RAF Gan 1958 and Later

[Warmtoast]

Part 1

As mentioned in an earlier post on the Gaining a Pilots’ Brevet thread — #8370 of 24th March this starts my piece about my memories of my time in Gan in 1958 (and later).
My daughter is in the travel trade and the “hotel buyer” for one of the UK’s leading travel agents, and a couple of years ago was responsible for clients (hotels) in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Peninsula. She travels extensively examining and assessing the quality of hotels who want to be included in her company’s travel brochures. Anyway whilst on one of her travels she met the General Manager of the Shangri La hotel group who recently opened a new 5-star hotel in Addu Atoll (Shangri-La’s Villingili Resort and Spa) the island adjacent to Gan.
Whilst chatting with the GM she mentioned that her father (me) had been stationed at Gan whilst it was being built in 1958 and I had an extensive collection of colour photographs that I took whilst at Gan. He was immediately interested and asked whether he could see some of my slides. I agreed and sent some for his perusal, having seen some he asked for more and I created an illustrated PDF file — 48-pages long — recording my memories of the island. The hotel has these processed these as an A5 booklet for the use of hotel guests.
One good thing came out of my photo efforts; the hotel asked whether I’d be prepared to go out to the Maldives and give a presentation about the building of Gan in 1958. The hotel has an extensive clientele who seem to be obsessed with the history of the place and were keen to hold a history week — which is where my giving a talk/PowerPoint talk presentation at their expense would fit in.
Shortly afterwards I received the go ahead to travel to the Maldives for a week to give my presentation to the hotel guests. As my daughter was the intermediary in the arrangements made with the Group, she and her husband were invited too. Audiences at my presentations were history buffs (mainly wealthy Chinese) with some Europeans (Dutch and German) and two families from the UK, locals who worked at the resort and pupils from the local island school.
So this thread will start with my illustrated reminisces of my R.A.F. time at Gan in 1958, followed by a bit about the islanders as they were in 1958, some further memories relating to Gan and finally Gan, Fedu, Hittadu and Villingili as they are today as seen during my recent visit.
Many photos are self explanatory, but others I've captioned as necessary.
There’s quite a lot to be posted, so bear with me if I’m slow in posting photos, commentary etc.

WT

Introduction
I arrived at Gan in January 1958 and departed back to England in November 1958. On the whole my time at Gan was pleasant and interesting and the sort of experience that occurs but once in one’s lifetime.
Being an avid photographer I recorded on film my life and experiences whilst on the island and the following pages contain some of my many photographs that illustrate what life was like as the sleepy island with a small crushed-coral runway was built into an international size airfield with a runway capable of accommodating the largest jets.
Also recorded are photographs of Maldive islanders that I photographed mainly on the island of Fedu. Given that these photographs were taken 58-years ago in 1958 and the children shown were then aged about six to nine years old, if they are still around they’ll be aged about sixty-years old now.


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Gan as we knew it in 1958


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As it was in 1976 when the RAF departed


R.A.F. GAN — BACKGROUND
Fringed with palm trees and coral and located in the Indian Ocean, it is hard to imagine a more idyllic setting for an RAF station than Gan, one of the Maldive Islands. The most southerly of a string of islands forming Addu Atoll.
Britain’s military connections with Gan go back to 1941 when, in anticipation of war in the Far East, a highly secret Safe Fleet Anchorage known as ‘Port T’ was built here. Later in the war a short airstrip was laid out and this was used by detachments from 160 Sqn flying Liberator bombers on coastal photo-reconnaissance, air/sea rescue and meteorological sorties whilst the lagoon was used by Sunderland flying boats from 230 Sqn as they patrolled the Indian Ocean. At the end of the war the military installations were dismantled and all Service personnel were withdrawn.
Gan’s post-war development began in 1956 following the realisation that Britain’s vital route to the Far East depended on the continued assurance of landing and over-flying rights from countries in Asia. This vulnerability of the empire reinforcement route led to the Chiefs of Staff’s quest for a staging post in the Indian Ocean between the Middle East bases and Singapore. The choice of location was virtually limited to Gan.
In 1956 Britain obtained permission to re-establish it’s wartime airfield on Gan and was informally granted a 100-year lease that required Britain paying the Maldives £2,000 a year. However, the election of a new Maldives prime minister in 1957 caused him to review the agreement, but nothing happened until 1960 when the Maldive government formally granted Britain the use of Gan and other facilities in Addu atoll for 30 years (backdated to 1956) in return for £100,000 a year plus some additional development aid. Britain continued to pay for its use until 1976 when the bases closed.
PLANS
Plans were drawn up for a single runway spanning the full length of the island, together with technical facilities and domestic accommodation for around 500 personnel. The contract for this work was let to Messrs Richard Costain, and an advance party of 5001 Airfield Construction Sqn led by Flight Lieutenant George McNeil arrived off Gan abroad HMS Modeste at the end of January 1957. The advance party’s tasks were to refurbish the wartime landing strip, survey the nearby island of Hittadu, which would later house a Signals Unit, and to build a power station and living quarters for the contractor’s workforce. Nearly 11,000 trees needed to be cleared and the most effective method of achieving this was found to be pushing them over with bulldozers. In addition, a 400 ft jetty had to be constructed for the landing of plant and heavy machinery. Initially the advanced party was supported twice-weekly by Sunderlands of 205/209 Sqn who were detached from Singapore to R.A.F. China Bay in Ceylon. From China Bay they made the twice-weekly run to Gan alighting on the lagoon with food, mail and personnel (Operation “SHIPS FLAG”).
Moorings, together with refuelling and basic servicing facilities, were established for the flying boats and by the end of 1957 the refurbished landing strip was ready to receive its first aircraft, a Bristol Freighter of 41 Sqn. Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) that flew in from Negombo, Ceylon.
With the opening of the refurbished crushed-coral runway the RAF started flying a regular twice weekly (later three times weekly) land plane service to Gan, flown by R.A.F. Far East Air Force Vickers Valettas and the and the occasional Royal New Zealand Air Force Bristol Freighter that had been detached to Katunayake (Negombo) for this task.
ARRIVAL
I arrived at Gan on 13th January 1958. I knew a little about the island and the plan to build it into a major staging post because for most of the previous year (1957) I’d been stationed at R.A.F. China Bay near Trincomalee on the north-eastern coast of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and knew (a) that Solomon Bandaranaike the prime minister of Ceylon at the time was keen to close the R.A.F. staging post at R.A.F. Katunayake, previously known as Negombo, about twenty miles north of Colombo and (b) by talking to the Sunderland flying boat crews who made the twice weekly supply flights to Gan.
Geographically Katunayake is situated half way between Aden and Singapore and was a vital refuelling stop for R.A.F. aircraft transiting to the Far East. With Negombo (Katunayake) no longer available a replacement refuelling stop (staging post) was required and Gan was selected.

