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