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.
Read more about this topic: Far East Air Force (Royal Air Force)
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