Far East Air Force ( Royal Air Force ) The former Royal Air Force Far East Air Force , more simply known as RAF Far East Air Force , was the Command organisation that controlled all Royal Air Force assets in the east of Asia ( Far East ) . It was originally formed as Air Command , South East Asia in 1943 . In 1946 , this was renamed RAF Air Command Far East , and finally Far East Air Force in June 1949 . Early history . The first organisation dedicated to this task was formed in Singapore in 1930 as Royal Air Force Singapore . This was upgraded to Headquarters Air Force Far East Command in 1933 . During the Second World War , when Malaya , Singapore , Burma and Hong Kong were overrun by the Japanese , the command retreated to India , there receiving the name Air Headquarters Bengal . The true ancestor of the postwar Far East Air Force was formed in November 1943 , under Lord Louis Mountbatten the supreme Allied commander South East Asia Command ( SEAC ) . It was called Air Command , South East Asia . In 1946 , this was renamed RAF Air Command Far East , and finally Far East Air Force in June 1949 . During the war years , it was subordinate to Allied Forces South East Asia . The tri - service headquarters remained in place after the war over to coordinate re - occupation of territory within the bounds of the command that had not yet been liberated from the Japanese . That included parts of Burma ; the other British colonies of Singapore , Malaya , British North Borneo and Brunei ; the independent nation of Siam , the French colony of French Indo - China up to the 16th parallel , and most of the Dutch colony of the Dutch East Indies . After the completion of the re - occupation duties , SEAC was disestablished in November 1946 . However , the benefits of a supreme commander were not forgotten , and a tri - service headquarters was revived in 1962 , when the Far East Command was formed . The Far East Command was also disestablished in 1971 . Postwar Occupation Duties . Unlike in Europe , war ended very unexpectedly in the Far East . The dropping of the atomic bomb s on Hiroshima and Nagasaki , combined with the American blockade of Japan , and the Soviet entry into the war on 9 August 1945 finally shocked the Japanese into suing for peace . Once peace came , there was a period of euphoria within the RAF units , but the forces in the region came back down to earth with a bump a few days later . Instead of the end to operations that a great many of the conscripts had naively thought would occur , if anything , operations in some parts of the forces increased in tempo . South - East Asia Command had been increased in size from the day after the surrender , taking in south French Indo - China , and much of the Dutch East Indies . The command was now half as big again in area as it had been during the war . The strain imposed by the high operations tempo that occupation duties , when combined with the downsizing of the command due to demobilisation and return of American aircraft provided under lend - lease aircraft was very great , and it manifested itself in a series of mutinies around the command in early 1946 . The first of these was at Mauripur in Karachi , India . Enlisted airmen downed tools and refused to work until their grievances about demobilisation had been met . Given the nature of the times , this was impossible , although their complaints were passed up the chain of command . The stoppages were non - violent almost to a fault , and since the personnel involved were hostilities - only conscripts , rather than regular professional members of the RAF , the stoppages were not formally treated as mutinies . Had they been so , punishments up to and including execution by firing squad could have been imposed on those responsible . Other mutinies occurred in Ceylon , elsewhere in India and Singapore . They also spread to units of the Royal Indian Air Force for a short while . Siam . The easiest of the occupation tasks was in Siam . Unlike elsewhere in the region , Siam had retained a functioning civil government throughout the war , and thus British troops did not have to deploy to restore order over most of the country . RAF forces set a headquarters in Bangkok , at Don Muang airfield , under Group Captain D O Finlay on 9 September 1945 . The headquarters was from No . 909 Wing RAF . The Wing left its previously controlled aircraft , P - 47 Thunderbolt s in Burma . Three squadrons were represented in Siam during the occupation , No . 20 Squadron RAF with Spitfire VIII aircraft , No . 211 Squadron RAF with de Havilland Mosquito VI aircraft , and a detachment of No . 685 Squadron RAF with Mosquito photo - reconnaissance aircraft . The airfield was defended by No . 2945 Squadron RAF Regiment . In addition to the resident forces , C - 47 Dakota transport aircraft were frequent users of Don Muang . They made supply runs to the airport , stopped over on trips to and from French Indo - China , and evacuated prisoners of war and internees who had been imprisoned in Siam at the end of the war . The job in Siam was completed very quickly , with almost all of the RAF personnel at Don Muang being gone by January 1946 . Burma . Burma was also relatively straightforward to deal with , although more complicated than Siam . Much of the colony had been conquered several months before the war ended , in the big British offensive of summer 1945 . That gave ACSEA crucial breathing space to start getting the colony back on its feet before the massive increase in occupation duties postwar occurred . RAF Burma was well established under Air Marshal Sir Hugh Saunders . At the end of the war , it had 28 squadrons under its control . This quickly reduced as the demobilisation really kicked in . Again , the transport squadrons saw the largest amount of work , evacuating POWs and internees and supplying garrisons and the civilian population . Second to the transport squadrons in workload were the photo reconnaissance aircraft . The opportunity was taken to complete the process of surveying SE Asia from the air , and using the survey to bring maps up to date . The survey was not completed until August 1947 . After the clean - up immediately postwar , came