RAF El Adem in the 1960s

[ricardian]

Interesting film (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ma8K1KiGoY) - how it used to be, RAF flying the army out for an exercise.
And have just found a similar film on Aden (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-ymRuo_Z8)

[goudie]

Did a few dets to El Adem from Cyprus. Always took some oranges for the perm. staff. Saw my one and only camel spider there, in the line tent one night. Our tough old WO almost passed out with fright!:eek:

[ian16th]

Saw my one and only camel spider there,Night stopping there in 1960, after spending the evening in the 'Transit Bar', returned to our transit accommodation, and one of our guys found one in his bed!

We all then checked VERY carefully before getting between the sheets.

[Pontius Navigator]

I didn't think they had waafs there.

[MPN11]

Much enjoyed those links ... Thanks, Ricardian.

I managed to avoid being posted straight to El Adem after the ATC course, unlike one of my fellow Plt Offs. I also avoided Salalah, after Innsworth discovered I hadn't done the Unit Fire Officer course, so they sent me to Tengah instead :cool:

So, apart from Stanley, it was life on main bases or large ATCRUs. And HQs. Somehow I feel I missed out on the full experience.

[ricardian]

Sharjah 1963-64 was an RAF station in miniature, eg. CO = SqnLdr, SATCO = Cpl

[Chugalug2]

PN:-
I didn't think they had waafs thereWell if they ever did it would have been before Feb 1949. :)

My memories of El Adem are restricted to brief night flying detachments on 242OCU, both on Hastings and Hercules. Lots of night, little light, other than from the airfield lighting itself.

One night we ended up sharing the circuit with a Hunter. As a result of the difference in the finals distance that we each required, the Hunter ended up on extended finals, presumably then losing spatial orientation, and managed to do a touch and go on a sand dune some 2 miles out (as was subsequently confirmed the following day). He wisely decided on making his intended roller a full stop, and packed it in for the night. We however had to stumble on...

As others have said El Adem had little to commend it. Idris on the other hand did, and it was a sad day when the RAF (and hence the OCU detachment) was obliged to quit it.

[MPN11]

i'm sure they deployed fg offs as SATCOs in the region ... suitably supported by SNCO controllers, of course. I have access to a photo of the fg off SATCO at Salalah ;)

[Fareastdriver]

There were some teachers down in Tobruk at the Services School. I used to meet them every time I went through El Adem. One of my friends married one.

[ImageGear]

Brilliant place - enjoyed almost every minute - it helped if you were a sailor or a diver. Lived most of the tour in the sailing club in Tobruk, completely unspoilt and very basic, hot bread from the hole in the floor, food from the souk.

What more could one want - ah yes, the older scaly brat summer visitors who just wanted to be on the water. In between shifts one could sail for 3 days without returning to base. :ok:

A truly nostalgic video - thanks for posting.

Imagegear

[Pontius Navigator]

Chug, scurrilous joke.

Anyway, we did a ranger there, 65 IIRC, at the same time as the Hastings had been grounded world-wide. Rather than recover the crew from El Adem they were attached to the GD Flt and on unit strength.

Meanwhile the staff in the aircrew feeder had little to do. We were messed in the feeder rather than the mess and before flight each day we were presented with th d evening menu.

I had my first chateaubriand there and one of the best and most memorable steaks ever in 50 years.

[Warmtoast]

Ricardian

Thanks for the two links in your first post. The major exercise mentioned in link one is I believe "Exercise Starlight".

I was with 99 Sqn flying Britannias at the time and took some 8mm cine film during this exercise. Two screen grabs from my cine film below.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/RAF%20Lyneham/ElAdem-ExerciseStarlight.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/RAF%20Lyneham/ElAdem-Finals.jpg

During STARLIGHT 99 and 511 Sqns flew twenty-nine Britannia sorties carrying 3,190 men, each with 80 lb of kit. I did three trips for this exercise between 9 - 18th March 1960.

Flight magazine has a three-page spread about the exercise here:
1960 | 0432 | Flight Archive (http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1960/1960%20-%200432.html)

[Al R]

Did anyone ever call it 'Marham with sand'..?

[Pontius Navigator]

No, because lots of people visited El Adem whereas Marham was more select.

For those that don't know, El Adem was renamed Gamel Abdel Nasser Airbase after we left.

[Basil]

"The Army and RAF work together to ensure their equipment fits."
Well, I can't speak for 2014 but that did make I smile :p

El Adem was the first place where I sampled brackish water :yuk:

[NutLoose]

Re Aden and the likes, one of the guys I was with served there and he told us one day that they built two of those big high water towers you used to see on a metal legs, after getting about 3/4 of the way up one stopped and started to get smaller while the other one continued up, enquiring he was told that someone had cocked up and that one was being built at the wrong camp. True or not I don't know, but it sounded about right.