Below Addu Atoll in WWII - IWM Photos

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Hittadu in WWII. IWM Photo.


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Short Sunderland Mark III, EJ143 "S", of No. 230 Squadron RAF Detachment, moored in the lagoon at Addu Atoll. IWM Photo.


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WWII. Sunderland Mark III, EJ143 “S”, of No. 230 Squadron RAF Detachment, piloted by Flight Lieutenant A W Deller, taking off at Addu Atoll. IWM Photo


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WWII. Airman keep fit by playing Badminton under the palms at Addu Atoll. IWM Photo.

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WWII. A wind break constructed from ration boxes protects the small RAF camp at another island in the Maldives. IWM Photo.


To be continued.

[Warmtoast]

Continued - Part 2

January 1958 - Arrival

I arrived at Gan on 13th January 1958. I knew a little about the island and the plan to build it into a major staging post because for most of the previous year (1957) I’d been stationed at R.A.F. China Bay near Trincomalee on the north-eastern coast of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and knew (a) that Solomon Bandaranaike the prime minister of Ceylon at the time was keen to close the R.A.F. staging post at R.A.F. Katunayake, previously known as Negombo, about twenty miles north of Colombo and (b) by talking to the Sunderland flying boat crews who made the twice weekly supply flights to Gan.
Geographically Katunayake is situated half way between Aden and Singapore and was a vital refuelling stop for R.A.F. aircraft transiting to the Far East. With Negombo (Katunayake) no longer available a replacement refuelling stop (staging post) was required and Gan was selected.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Accommodation was primitive. For the first couple of months we lived in dark-brown coloured tents which considering we were only 42-miles south of the equator absorbed the heat from the sun and were horrendously hot. Mosquito nets over the beds at night were standard and added to the discomfort, but thankfully there was nearly always a sea breeze that made things a little more bearable.
Life was “a bit basic” in our tented camp — open air ablutions, screened by Hessian, with a large galvanised tank raised on a high platform to give “head” to the showers. These were filled with fresh water pumped from pipes sunk some 20 feet into the ground. Gan was literally floating on an aquifer of fresh water, replenished by rainfall. This water was pretty pungent – smelling of bad-eggs and had to be filtered over charcoal and purified before use for cooking and drinking, but for showers the water was used ‘as is’. Toilets were thunder boxes, no lids, just a seat that were emptied regularly by our local labour into the sea.
Because of the open-air toilets, the ‘squitters’, a form of dysentery affected most of us, symptoms appeared shortly after arrival and continued for a week or two. There was no obvious cure, but following the initial bout of illness things settled down and we seemed to gain some sort of immunity and were no longer affected. The Medical Officer advised us to take the usual hygiene precautions — washing hands, fruit etc, but we all seemed to succumb shortly after arrival and it soon became a rite of passage for new arrivals to be affected until acclimatised. General consensus was that the uncovered open air toilets, plus the hoards of flies that swarmed around them was the source of the infection, but once we'd recovered we were OK.
“Squitters” apart, everybody seemed remarkably healthy. To help in the fight against malaria which was endemic in the Maldive Islands, we were instructed to take a daily dose of Paludrine. Bottles containing the tablets were on the mess tables, we just helped ourselves to one a day. To avoid mosquito bites dress regulations after dark when outside, was to wear long-sleeved shirts, long trousers and “Mossie Boots” (desert boots with long legs that reached half-way up the calf).
Another health requirement was to take a daily salt tablet to replace the salt lost from the body by sweat. These salt tablets were most unpalatable and often would make one sick, but I found the easiest method of ingesting additional salt was to lace one’s food, especially soup, with lots of table salt, which seem to do the trick.
Mail from the UK was quick and regular, as were UK newspapers (albeit about 10-days old), so with regular mail and U.K. newspapers, frequent cinema shows etc. spirits were high. About the only time we all felt despondent was when U.K. mail was late in arriving, but this was rare.
At the rear of the Mess-hall/Cook-house we had an open air cinema, with a screen on a framework, permanently fixed in place to convenient palm trees. The projection room was built on to the cook-house at roof level and there was a show every other night — films were flown in on the regular flights from Katunayake and changed regularly. As to seating — bring your own seat out of the mess and a ground sheet to cover your head if it rained and wear a long-sleeved shirt and long boots as protection against the voracious mossies.

VISITORS
There were two memorable visitors during my time at Gan:
Dr Hans Hass the renowned underwater explorer / oceanographer.
Air Marshal The Earl of Bandon (C-in-C FEAF).
I photographed both these visitors during their visit. Photographs follow.


MY PHOTOGRAPHS
Photographs are mainly self-explanatory, but where necessary I’ve annotated them accordingly.

FINALLY
I spent eleven months at Gan from January to November 1958 and during that time had a one week leave break in Singapore.
As a postscript shortly after I returned to the UK I changed my R.A.F. career and remustered as an Air Quarter Master (Loadmaster) and in September 1959 joined 99 Squadron at R.A.F. Lyneham in Wiltshire flying the newly introduced into R.A.F. service Bristol Britannia turbo-prop airliners.
I did over 3,000 hours flying with 99 Sqn and must have visited R.A.F. Gan dozens of times from late 1959 onwards and it always amazed me as to how it had developed from the primitive airfield I remember from my service there back in 1958.


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“Thunderboxes” — an example of the primitive toilet facilities available when I first arrived at Gan. They were infested by flies which caused the “squitters” (a form of dysentery) until one gained immunity. A hessian (sacking) screen (not shown here) gave some degree of modesty between the toilet holes.


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For the first year (1957) the initial contingent of R.A.F. airfield construction workers were supplied and maintained with the essentials of life by the twice-weekly supply-run from R.A.F. China Bay in Sri Lanka which operated Sunderland flying boats from 205/209 Squadron R.A.F. as seen here moored at Gan.