the task of preparing Burma for independence . AHQ Burma moved out of Rangoon to Mingaladon on 1 January 1947 . The headquarters was disbanded on 31 December 1947 , and three months later Burma became independent . French Indo - China . The most prickly tasks in the entire command were the temporary occupations of the colonies of other European powers . One was the occupation of part of French Indo - China , and the other the occupation of part of the Dutch East Indies . The easier of the two was French Indo - China . Resentment against the French was strong , with Ho Chi Minh ' s Viet Minh movement beginning to become a real problem . British forces were responsible for the southern part of the country , south of the 16th parallel , whilst Chinese forces dealt with the north . An RAF headquarters was set up near Saigon on 8 September , at Tan Son Nhut airfield . However , the main occupation forces were slow to arrive , so Mountbatten had to use Japanese forces still in the area for internal security duties for a short while . One aspect of the occupation that was mercifully smaller in magnitude than in other areas of the command was prisoners of war . Only about 5 , 000 were in French Indo - China , and thus that part of the repatriation problem was small . At Tan Son Nhut , a large amount of space was available for transport aircraft ; hard standing s for about 70 Dakotas . This was fortunate , since a great deal of transport aircraft effort was required in the country , despite the low numbers of POWs . The other aircraft at the airfield were Spitfires of No . 273 Squadron RAF and yet again , a detachment of photo - reconnaissance Mosquitoes . The situation in French Indo - China and the Netherlands East Indies was particularly tricky because of the hostility of the locals to the returning colonial powers . French Indo - China was handed back to French control a great deal more quickly than the type were avoided was to provide some spare Spitfires in the command to Armée de l ' Air pilots who were being sent to the colony , and had Netherlands East Indies to Dutch control , meaning that RAF aircraft did not have to get involved in suppressing any revolts in the area , apart from one occasion when Spitfires attacked enemy forces with cannon fire to support French ground troops . One way that more commitments of this flown the type in Europe . The main RAF presence was withdrawn in mid February 1946 , when the Air Headquarters was disbanded . However , a small RAF presence was retained for a few more months to help direct military transport aircraft using the airfield . Malayan Emergency . The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army ( MNLA ) , the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party ( MCP ) , from 1948 to 1960 . The " Malayan Emergency " was the colonial government ' s term for the conflict . The MNLA termed it the " Anti - British National Liberation War " . The rubber plantations and tin mining industries had pushed for the use of the term " emergency " since their losses would not have been covered by Lloyd ' s insurers if it had been termed a " war " . Despite the communists ' defeat in 1960 , communist leader Chin Peng renewed the insurgency in 1967 ; it lasted until 1989 , and became known as the Communist Insurgency War . Although Australian and British armed forces had fully withdrawn from Malaysia years earlier , the insurgency still failed . Indonesia - Malaysia confrontation . The Indonesian – Malaysian Confrontation during 1962 – 1966 was Indonesia ' s political and armed opposition to the creation of Malaysia . It is also known by its Indonesian / Malay name Konfrontasi . The creation of Malaysia was the amalgamation of the Federation of Malaya ( now West Malaysia ) , Singapore and the crown colony / British protectorate s of Sabah and Sarawak ( collectively known as British Borneo , now East Malaysia ) in September 1963 . The confrontation was an undeclared war with most of the action in the border area between Indonesia and East Malaysia on the island of Borneo ( known as Kalimantan in Indonesia ) . However , Sabah and Sarawak were ethnically , religiously and politically diverse and there was some local opposition to joining Malaysia that Indonesia attempted to exploit , with very little success . The terrain in Borneo was challenging and there were very few roads , both sides relied on light infantry operations and air transport , although rivers were also used . There was almost no use of offensive airpower . The British and Malaysian Armed Forces provided a significant element of the effort with no small parts being played by the other member nations ( Australia and New Zealand ) from the combined Far East Strategic Reserve stationed then in West Malaysia and Singapore . Initial Indonesian attacks into East Malaysia relied heavily on local volunteers trained by the Indonesian Army . The main military forces backing Malaysia were British and initially their activities were low key . However , the British responded to increased Indonesian activity by expanding their own . This included , starting in 1965 , covert operations into Indonesian Kalimantan under the code name Operation Claret . In 1965 there were several Indonesian operations into West Malaysia , albeit without military success . By August 1966 , following Indonesian President Suharto ' s rise to power , a peace agreement finally took effect as Indonesia accepted the existence of Malaysia . Drawdown and Departure . RAF units and forces in Burma , the Netherlands East Indies , French Indochina , and Siam / Thailand left in 1945 - 1947 . Forces in India departed in 1947 , though many RAF officers and other personnel stayed on for a time with the Royal Pakistan Air Force and the Indian Air Force . Air Headquarters Malaya ( AHQ Malaya ) was disbanded on 31 August 1957 . No . 222 Group RAF was raised to command status as AHQ Ceylon on 16 Oct 1945 . It was disbanded , on 1 November 1957 . Its stations , including RAF Negombo , 22 miles north of Columbo , had been handed over to the Royal Ceylon Air Force in the course of 1955 - 56 . No . 5001 A C Squadron RAF Seletar 1963 - 66 Commanders . Commanders included :