[goudie]

El Adem was the first place where I sampled brackish water

When on det. there with 32 Sqdn the only water we had on
the line was supplied by a water bowser, it was foul. One day the El Adem Staish flew with us and whilst waiting to sign for his a/c asked for a drink of water, he was given one from the bowser. He was not amused when informed that was all we had. He immediately phoned the mess gave them an earful and pronto several large mess urns turned up with chilled, fairly fresh water.

[Fareastdriver]

Anybody who drove. or was driven in to Tobruk may have noticed that the telephone poles switched over half way to the coast road. This was because when they put up the poles and telephone lines they had started at each end, as agreed, on the left hand side, of the road.

he was told that someone had cocked up

In Aldershot there was, maybe there still is, a barrack block that had verandas and doors on both floors of the building. Work & Bricks had been given the plans for an Indian Army block by mistake and they had built it 'like what we were told'.

[ricardian]

The Astra at Akrotiri (1965-67 time) was built 180 degrees out of kilter. It should have been an indoor cinema in winter and outdoor in summer. However, for outdoor use the audience would have had to sit in the main road.

[ValMORNA]

And no mention yet of the 'Royal Toilet' built at El Adem, or the sound at night of exploding land mines left over from the Desert Campaign?

[Union Jack]

In Aldershot there was, maybe there still is, a barrack block that had verandas and doors on both floors of the building. Work & Bricks had been given the plans for an Indian Army block by mistake and they had built it 'like what we were told'. - FED

Interesting relative to the very similar story about St George Barracks, Gosport (http://www.sopse.org.uk/ixbin/hixclient.exe?a=query&p=gateway&f=generic_objectrecord_postsearch.htm&_IXFIRST_=32238&_IXMAXHITS_=1&m=quick_sform&tc1=i&tc2=e&s=Vr4sHQv2dsB), described here as a myth, which I seem to recall was further embellished locally with the story that the barracks that should have been built at Gosport were built in India!:(

Google Images for "St George('s) Barracks Gosport" for the appropriate picture, and I wonder if these could have been the barracks to which FED refers - it couldn't happen more than once, could it?:rolleyes:

Jack

[MAINJAFAD]

goudie

A few years back I was researching the history of the Bloohound Mk 2 force at the National Archives and found the story of the deployment exercise done at El Adem by a Bloodhound Mk2 missile section of 41 Sqn in May / June 1967. The exercise codenamed 'Long Hook' was a bit of a fiasco for a number of reasons, the initial problem being the number of AT movements that went U/S en route (the four Launcher Type 86 section was to have been deployed from West Raynham to El Adem by 15 Argosy and 6 Beverly sorties) over the space of 6 days, it took 8 and the flights carrying some the really mission critical stuff like Radar, Launch Control Post and Specialist MT were the flights that suffered the longest delay. By the time they had got the kit up and running, exercise operations were messed up by a NEAF Theater wide 'Comsec' warning that lasted for a considerable time, their missiles had to be taken off the launchers because a local Libyan Official didn't like them pointing in the direction of Egypt, then the Six Day War kicked off. One of the things that really stood out however was the comments in the Admin concussions of the report that stated that a fridge was a must have bit of kit on desert deployments (The Missile section had its own power generators). They had asked RAF El Adem for one, only to be told:

1. Fridges were provided only to store perishable food.

2. Medically, Humans can drink warm water.

Fortunately for the 41 Sqn boys, the Royal Engineer Detachment who were there to prepare the ground for the deployment site had a spare fridge with them.

The BAC Film unit made a film of the deployment, which I've just got my hands on (it will not be going on Youtube).

However a few screen shots:

http://111.imagebam.com/download/Jm8b7UPGldedNym-0bMx5g/36476/364751809/vlcsnap-2014-11-16-01h58m39s24.png

Unloading Launchers from an Argosy.

http://110.imagebam.com/download/PkrZVCwg4bbXQsL0qNTMTA/36476/364751821/vlcsnap-2014-11-16-01h58m46s86.png

Unloading Missiles from an Argosy.

http://112.imagebam.com/download/-i0ONXGWb-fSBerLGx27rw/36476/364751830/vlcsnap-2014-11-16-01h58m56s191.png

Taking the Missiles out into the Desert

http://111.imagebam.com/download/zrWzW8RgSU4AEM9AmGNeFw/36476/364751848/vlcsnap-2014-11-16-01h59m28s252.png

Radar Type 86

http://110.imagebam.com/download/xYpPeEf1xLjCRI0QmVM-qw/36476/364751867/vlcsnap-2014-11-16-02h00m13s191.png

Launch Control Post

http://111.imagebam.com/download/p3ckTGGVblXha3INHIqq2w/36476/364751888/vlcsnap-2014-11-16-02h01m09s242.png