VHF/DF Operator
My trade in the R.A.F. until 1959 was as a radio operator, more precisely a VHF Direction Finder Operator (D/F Operator). This meant using radio DF equipment installed in a Radio Vehicle (RV 105) to establish the bearing (direction) of an aircraft when it used its VHF Radio transmitter. Determining the bearing of the aircraft from the ground station allowed the aircraft (and the ground station) to plot where it was on a map for example. The VHF/DF was also able to give the aircraft a ‘course to steer’ to the airfield and using a special technique would allow an experienced controller to guide an aircraft on a QGH “controlled descent through cloud” to line it up for a safe landing on the runway when the airfield was obscured by cloud. In the 1950’s this was a standard R.A.F. approach procedure to be superseded from the late 1950’s onwards by modern radar and automatic instrument landing systems that made the VHF/DF job redundant.
Anyway here are a couple of views of the radio vehicle in which the DF equipment was installed.


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“Tatty” state of the VHF/DF Vehicle as delivered to Gan.


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This shows how I painted it white (with a 3-inch brush!) to help reduce the interior heat.


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In it’s finished “like new” painted state.


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1950's Routes to the Far East


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Routes to the Far East via Gan c.1960


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A Vickers Valetta, the military version of the Vickers Viking civilian airliner was used on the Ceylon to Gan air-bridge. The Valetta could carry up to 36 passengers together with freight. The flying time from R.A.F. Katunayake near Colombo in Ceylon to Gan was about three hours forty-five minutes. The normal routine was for the flight to leave Katunayake early in the morning, arrive Gan around mid-morning, discharge passengers and freight, refuel, load-up and return to Katunayake the same day.

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On arrival aircraft were instructed to fly low along the runway to alert any workers working on or near the runway to remain clear until the aircraft had landed — as seen here.


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The refurbished crushed coral runway was used until the new concrete runway had been built.


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Tent city — my living accommodation for the first couple of months of my time at Gan.

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A view inside

More to come!
WT

[uffington sb]

WT
Looks like you were there just after it opened, and I was there just before it closed, coming home in November '76. I had the chance of staying to the end (March '76 I think) and coming home on the Grey Funnel Line, but I opted for a short tour, something I've regretted ever since.

[huge72]

WT, I served in Gan between 74/75 as the Flight Planning Clerk. We had an Ops Cpl Bill Coe who you may have known as he like yourself was there at the beginning of the build and his photos although not so numerous were fascinating. As an aside after returning to UK in 75 I went to Upavon in the Group HQ Ops room from where I also remustered to ALM flying on Wessex, Hercules and VC10.

[CoffmanStarter]

WT ... Splendid Thread with some wonderful pics ... Looking forward to the next instalment :ok:

[ancientaviator62]

Never served at Gan but went there many times with the Hercules. Took HMQ's Daimler cars there so she could travel in comfort the short distance from the airhead to the camp. Always enjoyed my stays.

[MPN11]

Outstanding stuff, Warmtoast. I eagerly await the next instalment.

As a side issue, I was an ATCO at Tengah 67-70. We evolved a cunning plan, whereby we would do a controller swap between Tengah and Gan for a 2-week rotation. The idea was that we could escape to that lovely little atoll for a couple of weeks away from the heat, humidity and bustle of Singapore, whilst the Gan controller could spend a couple of weeks in 'civilisation' and brush up on his PAR skills [which were undoubtedly rusty] in a busy ATC environment. It seemed like a win-win situation, both professionally and personally, for everyone ... but for some reason HQ FEAF declined to approve the plan.

However, the Gan ATCOs [and I assume others there as well] were allowed, at the end of their year on Gan, to complete another 1 1/2 years in FEAF with a posting to Singapore. One of my very good old mates arrived in Tengah Tower on that basis.

[denachtenmai]

Super warmtoast, keep going.
This brings back memories, because when 204 shut down at Honington in '72 I was posted on a TASF course and then to Gan, but when I told them that I only had just over a year to go and thus no time for the course and a tour I was asked where I wanted to go :ooh: so I went back to the secret squirrels until I left the RAF.
I have always regretted not getting to Gan:{
Regards, Den.

[uffington sb]

Hugh72.

I was the flight planning clerk at Gan in 1975.
Tony G was SATCO then, Flt Sgt Dave L one of the ATCO's, Cpl Tommy H and one of the airman was Dave A. I'm trying to remember the others!
We lived in block 60 right next to the threshold.
I must have taken over from you.

[MPN11]

I was the flight planning clerk at Gan in 1975. Tony G was SATCO thenOh, thanks for the reminder ... I owe him a phone call!!

The private ATC Old and Bold community has some lovely photos of Gan, but we're not allowed to re-distribute them.

[Shackman]

Anyone know what became of the three 16in (?) guns that were left lying on the beach at the South Eastern end of the island. Rumour had it, in 1970, that they had been positioned to provide sea defences for Force H/Port T and guard the channel into the anchorage during the war, and had been left there and the turret blown up because it was too difficult to remove them. Certainly still there at the end of '72.

[uffington sb]

Shackman,

There were a couple of guns, just barrels, in front of SHQ when I was there in '75.


I've just had a butchers at giggle earth and it looks like their extending the runway at Gan. Seems a bit strange as we took VC-10's and Nimrods. Still I suppose it will save on the transfer from Male if they can fly direct into Gan.
When I went back in 2001, stayed in the Equator Village Hotel, the former Warrant Offers and Seageant's Mess.

For non Brits Butchers = Butchers Hook = Look, in Cockney rhyming slang!

[huge72]

uffington sb. You may well be correct. Dave A and I are still very much in touch as we were together at Brize before Gan and although for a long time we didn't cross paths we now meet up about once a year with two others that we knew at Brize. As for Gan the other two airmen were Roger H and Vaughn J both stayed in the Air Traffic world and became WO's as did Dennis R from Ops who ended up at Upavon with me and then Lyneham. of the top of my head I cannot remember the other names but I will look them up. Huge

[DON T]

Uffington ab

Indeed they are extending the runway to take direct flight from afar. Mostly I believe for the Shangri la on Willingilli which is expensive. I went on holiday in 2014 and stayed in Equator Village and had a great but very quiet time. Used to visit between 1972 and 1974 with the dental team from Hong Kong and always enjoyed myself. Best of both worlds. I'm not sure I could have put up with tents and then a 3 inch brush to make the accommodation cooler. Still I bet they had some way of making the beer cool. Worst moment was having a bottle of gordons on the verandah but only cherryade from the NAAFI soft drinks machine.

