The group was formed on 3 February 1942 as No 224 (Fighter) Group in Singapore.[1] It was disbanded within two months, as the Japanese seized Singapore, on 28 March 1942. It was reformed three days later on 1 April 1942, and renamed No 224 (Tactical) Group on 1 Dec 1942.
224 Group was disbanded by renaming it as Air Headquarters Malaya on 30 September 1945. The Malayan Emergency began in 1948, prompting a significant military buildup.[3]
No. 90 (Composite) Wing RAAF arrived from Australia to supervise two RAAF squadrons in 1950, operating under AHQ Malaya. No. 1 (Bomber) Squadron, flew Avro Lincolns, and No. 38 (Transport) Squadron flew Douglas C-47 Dakotas. It was established in July 1950 and headquartered at Changi, on the east coast of Singapore. No. 1 Squadron operated from RAF Tengah, in Singapore's west. No. 38 Squadron was based at Changi and, from April 1951 to February 1952, at Kuala Lumpur in central Malaya. The Lincolns generally conducted area bombing missions, as well as precision strikes, to harass communist insurgents. The Dakotas were tasked with airlifting cargo, VIPs, troops and casualties, as well as courier flights and supply drops. Following No. 38 Squadron's departure in December 1952, No. 90 Wing was disbanded, leaving No. 1 Squadron to carry on as the sole RAAF unit in the Malayan air campaign until its withdrawal to Australia in July 1958.
Delve 1994 lists the following units as part of AHQ Malaya:[4]
No. 224 Group was then reformed twelve years later on 31 August 1957 from AHQ Malaya. From 1959 it was a combined RAF-Royal Australian Air Force formation.
In 1963 224 Group headquarters was at Seletar.[7] The group's its last commander was an Australian, Air Vice Marshal Brian Eaton RAAF. When Eaton took over, at the end of November 1964, permanent squadrons were "dropping from the [group's] strength" and as the group disbanded, on 1 October 1968, Eaton took over as Chief of Staff at Headquarters Far East Air Force the following year.[8]
After the group disbanded in 1968, with the withdrawal of British military forces based in Singapore (under the UK's East of Suez policy), Singapore bought all the Bloodhound missiles of No. 65 Squadron and established the Singapore Air Defence Command's 170 Squadron.
