Landing at Kesang River

Landing at Kesang River
Part of the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation
Indonesian infiltrators captured near the Kesang River by Australian troops.
Date 29 October 1964 Location Johor, Malaysia Result Commonwealth victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom  Australia	Indonesia
Commanders and leaders
Terence McMeekin Bruce McDonald	Unknown
Strength
2,000	52
Casualties and losses
minimal	50 killed or captured

The Landing at Kesang River (29 October 1964) was an amphibious raid conducted by a small force of Indonesian volunteers near the Kesang River, on the border between the Malaysian states of Malacca and Johore on the southwestern part of the Malay Peninsula. The landing was part of the broader Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, an undeclared war fought between Malaysia and Indonesia during the early 1960s over the creation of an independent Malaysian Federation. The conflict chiefly encompassed parts of northern Borneo, areas that Indonesia sought control in her bid to increase her power and influence in Southeast Asia; however, the landing represented a shift of the operational sphere toward the mainland.

The landing was part of an extended campaign of similar incursions into Malaysian territory in late 1964 launched by Indonesian President Sukarno to substantiate an aggressively nationalistic speech delivered on 17 August of that year and to establish a base for a potential Communist rebellion. A first landing was dispatched that very night to the Pontian District of Johore, but was quickly halted by Commonwealth security forces. The operation at Kesang River was the sixth attempt at seaborne infiltration. During the night of 29 October, two groups were landed, one on each side of the river. As with all previous attempts, civilians reported the raiders to local police; soon, Commonwealth troops quickly swept the area and captured nearly all of the Indonesian party.

Kesang River was not the last attempt by Indonesian forces to establish a foothold in the Malayan wilderness, but continual Allied capture of the raiders began to lessen the security and diplomatic ramifications of such efforts so as to make them far less effective. However, the effort is notable for being the first occasion on which Australian troops fought against their Indonesian neighbors, a development that was the subject of controversy in both nations and helped to escalate tensions between them.