Warmtoast what a great post thank you.

[Robert Cooper]

Good post WT, can’t wait for the next installment. I was on Gan in 1967 working at the HF Receiver site on the other side of the runway. I enjoyed my time on Gan, and have many good memories of the place.

Bob C

[Warmtoast]

Continued - Part 3


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14th February 1958. This 47 Sqn R.A.F. Abingdon-based Beverley serial number XB263, piloted by F/Lt Peter Dudley, flew in the advance contingent of Pakistani workers who were to do most of the construction work to convert Gan from a sleepy island with a short crushed-coral landing strip to a busy RAF staging post with an 8,694ft/2,650m long concrete runway.
With the aid of the already on-site UK-based workers from Messrs Richard Costain & Co, the main contractors for the project to construct the staging post at Gan, the first job of these Pakistani workers was to build accommodation for the main force of temporary workers due to arrive from Pakistan. With this done Pakistani labourers arrived regularly on the island by R.A.F. planes and chartered boats — at the height of the building boom 1,200 Pakistanis, local Maldivians and UK workers were employed in the construction of the runway and infrastructure of a modern R.A.F. staging post/air base that included living quarters, runway, concrete aircraft parking area, air traffic control tower, medical centre, hangers, fuel storage tanks etc. etc.


Marine Craft
As well as a High-Speed Rescue launch the R.A.F. Marine Craft Unit at Gan operated two (later three) WW2 LCM (Landing Craft Men) boats for offloading cargo vessels bringing in stores and machinery. The arrival in March 1958 of two tugs and six lighters to be manned by Pakistani crews meant that most cargo was discharged from visiting vessels in much greater quantities than was possible by the R.A.F. crews alone. Although the loads were shared between the R.A.F. with their LCMs and the Pakistanis with their tugs and lighters, the bulk of heavy and bulky cargo and in particular the large quantities of cement in 112lb (50kg.) bags that arrived on palettes in ship-loads of 1,500 and 2,400 tons at a time was more suited to be off-loaded into lighters designed for the task rather than LCMs.
The experienced Pakistani tugboat crews and stevedores coped well and by the middle of the year there was a constant stream of tugboats and lighters from the anchored cargo vessels to the newly constructed long jetty that could accommodate two lighters at a time, one on either side. Whilst I don’t have the full figures for the period whilst I was at Gan (January to November 1958), between January and August 1958, 38 cargo vessels called at Gan and discharged over 20,000 tons of cargo with an average delivery rate of over 2,500 tons per month.


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This R.A.F. High-speed recue launch was used to take the marine Pilot to ships arriving at Gan.


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Below
In the early days these R.A.F. LCMs ferried the bulk of freight and cargo from cargo vessels anchored in the lagoon to the original short WW2 jetty as seen here. Once the longer and more modern jetty had been built the cargo was ferried ashore by Pakistani crewed tugs and lighters manned by experienced crews and stevedores.


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http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Freight%20offload_zpsa61oequm.jpg
The original R.A.F. Marine Craft unit landing craft of the type used during the D-Day landings during WW2 were used for offloading smaller items of freight




http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Brocklebank%20Ships_zps6v49anav.jpg
Brocklebank Line, the Liverpool-based shipping company had the main contract to bring in supplies and cargo necessary to build a modern airfield. This photo shows a Brocklebank vessel (left) and a Ben Line cargo ship (right) with cargo for Gan. Two newly arrived tugs can be seen tied-up to a buoy. From mid-1958 six lighters towed by these two tugs ferried most cargo ashore to the newly-built long jetty.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Image3%20-%20640_zpsgapn8gbc.jpg

The new long jetty under construction. A channel was blasted through the coral reef and steel piles were driven deep into the seabed as shown here. This new jetty was dredged on either side to allow lighters to be off-loaded two at a time and replaced the original very short and rickety WW2 jetty.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Crane%20-%20oops_zpslu4v0wdl.jpg
Sometimes crane drivers using the original WW2 jetty could get it badly wrong as seen here. A bulldozer (below) came to the rescue and dragged it onto the beach to be repaired!


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/IMG_0137_zpsscwmodhy.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Bulldozer%20oops_zps0crbebxs.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Dozer_zpssladmjcq.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Dozer%202_zpson92rqlb.jpg
Bulldozers and Earthmovers cleared the trees and scrub from the island. In all 11,000 trees were cleared to make space for the new facilities.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Dozer%20-%20640_zpsyuuzc8ql.jpg
I just had to have a go! Not much to hit, but the biggest piece of kit I've ever driven.


More to come
WT

[Warmtoast]

Part 4

I have to do these in small 'posts' as PPrune only allow 15 photos per post.
WT

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Image10a_zpsnna7577i.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Image27_zpsp8ydtgnw.jpg



http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Kadjan_zpspysj6h3g.gif

Signals staff together with local help from Maldive islanders (who wove the “attap” Kadjan walls and roof) made this original January 1958 Air Traffic Control hut (below).

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/ATC_zpsru78igza.jpg




http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/WT%20Ops_zps6saa4ro3.jpg
Signals trucks were manned by wireless operators who with their direct W/T link to the signals centre in Ceylon kept us in contact with the outside world and with incoming aircraft and ships.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Fuel%20Dump_zpsmfjlhaj0.jpg
February 1958: The fuel dump. Each barrel of aviation fuel held 44-gallons (200 litres) and had to be manhandled and transferred to a bowser to refuel arriving aircraft — 5,000 barrels x 200ltrs = 1 million litres!

More to follow
WT

[MPN11]

Please excuse nit-picking, but this great piece of work deserves to be 100% ;)

You said "... operated two (later three) WW2 LCM (Landing Craft Men) boats ..."

Is that not >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_Craft_Mechanized

[ancientaviator62]

I wonder how the Beverley got to Gan. Via Colombo I suppose.

