The London Gazette of FRIDAY, the 2Oth of FEBRUARY, 1948 Published By
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flumi), 38216 1347 THIRD SUPPLEMENT TO The London Gazette Of FRIDAY, the 2oth of FEBRUARY, 1948 published by Registered as a newspaper THURSDAY, 26 FEBRUARY, 1948 REPORT ON THE AIR OPERATIONS DURING THE CAMPAIGNS IN MALAYA AND NETHERLAND EAST INDIES FROM STH ' DECEMBER, 1941 TO I2TH .MARCH, 1942. The following report was submitted to the they were in office, but in general the survey Secretary of State for Air on July 26th, 1947, deals with the period between ist June, 1941, by Air Vice-Marshal Sir PAUL MALTBY, and the outbreak of war. It indicates the K.B.E., C.B., D.S.O., A.F.C., Assistant Air energetic measures which were taken immedi Officer Commanding Far East Command, ately beforehand to prepare the Command foi Royal ,Air Force, from January izth to war, and points a picture of the situation as it ' February loth, 1942, and Air.*0fficer Com- existed at the outbreak of hostilities. mandtng Royal Air Force in Java from The narrative contains only brief reference to February nth to March izth, 1942. developments in Hong Kong, Burcma and the Indian Ocean, operational control of which *. - . FOREWORD. passed out of the hands of the A.O.C. Far East A report on the operations in Malaya and the Command soon after the Japanese had landed ISLE.I. would be incomplete without a survey in Malaya. Their presence in the Command of the situation in the Far East before war during the pre-war penod did, however,, broke out ,there. A convenient date for begin- appreciably divert attention, and work from ning such a survey is ist June, 1941, soon after pressing matters of local application, and to the date, 24th April, 1941, on which the late this degree affected preparation for war in Air Vice-Marshal C. W. Pulford became Air Malaya. Officer Commanding R.A.F. Far East Some reference is necessary to sources of Command. information on which the report is based. " A number of other newly posted Senior Official records from the Far East are few Officers also took up their new duties about and incomplete. Most of' those which were the same time, the more important amongst maintained there had to be destroyed to pre- them being Lieut.-Gen. A. E. Percival (G.O.C. vent their capture by the Japanese. The few Malaya—i6th May, 1941), Air Commodore which survive consist of brief situation reports C. O. F. Modin (A O.A. at A.H Q. 10.6.41), and a few files of important signals and corre- Group Captain A. G. Bishop (Group Captain spondence, now with the Air Ministry. ^ To Ops', at A.H.Q. 1.6.41) and the late Group make good the loss of the destroyed documents, Captain E. B. Rice (Fighter Defence Com- reports have since been obtained from a num- mander of Singapore and Co-ordinator of Air ber of officers who held important appointments Defences of Malaya, both newly established in the Far East Command. But these are" fai appointments, 10.7.41). from authoritative. Most of them were written Although ist June, 1941, has been chosen as in December, 1945, and January, 1946, nearly the datum line from- which to start the survey, four years after the events which they describe full recognition is given to the large amount of had taken place, during which years their preparatory work which was done by the pre- authors had been prisoners-of-war in Japanese decessors of the officers whose names are men- hands, or alternatively had been actively em- tioned above. Some reference is necessarily ployed in other theatres of war. A number of made to matters which occurred during the time important individuals who could have given -I V ~t 1348 SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 26 FEBRUARY, 1948 valuable evidence, I regret to report, died in Britair—Code name for A.H.Q. in Java after captivity or during subsequent operations. Dis- the dissolution of Supreme Allied H.Q., crepancies have been slow and difficult to S.W. Pacific. reconcile between sources of information now A.A.C.U.—Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit. scattered thoughout the world, despite the ready A.H K.—Headquarters of the Dutch Com- help I have received from the authors of such mander-in-Chief at Bandoeng, Java. reports. A.I.F.—Australian Imperial Forces. On the other hand valuable information has A.L.G.—Advanced Landing Ground. been freely supplied to me from the Cabinet A.M.E. Station—Air Ministry Experimental War Library, the Air Ministry, the War Office, Station (Radar). the Colonial Office and by the authors of several A.O.A.—Air Officer in charge of Administra- other despatches relating to the War in the Far tion. East. To them also I am much indebted. A.S.P.