan Emergency 1948-1960

• New Zealand started small, then went all-in.
• 1949: First contribution was RNZAF 41 Sqn Dakotas dropping supplies to anti-guerrilla forces — 211 sorties, 284,000kg of supplies by 1951.
• 1949-1956: Army officers on secondment, and 40 Kiwis serving with the 1st Battalion Fiji Infantry Regiment. Plus RNZN frigate HMNZS Pukaki bombarding jungle camps in 1954.
• 1955: NZ joins the Far East Strategic Reserve based at Terendak Camp near Malacca — with British, Malaysian and Australian forces. First direct Army combat unit:

"A SAS Squadron of 6 officers and 127 men under Major Frank Rennie, serving with British 22 SAS. They hunted guerrillas in deep jungle — Fort Brooke (Perak/Kelantan border) from April 1956, then Negeri Sembilan in 1957."

• 1958-1960:1st Battalion, New Zealand Regiment replaces the SAS as part of 28th Commonwealth Infantry Brigade Group. They ran deep jungle patrols from Ipoh and Grik in Perak, clearing the area. By late 1959 the guerrillas had retreated to Thailand. 2nd Battalion took over until the Emergency was declared over on 31 July 1960.

Of the 1,300 New Zealanders who served in the Emergency itself, 15 died — only three from enemy action.

And like the Australians, Kiwis kept patrolling the Thai-Malay border security areas for another 4 years after 1960.

2. Indonesian Confrontation 1963-1966 - Borneo

This is where the NZ Army became very well known in Sarawak.

At first PM Keith Holyoake refused to send troops to Borneo — Indonesia is NZ's closest Asian neighbour. That changed when Indonesia started landing troops on the Malay Peninsula itself:

• Sept 1964:98 Indonesian paratroopers landed in Johore. 1st Battalion, Royal NZ Infantry Regiment was one of the only Commonwealth units nearby and hunted them down.
• Oct 1964: 52 more landed at Pontian on the Johore-Malacca border — also captured by NZ soldiers.

After that, NZ committed fully:

SAS detachment — took part in "Operation Claret", the secret cross-border raids into Kalimantan alongside British and Australian SAS

1st Battalion, RNZIR — deployed to Sarawak May 1965, relieved a Gurkha battalion, series of skirmishes. Relieved Oct 1965. Returned May 1966 just as the war ended.

Navy: minesweepers HMNZS Hickleton, HMNZS Santon and frigate HMNZS Taranaki.

The war ended after General Suharto took power in Indonesia. Ceasefire declared in Bangkok 28 May 1966, peace treaty 11 August 1966.

Where they were based

If you go to Terendak today (now Malaysian Army camp), that was the heart of the ANZUK force — Kiwis, Aussies and Brits all lived there with families in the late 50s/early 60s. After 1969, 1 RNZIR moved to Singapore at Nee Soon / Dieppe Barracks and stayed until 1989.

Hj Zulheimy Maamor

3 September 2026: 11.42 p.m