[brakedwell]

I have many fond memories of Gan after eight years on 99 Sqn Britannias. I was slipping in Gan when it became the Cape Canaveral of the Indian Ocean in the late sixties. British Aerospace, or whatever it was called then, set up shop on the south side of the runway. It was sort of hush hush and we were not welcome in the area, but ISTR there was only one rocket, about 20/30 feet long, mounted on a mobile launch pad, called Blue something, It was Great Britain's contribution to the International Meteorological Year when measuring probes would be launched simultaneously from various points on the globe to collect met data from the edge of space. Blast off was a planned for 1800 local and the countdown was going to relayed over the tannoy system, so the VC10 and Britannia slip crews, armed with an ample supply of beer set up camp outside the Blue Spitoon to watch the firework display. At 1755 the countdown stopped and we waited with bated breath. One hour and several beers later the countdown resumed. The launch was impressive as the bright flame from the rocket disappeared into the clear night sky.
Impressed and feeling quite proud, we all returned to the crew bar to continue with what we were doing before the launch. Around ten-o-clock the Tannoy crackled into life and announced: Due to a technical fault the descent parachute system failed to deploy and our rocket crashed into the ocean 50 miles east of Mauritius with the loss of all data. We were still impressed, but not so proud!

Maldivian workers boats with the Marine Craft Shed in the background ca. 1967/70

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Gan/Looking%20to%20Marinecraft%20unit_zpssjhekl6q.jpg

Various lighters and Marine Craft

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Gan/Gan-view%20towards%20Hitadu_zpscejvtqta.jpg

Over twenty years later the airport ramp at Male felt exactly like Gan

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/sedgwickjames/Gan/Maldives%20Male%20ramp%20from%20OELAT_zpswjm0qvgc.jpg

[Chugalug2]

Thank you for this enjoyable thread, Warmtoast. I'm glad that the unloading of stores got well sorted, especially of the Tennents Lager that it was the task of crews in the Transit Crew Mess to do their best to exhaust. Years of collecting Cigarette Cards and Stamps came into there own in the challenge of building a complete set of the Tennents Girls among the empty cans:-

Tennents Girls (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~beercanologist/cans/Tennents/ten.html)

[Mickj3]

Fantastic thread warmtoast, keep those photographs and memories coming.

MPN11. The three landing craft that were plodding the lagoon in 67/68 were NOT the type shown in the link. I was a Hitaddo hermit at the time and spent quite a bit of time on them.

For those interested Google raf gan remembered.

Thanks Warm toast.

[Torchy]

Great Thread, Warmtoast. I was there for 9 months @1973-4. Your early pics are terrific. For anyone interested, Peter Doling has written a very full and complete history of g
an called "From Port T to RAF Gan".

[MPN11]

Mickj3 ... Defer to your personal experience, but I have never heard the term "Landing Craft Men". Nor has Wikipedia >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_craft

Not worth chewing our gums over, though.

[MG]

There's just been a very brief glimpse of Gan on BBC4 (Britain's Treasure Islands).
Not too sure why he sailed 3 days from Malé, I thought the airport was still operating.

[Warmtoast]

Continued - Part 5


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Image11-%20640_zpswpd5y2rj.jpg
The Mess doubled as the NAAFI in the evening whilst the “Astra” Cinema was outside. If it rained we got wet! The only beer we had was a Dutch brew "Pegasus", it was OK, but don't recollect having drunk it after leaving Gan.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Image10%20-%20640_zps3x0bp2rk.jpg
The outside cinema. Films were flown in from Katunayake (Negombo) regularly, there was no charge, just drag a chair out from the mess, bring a waterproof ground sheet to cover yourself in case it rained, wear "mossie" boots, long sleeve shirt and long trousers to protect oneself from the ferocious mosquitos and enjoy the show.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/BFPO%20180_zpsxh1b9iws.jpg
Bizarrely for the first few months mail for Gan was routed through the Ceylon postal system. This meant we had to pay Ceylon customs duty for any parcels or items of value received from home. Things improved when a British Forces Post Office was established (BFPO 180), and mail was received direct from London without Ceylon being involved in the process. The “Postmaster” was a tall Army (Royal Engineers) corporal who we nicknamed “Lofty”. He’s seen here in front of his post office.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Haircut_zpsezvjjuct.jpg
There was no hairdresser on Gan, but an enterprising Maldivian turned out to be adept as a barber as seen here.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/New%20Kadjan%20Billet_zpslsmsz3e2.jpg
After a month or two living accommodation improved and basic Kadjan-walled blocks were built. They were simple and effective. Lay a concrete base with palm tree trunk uprights set into the concrete to support the corrugated iron roof. Fix joists and bearers across the uprights and fix woven kadjan palm leaves onto the bearers to hang down as walls. They were enormously hot during the day with the heat of the sun radiating off the bare corrugated iron roof (which made a terrible din when it rained), but it was luxury compared to living in a brown tent.


The Visit of Dr Hans Hass in his Schooner "Xarifa"


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Xarifa%20at%20Gan%202_zpszdzit8cs.jpg
When we heard on the grapevine that the renowned diver and oceanographer Dr Hans Hass and his schooner Xarifa was to visit Gan some of the young airmen who hadn’t seen a white woman for months were all agog, mainly because they hoped to catch sight of Lotte, Hans’ glamorous and eye-catching young wife, but unfortunately (for us) she was at home in Vienna having just given birth to their first child together, a girl called Meta (Lotte was his second wife; Hans already had a son by his first wife Hannelore).
Anyway Hans Hass had organised an underwater filming expedition to the Maldives aboard his schooner Xarifa. He made two visits to Gan. On his first he anchored off Gan in Addu Atoll on 21st December 1957 and departed on 27th December 1957. His second visit took place from the 3rd to 8th of February 1958 whilst I was there. During his second visit to Gan he came ashore to talk to an attentive RAF audience about reef diving as can be seen in the photo below.
The result of his filming expedition was 26 30-minute episodes about the underwater life of the Indian Ocean including the Atolls of the Maldives “Travellers Tales: The Undersea World of Adventure” was first shown on the BBC and then on TV around the world between 1959 and 1962.
He later published a book about his Maldives expedition titled “Expedition into the Unknown” (Published by Hutchinson).
On 8th February 1958 he departed north to film further reefs and atolls in the Maldives and afterwards travelled east to dive on the Nicobar Islands, but after difficulties with the Indian authorities (the Indians kept the Nicobar Islands strictly off-limits to foreigners) he went on to Singapore.
Dr Hass arrived in Singapore in October 1958, where he left Xarifa in the care of 37 Water Transport Company of the Royal Army Service Corps (for two years!).
After nine years (1951—1960) as the focal point of his tropical marine research and exploration, Xarifa was sold by Dr Hass in Singapore to an Italian industrialist and it was sailed back to Europe. The vessel is still around, home port Monaco, where she leads the life of a luxury yacht (see below).

