Bristol Beaufighter TF10 No45 Squadron Operation Firedog RAF Kuala Lumpur Malaya 1949
Bristol Beaufighter TF.10
RD805 / OB-J, RAF No.45 Squadron,
‘Operation Firedog’, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaya, Late May/Early
December, 1949
By the end of the Second World
War, the Royal Air Force saw little
need to retain the large number
of Bristol Beaufighter squadrons it
currently had in service, so most units
were simply disbanded, a couple were
retained for home duties, with the
remainder prepared for deployment
to the Far East. One notable exception
to this rule were RAF No.45 Squadron,
who replaced their wartime Mosquitoes
with the Beaufighter TF.X fighter bomber,
before moving out to operate from a new
base in Ceylon. In August 1948, the squadron
moved to Kuala Lumpur in response to the
Malayan Emergency, where it would take
part in the combined Commonwealth
actions to quell the guerrilla activities of
the Communist backed Malayan National
Liberation Army. Using the legendary range and hard
hitting attributes of this capable heavy fighter, the unit’s
Beaufighters would loiter over the jungle, waiting to
unleash a withering barrage of rocket and cannon fire
on enemy positions, once given targeting instructions from
Commonwealth troops patrolling in the vicinity. These ageing
WWII warhorses were replaced by the new Bristol Brigand
ground attack aircraft by the end of 1949, leaving the situation
in Malaya to rumble on for a further ten years and with RAF
support very much moving into the jet age during that time.
