Second World War

Air Vice Marshal Pulford inspects trainees of the Malayan Volunteer Air Force at Sembawang, Singapore

In 1941 he attempted to build up the RAF in the Far East to support all the forces under the Far East Command. But before the Japanese attacked on 8 December 1941, the Far East was given a low priority, so little was done. To bolster his very small staff now that the war had started, Air Vice Marshal Paul Maltby arrived and undertook duties as his deputy.^[1] Pulford was authorised to evacuate himself on 5 February 1942. Ten days later Pulford and his naval counterpart, Rear Admiral Ernest Spooner, were amongst the last to leave. Their vessel, the Royal Navy ML 310,^[2] was attacked by Japanese aircraft and forced to run aground on a malaria-ridden island called Chibia (Tjibia, Tjebia), part of the Juju group located north of Bangka Island, Indonesia, and was uninhabited. The survivors managed to hold out for two months before being forced to surrender to the Japanese, but the Air Vice Marshal and Rear Admiral had both died of exhaustion and malaria. When Pulford did not arrive in Java, Maltby took over command of RAF Far East Command, but was captured and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war of the Japanese.