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Talking%20to%20airmen%20at%20Gan_zpsyl33u6tk.jpg
February 1958: Dr Hans Hass talking diving to an attentive RAF Gan audience. On Professor Hass’ immediate right is Mr Alex Smith (Air Ministry Works Department) and next to him S/Ldr Roy A Schofield, Commanding Officer RAF Gan 1957 to early 1958.


Below
Contemporary photos of Hans and Lotte on the Xarifa and being interviewed by the BBC.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Hans%20amp%20lotte%201959_1280x838_zpsptwy2drc.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Hans%20amp%20Lotte%20Hass.%20at%20the%20BBC_1280x864_zpsqpez 4ish.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Hans%20amp%20lotte%201953_zps7cchocdu.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Lotte%2080th%20Birthday%20with%20Hans%20amp%20Daughter%20Met a_zpsgpmaeucb.jpg
Dr Hans Hass died in Vienna on 16th June 2013 aged 94. His second wife Lotte died on 15th January 2015 age 86.
They are shown here with daughter Meta (Hass-Raunig) whose birth in Vienna in 1957/58 was the reason why Lotte wasn’t with Hans during his visit to Gan.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Sept%202006%20-%20XARIFA%20at%20Monaco%202_1280x701_zpsna3sk7qr.jpg
In 2006 I was in Monaco on business to check my off-shore accounts (I wish!) and had to see what Xarifa looked like nearly fifty years on — she’s the three-masted yacht in the centre of Monaco harbour (above). In 2006 she looked in considerably better shape than I remember her at Gan in 1958!
Photos taken in Monaco in 2006 below.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/XARIFA%206a_1278x960_zpswgceewxw.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/XARIFA%201_1278x960_zps9ymzux7s.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/XARIFA%205%203_1278x960_zps98gfofom.jpg
With a millionaire owner and based in Monaco "Xarifa" was in remarkably good shape for a schooner that was originally owned by the heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune and later before being bought by Hans Hass served as a coal transporter in Canada during the war ISTR.

More to come


WT

[Danny42C]

Warmtoast,

What a superb photographic record of the early days of the RAF's settlement in Gan ! I've been neglecting this Thread recently in efforts to get on top of the backlog of Posts on "Pilot's Brevet" but now intend to give it the full and undivided attention which it so richly deserves.

First shot out of the locker: what interesting diagrams you show (in your #2) of the "Empire" Air Routes in 1950 and 1960. The importance of Gan sticks out "like a sore thumb" in the 1960 drawing, and it illustrates that Gan was the most southerly of a chain of Indian Ocean islands with the Laccadives at the northern end. As I've said, the Indian Government Tourist Board seems to have been very slow to see the potential of the Laccadives as a tourist destination to compete with the Maldives. But they have an airstrip there now and a resort infrastructure could easily be served by sea from Cochin or Calicut.

And it would be a welcome change from places like Goa, which, by all accounts, has become a sort of Benidorm-sur-Malabar. And nothing can equal the glorious tropical sunsets out over the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. Did you ever see the famed "green flash" at sundown, btw ?

Danny.

[Warmtoast]

Danny42C

Did you ever see the famed "green flash" at sundown, btw ?

Sorry, it doesn't ring a bell with me and I don't recall any green flashes at sundown at Gan.


As regards Indian Ocean airstrips the Nicobar Islands has/had an airstrip at Car Nicobar. Car Nic was a regular refuelling stop for the Changi-based 'Pigs' (Valettas) and RNZAF Bristol Freighters employed on the regular Changi – Negombo (Katunayake, Sri Lanka) run. They routed Changi – RAAF Butterworth (Penang) – Car Nicobar – Negombo, and later when the crushed coral runway had been constructed at Gan, continued down there as part of the Negombo – Gan airbridge, when the frequency was upped to three a week.
I went through Car Nic a few times in 1956 – 1958, refuelling was done by the locally-based Indian Air Force personnel. There was no terminal as such and on arrival pax disembarked and just hung around the aircraft to stretch their legs whilst it was being refuelled, as in the photo below. Once refuelled we were off again ASAP.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Car%20Nicobar/Pig-CarNic1.jpg

[Danny42C]

Warmtoast (#27),
...They were enormously hot during the day with the heat of the sun radiating off the bare corrugated iron roof (which made a terrible din when it rained), but it was luxury compared to living in a brown tent...
True, but why not a woven palm leaf thatch like the Post Office ? Only snag with those, as I recall, was the insect population which dwelt in them, and flopped down from time to time!

Danny.

[Danny42C]

Warmtoast,

It seems to me (and no doubt to others) that this is such a magnificent photographic archive of the RAF's early days in Gan, that besides eventually lodging it with the RAF Museum and/or the IWM, it deserves in the meantime to be offered to a larger readership.

Knowing nothing about the business, or the protocol, I would hazard a guess that the National Geographic Magazine might be very interested. Nobody could argue that the Copyright is not yours.

Just a suggestion, WT, Sir,

Danny.

[Warmtoast]

Danny

Thanks for the kind words. I'll be sending a copy to the RAF Museum and seek their views as to whether further dissemination is an option.

As regards having a woven roof rather than a corrugated iron one on the new temporary accommodation blocks (your #30), I think the contractors had imported enough corrugated iron to build a small town and stuck to the plan to roof with iron, which was probably quicker and easier.

WT

[Warmtoast]

Continued - Part 6


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/From%20Water%20Tower%20-%20640%20pixels_zpsktupcwj1.jpg
As the bulldozers and earth-movers cleared the trees and scrub, Costains the main contractors built a 'batch plant' to crush the coral and sand dredged from the lagoon into aggregate to be mixed with cement to make tons of concrete daily (below).