—Air Stores Park. For the sake of brevity only those matters are (B)—Bomber. mentioned in the report which are necessary for D/F—Radio Direction Finding. establishing important events, for elucidating (F)—Fighter. the factors which governed action at the time, (F.B.)—Flying Boat. and for compiling before it is too late a reason- F.E.C.B.—Far East Combined Bureau—a ably comprehensive narrative of what happened combined service intelligence organisation in the Far East. for obtaining intelligence, under Admiralty Within these limitations every effort has been administration, throughout the Far East. made to ensure accuracy, and the report, as a (G.R.)—General Reconnaissance. whole, is believed to give a reasonably true I.E.—Initial Equipment. picture of the campaign from the air aspect— I.R.—Immediate Reserve. although doubtless it may display inaccuracies M.U.—Maintenance Unit. of detail brought about by the circumstances M.V.A.F.—Malayan Volunteer Air Force. in which it has been compiled. It should, N.E.I.—Netherlands East Indies. however, contain the necessary data from which [N.F.]—Night Fighter. correct deductions can be drawn. In order, O.T.U.—Operational 'Training Unit. however, that inaccuracies may be corrected, P.R.U.—Photographic Reconnaissance Unit. readers are invited to call attention to them R T.—Radio Telephony. through the Air Ministry. R. & S.U.—Repair and Salvage Unit. S.A.O.—Senior Administrative Officer. The whole report has been written under my S.A.S.O.—Senior Air Staff Officer. direction, the first two sections on behalf of (T.B.)—Torpedo Bomber. the late Air Vice-Marshal Pulford who held his V.H.F.—Very high frequency radio. command until nth-February, 1942, two days before he left Singapore. In my opinion there is nothing in these sections, or in Section V, SECTION i. with which he would not agree. PRE-WAR PREPARATIONS. I myself took over my duties at his head- quarters on I2th January, 1942, from which SCOPE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE ROYAL AIR date the report is written on my responsibility, FORCE, FAR EAST. and largely with my personal knowledge. This By mid-summer 1941 the geographical area part of the report continues in the third person of the Far East Command, Royal Air Force, for the sake of continuity in the narrative. included Hong Kong, Borneo, Malaya and Burma; then, embracing Ceylon, it stretched P. C. MALTBY, across the Indian Ocean to Durban and Air Vice-Marshal Mombasa. Royal Air Force. 2. The main functions of the Command were London. firstly to protect the Naval Base in Singapore, July 26th, 1947. and secondly, in co-operation with the Royal Navy to ensure the security of the trade routes LIST" OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE REPORT. in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. The Headquarters of the Command was in G.H.Q.—General Headquarters of the Com- Singapore. mander-in-Chief, Far East. 3. In November 1940, Air Chief Marshal Sir H.Q.M.C.—Headquarters of the General Officer Commanding, Malaya Command. Robert Brooke-Popham was appointed Com- A.H.Q.—Air Headquarters of the Air Officer mander-in-Chief, Far East. He was respon- Commanding, R.A.F. Far East Command. sible for operational control and general direc- Norgroup—Code name for Group H.Q. con- tion of training of all British land and air forces trolling air operations in Northern Malaya. in Malaya, Burma and Hong Kong, for co- Abdacom—Code name for Supreme Allied ordinating the defences of those territories; and ^-Headquarters, S.W. Pacific, which formed for similar responsibilities for additional on I5th January, 1942, and absorbed British Air Forces it was proposed to locate G.H.Q. later in Ceylon, the Indian Ocean and the Bay Abdair—Code name of the Air Section of of Bengal. He set up his headquarters at the Supreme Allied H.Q., S.W. Pacific. Naval Base in Singapore where he was pro- Westgroup—Code name allotted to A.H.Q. on vided with a small operational staff, but no the formation of Supreme Allied H.Q , administrative staff. S.W. Pacific. 7 T" 4. The formation of G.H.Q. in no way re- Recgroup—Code name for the Allied Air lieved the Air Officer Commanding, Royal Air Reconnaissance Group responsible for sea- Force, of- his responsibility (which was now ward reconnaissance of whole sphere of within the policy laid down by the Commander- Supreme Allied Command, S.W. Pacific. iri-Chief) for ensuring the effective co-operatiorj SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 26 FEBRUARY, 1948 1349 of his Command .with the Naval and Military Each service accepted responsibility within Commands throughout the area, nor did it alter its own territory for providing the necessary his position vis-a-vis these Commands "or the bases, where stocks of bombs, petrol and lubri- Air Ministry and the several Civil Governments cants, peculiar to the respective air forces which with which he dealt.