GIVEN the distances, flights between India and Malaysia can take some time; for example, the average modern Kuala Lumpur-to-Chennai flight takes about just over three hours to go from airport to airport.
With that said, it would be fair to say that such trips were much rougher, slower, longer and more dangerous affairs back in the 1940s with the technology available during World War 2.
So, is there any truth to a claim that has been made over the years online and in print that the Allied Forces used flights from India to resupply anti-Japanese guerrillas fighting in then-occupied British Malaya and slip in secret agents to aid their cause?
VERDICT:
TRUE
This is in fact true, with the Royal Air Force (RAF) Museum in the United Kingdom not only providing a factual account of this but also preserving and exhibiting one of the aircraft used for such work.
In its write-up detailing the history of a Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber exhibited by the Museum in London, it says that it was one of the aircraft that took part in the last WW2 combat mission of the RAF's No.99 Squadron when it was based in the Cocos Islands.
This would put such an aircraft about just under 12 hours of flying time away from Singapore.
In this, it was one of “ three aircraft dropping supplies to Malayan Guerrillas” on Aug 12, 1945 before taking part in yet another supply drop on Aug 22 of the same year.
“With spasmodic fighting continuing in Malaya, the squadron dropped supplies to guerrilla forces north of Singapore,” added the Museum in its write-up.
“From late Aug and into Sept the Squadron was engaged in leaflet dropping to Allied internees and prisoners of war, including those held in the notorious Changi jail in Singapore, and to Japanese troops,” it said.
SOURCE
https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/documents/collections/74-AF-790-Consolidated-Liberator.pdf
