The RAF Seletar and RAF Tengah Association is appealing for former forces personnel who served on the airfields in Singapore, or visited them while in the forces, to get in contact.

David Lloyd of Highfield Road in Petersfield was in the Royal Air Force, and spent time at both airfields, and is now the association archivist.

He said: “Like a lot of ex-services associations, the RAF Seletar & Tengah is suffering from a decline in membership.

“So I hope this might encourage those with connections to the airfields to get in touch.

“The association brings together members by organising an annual reunion, and regional gatherings foster new friendships.

“Membership is open to all RAF and civilian personnel and their relatives who served at any station on the island of Singapore.

“Past and present personnel of the Singapore armed forces who serve, or served, at Seletar and Tengah bases, and members of the Seletar Flying Club, can also join the association.”

The two little-known airfields were operated solely by the RAF until 1971.

RAF Seletar opened in 1928 and was also a civil airport from 1930 before the opening of Singapore’s first airport at Kallang on June 12, 1937.

The air base hosted Amy Johnson in May 1930, on her UK-to-Australia flight in her Gipsy Moth bi-plane named ’Jason’.

RAF Seletar operated initially with flying boats (pictured below) and then Vickers Vildebeest biplane light bombers and torpedo bombers.

When Japan invaded Malaya in December 1941 the obsolete biplanes were deployed against the Japanese attackers.

They took heavy casualties before the surviving planes and crews were evacuated to Java.

The Japanese invasion of Singapore saw Seletar occupied by them from 1942 to 1945.

After the war, Seletar went back to the RAF.

And in the late 1940s and early 1950s, it was used by fighter planes operating against communist insurgents in Malaya.

During the 1960s it was home to RAF Whirlwind helicopters and Blackburn Beverley bombers that saw action in the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation.

After the British left Singapore in 1971, Seletar was handed over to the Singapore Air Defence Command (later the Republic of Singapore Air Force) .

In 1971 RAF Tengah, which opened in 1939, was renamed Tengah Air Base, was also taken over by Singapore Air Defence Command.

From 1971 to 1976 it was part of ANZUK, made up of Australian, New Zealand and UK air forces.

During the Second World War, Tengah was ‘carpet bombed’ in the first Japanese air raid on Singapore.

It was also the first airfield on the island to be captured by the Japanese.

After the Second World War, it reverted to the Royal Air Force.

During the Malayan Emergency, it housed RAF and Royal Australian Air Force bombers, including the RAF’s famous Vulcan bomber (pictured above).

These carried out bombing raids on communist guerrillas.

During the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, RAF fighter squadrons were deployed to Tengah to bolster the defence against the Indonesian Air Force.

Currently, as well Singapore Air Force planes, some 100 A4-SU Super SkyHawks that are capable of laser-guided bombings and air defence are mothballed at Tengah. These were retired in 2005, but kept in reserve storage.

For more information about the RAF Seletar and RAF Tengah Association email David Lloyd at [email protected]