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Corel%20Crusher_zpsu53yhdbh.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Batch%20Plant_zpscl9r3jub.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/IMG_0147_1280x851_zpsamhcnpxi.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/IMG_0146_zpskmt1rrct.jpg
Construction proceeded apace with the laying down and concreting of the runway and aircraft parking area.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/IMG_0152_zpsl1gw2i9q.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/IMG_0154a_1280x851_zpsiubkueqy.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Coral%20Runway%202_zpsiryszuku.jpg
The new runway takes shape.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Runway%20Construction_zpsmstvyqty.jpg
I took this photo from the top of the temporary 'batch plant' (see above). This view from the top shows the cleared aircraft parking area being laid with concrete. The wooden palettes were originally laden with the hundreds (thousands?) of tons of cement required to make the concrete.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Water%20Tower%20View%202_zps6trdl8nk.jpg
Meanwhile, a permanent water tower had been built and this shows me admiring the view from the top.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Pakistani%20Builders%20-%20640%20pixels_zpsfch46fxl.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/IMG_1257_zpsykiqsrhh.jpg
Pakistani building workers hard at work building the new permanent accommodation blocks.


First Jet to Visit Gan — 12th March 1958

12th March 1958: A Photo Reconnaissance Canberra (PR7) jet of 58 Sqn from RAF Wyton, temporarily based in Singapore and detached to RAF Negombo (Katunayake), Ceylon (Sri Lanka) took survey photos of Addu Atoll on 12th March 1958, aircraft WJ815, Pilot F/O Mudge, navigator F/O Lister. Photo runs were flown at 9,000ft. Although it didn't land this was the first visit of a jet to Gan. The mission report stated that one camera was unserviceable. Survey photos are “© Crown Copyright/MOD”.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2033%20-%2040/Full%20Island%20Photo%20-%20Adjusted%201_zpsjd2iukdb.jpg
12th March 1958, survey photo of the full island. Streaks on the right between the island and outer reef show where sand and coral aggregate was dredged from the sea to make concrete for the runway etc. Photo “© Crown Copyright/MOD”

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2033%20-%2040/Original%20Tented%20Domestic%20Site%20-%20Close-up%20Large_zpshrpk1nlb.jpg
Original tented domestic site is shown including some tents still visible (to the right of the original short WW2 jetty). New buildings are shown too. Concrete laying machinery is at work on the future aircraft parking area / dispersal. Photo “© Crown Copyright/MOD”.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2033%20-%2040/58%20Sqn%20PR7_zpscwqaryuv.jpg
This is the 58 Squadron photo reconnaissance (PR7) Canberra that took the survey photos above. After he’d flown his survey runs at 9,000ft we asked the pilot to do a low fly-past for our cameras, which he did as seen here.

More to come

WT

[Warmtoast]

Continued Part 7


Air Marshal the Earl of Bandon the C-in-C Far East Air Force made his first visit to Gan in May 1958. He’d been appointed C-in-C FEAF on 13th July 1957.

An inspirational leader he was a good listener and never one for ‘officialdom’ and in the evening visited us in the Mess for a beer. He insisted on talking to us without other officers being present and asked what, if any, complaints we had. The main one raised was “why were Gan personnel were not being permitted to take advantage of the R & R indulgence flights to Singapore as laid down in R.A.F. (FEAF) Orders?” Personnel in Ceylon could do so, but those stationed at Gan seemed to have been overlooked.

He said he’d look into the matter on his return. He was PDQ because about two weeks later our complaints were answered and indulgence flights to Ceylon and onwards to Singapore were available and I was one of the many who took advantage of the flights once I’d served the necessary six-months at Gan.

He also insisted on visiting us in our various sections to see how we worked, which included a morning with the Marine Craft unit travelling out to the cargo ships at anchor in the lagoon to study close-up how the MCU coped with off-loading sometimes awkward loads from the vessels.

With this sort of attitude the C-in-C was regarded with a great deal of affection by the men under his command. He was commonly known as “The Abandoned Earl”, or if you really knew him well as “Paddy”.

On another occasion as C-in-C FEAF he opened a new service swimming pool by jumping in fully clothed to declare it open!


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/C-in-C%20FEAF%20visit%202_zpsvwk3rrm5.jpg
Wing Commander Kent, Commanding Officer RAF Gan, is shown here greeting the C-in-C Far East Air Force, Air Marshal the Earl of Bandon on his first visit to Gan in May 1958.

Wg. Cdr Kent took over from Squadron Leader Roy Schofield as commanding officer of R.A.F. Gan in early 1958.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/AOCVisit31_zpsr0al210u.jpg
The C-in-C inspects the ground crew (under the command of Sgt Henry Moon) on his arrival.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/C-in-C%20FEAF%20visit%203_zpspmaqld0u.jpg
The C-in-C meets his men over a beer. A good listener and never one for ‘officialdom’ he sorted out PDQ complaints that Gan personnel were not being allowed to take leave flights to Singapore as allowed by FEAF Orders.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2033%20-%2040/Image16%202_zps6iegbpcm.jpg

About this time the Marine Craft Unit took delivery of a new pinnace — ideal for trips to Villingili (below).


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%20-%2011%20-%2018/Wilingili_zpsa7dmnxtc.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2033%20-%2040/IMG_0134_639x960_zps0frqvapb.jpg
Meteorological Assistant with his balloon for measuring upper winds. It was once tracked to 20,000ft by the theodolite shown below.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2033%20-%2040/IMG_0133_639x960_zpsqhrvdaoi.jpg
About the middle of the year a professional air traffic controller was posted in and in consequence R.A.F. Gan needed its own meteorological assistant who took hourly weather readings and measured the strength and direction of upper winds twice daily with a hydrogen-filled balloon which was tracked with the aid of the theodolite shown.
The readings were passed regularly to the regional weather centre at RAF Katunayake (Negombo) in Sri Lanka for incorporation in their weather forecasts.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/GanAir20021_zpszgsz3znn.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/GanAir2001_zpsbwafldpg.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2033%20-%2040/Gan%20Air%20300_zpsjgnr6tvu.jpg
The aircraft servicing staff were in the habit of defacing the Valettas once they'd reached a significant milestone in the number of flights flown into the island. As seen here they commemorated the 200th and 300th flights appropriately.


