This led to the creation of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), a communist guerrilla organisation which fought for an independent Malaya free from colonialism, and for equal rights for women and all races.
The Dakotas were used to drop supplies to British and Malay forces engaging the MNLA, and one aircraft was stationed permanently in Kuala Lumpur to carry out this role, away from No.
[citation needed] New Zealand became more directly involved in the Emergency in 1955, following its decision to contribute forces to the British Commonwealth Far East Strategic Reserve, the primary role of which was to deter communist aggression in South-East Asia, and to provide a capacity for the immediate implementation of defence plans in the event that deterrence failed.
From April 1956 this squadron was deployed to the Fort Brooke area, bordering the states of Perak and Kelantan, and during 1957 it operated in Negri Sembilan, between the towns of Seremban, Kuala Pilah, and Tampin.
[citation needed] On 1 May 1955, the Royal New Zealand Air Force carried out its first operational strike mission since the Second World War and its first with jet aircraft, de Havilland Vampires of No.
The effectiveness of the air strikes against targets in the jungle was inevitably limited but they provided much valuable training experience to the New Zealand pilots.
41 Squadron returned to Malaya and resumed supply dropping operations in support of anti-guerrilla forces, this time using the highly effective Bristol Freighter aircraft.
[citation needed] Of the 1,300 New Zealanders to serve in the Malayan Emergency between 1948 and 1964, fifteen lost their lives, including only three killed as a result of enemy action and the crew of a Bristol Freighter which flew into a mountain in 1956.
Experience gained in Malaya helped the New Zealand armed forces when they returned to South-East Asia's jungles during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation and the Vietnam War.
[citation needed] British forces conducted a successful counter-insurgency campaign against Indonesian guerillas (often regular Indonesian Army soldiers) but it was a strain on resources and by early 1965 60,000 British and Malaysian servicemen were deployed in the region, together with a Royal Navy surface fleet of more than eighty warships, including two aircraft-carriers.
[citation needed] A change in New Zealand policy came as Sukarno increased the flow of Indonesian insurgents into Borneo and British military resources were stretched to almost breaking point.