Deploying one of the four launchers

http://111.imagebam.com/download/VE8pE4O8HE67w2r5R6Efag/36476/364751911/vlcsnap-2014-11-16-02h01m50s137.png

Loading the missile on to a launcher

http://110.imagebam.com/download/DdKp20p8y9Cd5Zh_0-iOzA/36476/364751931/vlcsnap-2014-11-16-02h02m01s249.png

Raising the Missile

http://110.imagebam.com/download/R2FtRvqi1dfuXhvWNf76Ng/36476/364751935/vlcsnap-2014-11-16-02h02m25s230.png

Deployed site layout

[Whenurhappy]

Great footage - especially the Aden film. No hi-viz jackets, no helmets, no ear protectors, no body armour....


...when did hats on the flight line stopped being worn as an anti-FOD measure?

[Pontius Navigator]

In '73 in Cyprus we still wore them and IIRC in late 70s at ISK to keep your head warm. Mine saved lots of injury from aerials and other bits if metal without causing damage as a hard hat would have.

'RE Bloodhound deployment, do you have a date? I know there was a lot of activity at a secret airbase in Lincolnshire with the unwary driving through road barriers that were "never" closed. Had Civpol manning them as it was a public road. That was end May 67.

[MAINJAFAD]

PN

Movements were 1st - 6th May 67 out of West Raynham.

Edit

PN if the road blocks were on the Coningsby - Woodhall Spa road, it could have been part of the 112 Squadron movement from Woodhall Spa to Cyprus (though most of the Squadron's kit was moved in early Sep 67 via Immingham and Sea transport).

[Pontius Navigator]

No, it was the High Duke at Waddo and at least 3 weeks later.

I wonder when the Bloodhound s were recovered.

Our visitors had planned on using Leeds/Bradford but the weather clagged. Having started to use us they continued to do so. The Lincolnshire Chronicle, purporting to be a left wing, anti-bomb rag and tried to make political capital from it.

[MAINJAFAD]

PN

The missile section deployed to El Adem, stayed in Libya with a C&M party located at El Adem until early Jul 67 when it was airlifted to Cyprus and set up at Episkopi. It remained there until 112 Sqn got their first missile section operational. The 41 Sqn detachment and equipment returned by air to West Raynham in Nov 67. Whatever the incident was it most likely had nothing to do with Bloodhound.

[Cornish Jack]

Fascinating stuff! The El Adem film covered one of our Bev exercises and the desert strip was a bit of sand called Tmimi. The shots of the Bev arrivals were much edited!! - the actual landing was accompanied by total 'sand-out' from our reverse thrust and we usually had to sit for a while to let the sand cloud disperse. One of the few occasions on which the Bev was used as intended - short haul, max load, unprepared strip. Worked like a dream!!:D
The Aden part was about 7 years after my time but little had changed - apart from the aircraft types ... Vampires, Venoms, Pembrokes, Valettas, Lancs (just), Lincolns, Sycamores in the late 50s. Time flies etc.:sad:

[kaitakbowler]

As a young SAC on 103 MU in 1970, I was hearing lots of war stories about the rushed closure of EA, indeed we had 4 tonners full of kit, various, that had been rushed to AKR. There was one persistent story of a "raid" back to EA, some time after the official shut down, to recover comms kit (from ATC IIRC) which the Libyan's were supposed to have paid for but of course never did.

Anyone ever heard this before?

PM

[MPN11]

MAINJAFAD's mention of 112 Sqn reminds me that a good friend from Manby went to be their OC at Akrotiri.

[MAINJAFAD]

MPM11

I've got all of 112 Sqn's F540's as well, from the first one raised as a Mk 1 unit at Breighton, to the last one raised at Paramali West. The squadron fell under the admin of RAF Episkopi not Akrotiri as they were based there for a while before the permanent site at Paramali West was built, which they took over in 1969. 112 Sqn was going to be the UK Bloodhound Sqn in 1975 according to the F540 until everybody put in their posting preferences after which they were told that the Sqn was going to be disbanded and the nameplate was going to 85 Sqn.

112 had the best markings on any Bloodhound Missile ever though

http://www.bloodhoundmkii.org.uk/images/112/Display_Missile_W.jpg

Pity it was only an ex Mk 2 R&D test round based on a Mk 1 used as display missile / loading trainer.

Anyhow back on topic about Marham with sand.

[Frostchamber]

My father was based there 1961-62 and we lived at Tobruk, I went to the local service nursery school, transported by RAF bus. On one picnic out in the desert my father turned over a bit of rusty metal with his foot. Written on the newly exposed side you could just make out the words "mine, anti-tank". We've still got a slide of it somewhere.