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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0112.PDF
FLIGHT JOURNEY EAST Narrative and Photographs By JOHN YOXALL Air Marshal Sir Francis Fogarty,A.O.C.-in-C. F.E.A.F. Deployment of F.E.A.F. : Briganij^versus Brigands_j^Jmpressions of Operational Sorties THE history of the Far East Air Force dates fromJanuary, 1930, when the RA.F. units in SingaporeMalaya and Hong Kong came under Air H.Q. Far East This arrangement continued until Singapore was evacuated in 1942, when the command was re-named " Bri- tish Air Forces in India." Twelve months later," Air Com- mand South East Asia " was instituted. The new formation included all units in India, Burma and Ceylon and after the Japanese war those in French Indo-China, the Netherlands East Indies, Malaya, Singapore, Siam and Hong Kong were added. r< OUTER pi""" \ \ \ \ V This map illustrates the enormous area covered by F.E.A.F. Each circle has a radius of 500 statute miles. left: Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, Commissioner-General for Malaya. Right : Air Vice-Marshal Sir Frank Mellersh. A.O.C. Malaya. All RA.F. units in Indo-China, the Netherlands East Indiesand Siarn were disbanded by 1947, and in 1949 the present designation of "Far East Air Force" was adopted. F.E.A.F.now embraces Ceylon, Singapore, Malaya, Hong Kong, Japan, Car Nicobar and Labuan. A glance at the map will show that the command can belikened to a right-angle bracket containing all the troublesome areas of the Far East within its base and perpendicular. Adversecomment has been passed on the numbers of aircraft actually available at any one moment at Far East stations. What isgenerally overlooked is that these stations represent outposts— to be held until support from the strategic reserve can be madeavailable. In an emergency, jet-fighter squadrons from this country, with their ground crews taken out by Transport Command, could be operating in the Far East within a week. Another consideration, not to be lost sight of when assessing air strength to-day, is that within an hour a modem fighter-bomber—carrying a punch equal to The broadside of a six-inch cruiser—can be attacking a target 400 miles from base. Whether our present strategic reserve is large enough, or whether it is properly balanced, is beside the point. The answers to those questions do not affect the elementary fact that it is bad strategy to disperse strength too widely. Other con- i '. FAR EAST Am FORCE A.O.C. IN C. AIR MARSHAL SIR FRANCIS FOGARTY S.AS.O., A.V-M. R. L. Ragg I A.O.A., A.V-M. R. S. Blucke A.H.Q. CEYLON A.O.C., A.Cd>e. L. F. Pearce Negombo AH.Q. MALAYA A.O.C., A.V-M. Sir Frank Mellersh :E'DADVANCE A.H.Q. MALAYA G C Kelly Kuala Lumpur A.H.Q. HONGKONG A.O.C., A.Cdre. A. D. Davies Kai Tak SeLKong Singapore Island Butterworth MAINTENANCE BASE A.Cdre.H.G.J.E. Proud Changi I Tengah Setetar Car Nicobar (Indian Ocean) Labuan (N. Borneo) SjL Unwin, in background, checks his load of missiles before take-off. The remaining two 500-/b bombs are under the wing.
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