WILDLIFE


Only a few species come to mind: Fairy Terns are delightful delicate birds, but numbers declined as the trees were destroyed. Similarly with Flying Foxes (Fruit Bats), both species moved away to other islands as their Gan habitat was destroyed. The only other creatures of note were Palm Beetles — Rhinoceros beetles we called them because of the prominent protuberance on its head that resembled the horn of a rhinoceros. They were nocturnal and attracted to bright lights and the first one knew of their presence was when they thumped into a light bulb and came crashing down — reputedly their mandibles could give a painful nip if your finger touched them, so we treated them with some respect and kept our fingers away from their head if we picked them up.
Land crabs was another creature that infested the island, they looked like marine hermit crabs, but scuttling around and thriving on scraps they found on dry land.
Finally the lagoon teemed with fish of all sorts, from sharks, moray eels down to colourful butterfly fish, but these could only be appreciated when one went swimming with a mask over the coral.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2033%20-%2040/Image5_zpszbgxydze.jpg
Fairy Terns lay their eggs on the branches of a tree — no nest!


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2033%20-%2040/Image1_zpslrgi57wq.jpg
Chicks are dowdy to start with as seen here, but soon develop the beautiful white plumage which makes them such a delight as they flew among the palm trees.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2033%20-%2040/Image2_zpsuxlgvize.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Image6_zpsl4th7jxd.jpg
Fruit bats (Flying foxes). They were everywhere, flapping amongst the palms.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Image4_zpsufddolub.jpg
Palm Beetles — Rhinoceros beetle. Large nocturnal beetles (2-3 ins long), and attracted to bright lights. The first one knew of their presence was when they thumped into a light bulb and came crashing down — reputedly their mandibles could give a painful nip if your finger touched them, so we treated them with some respect and kept our fingers away from their head if we picked them up.

[Danny42C]

Warmtoast,
...About this time the Marine Craft Unit took delivery of a new pinnace...
Just what we needed as an ASR vessel at Cannanore (instead of the Bomb Scow I was offered ! Full story in "Pilot's Brevet" Page 162 # 3222).

We had "Paddy" Bandon as one of our AOCs (221 Gp) in Burma. The stories surrounding him are legion.

Danny.

[Warmtoast]

Continued - Part 8


Leisure & Spare Time Activities

We swam a lot, explored the other islands, had our own football team and personally I was very involved with Amateur Radio as a “HAM” Radio Operator. Being a keen swimmer I was attracted to Gan’s brilliantly clear turquoise water and the coral heads just below the water that teemed with a large variety of brilliantly-coloured fish. Among others Moray eels and the occasional grey reef shark that patrolled the edge of the reef could be seen. Having been primed by advice from Dr Hans Hass that when swimming/diving off the edge of the reef to always carry a broomstick with a sharpened nail at the end to protect oneself from inquisitive sharks — a poke from this would deter most sharks that came too close, or so Dr Hass claimed.
I tried spear fishing and caught a variety of fish that I took along to the cook-house, the cooks particularly appreciated a large Grouper or two which they would cook for our supper. Groupers are large and heavy bottom feeders and easy to spear, but one had to dive deep to spear them and as they were large fish one had to struggle to get them ashore.
According to Dr Hass there was one problem with speared fish — they struggle and their frantic struggling sent out vibrations detectable by nearby sharks that came homing in to the struggling fish as a potential free meal; the danger was that the spear fisherman (me) would be viewed by the shark as a potential free meal too! So one kept a good lookout whilst spear fishing and dragged a struggling speared fish over the reef into the relative safety of the shallows as soon as possible before despatching it with a blow to the head.
Fishing with rods was also popular with the easy to catch land crabs proving to be ideal bait on the hooks.
Visiting other islands was interesting and Fedu in particular was popular as we could, like the locals, wade across to the island. However, Hittadu, the site of the future Signals Centre was further away, and only reachable by the R.A.F. motor pinnace or by sail in a local dhoni.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image16_zpsvwu5w61x.jpg
Visiting Fedu.
As the Gan - Fedu causeway had deteriorated (wooden planking had been removed by the locals and used as firewood following the departure of the RAF after WWII), the only way across was by wading as seen here. This was standard practice for the locals living at Fedu who worked at Gan and they too can be seen in this photo.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image3_zps86ktpljy.jpg
Swimming was gorgeous

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image4_zps0pbn3vfg.jpg
We had our own football team and played against teams from visiting ships and sometimes teams were flown in from Katunayake (Negombo) and elsewhere

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image5_zpsfdl02gp5.jpg
The pitch was coral sand, not ideal but OK


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image6_zpsuuos2fmu.jpg
Visits to other islands in the atoll such as Villingili (below) were possible using the R.A.F. Pinnace


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image7_zpsquhfw7gx.jpg
Villingili


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image17_zpsslp3cv4z.jpg
I tried spear fishing and caught a variety of fish (this one was not one of the more desirable and edible Groupers mentioned above)


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image8_zpsqrcfzeke.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image9_zpsdotgbg5h.jpg
Personnel stationed at Gan in the early days had a variety of talents that they used to entertain us as seen here in front of the outdoor cinema screen, the piano was supplied by the R.A.F., but who supplied the drum kit I have no idea.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image12_zpsdaevzfym.jpg
Farewell parties when someone returned home to the UK could be pretty lively events with way too much drink being consumed as seen here at my farewell party in November 1958.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image14_zpsznu3uvov.jpg
The interior of our kadjan-walled barrack hut with colleagues from the Signals Section

[Danny42C]

Warmtoast,

And you got paid for this, as well ?

Danny.

[Warmtoast]

Danny - indeed we did - money for old rope - easy, but couldn't wait get home.


WT

[ancientaviator62]

Warmtoast,
I seem to remember that some RAF recruiting adverts used to feature Gan as 'the RAF's own island in the sun'. Those were the days.
When the RAF pulled I was convinced some UK holiday firm would take it over.
I wonder why they did not.

[Basil]

Warmtoast, Not, perchance, Bruno of CotSAC?

[Nugget90]

Between October 1970 and October 1973 I flew VC10s through Gan en route from Brize Norton (via Bahrain) to Singapore and Hong Kong, then home via Gan and Akrotiri. When outbound, Gan was a ninety-minute stop for refuelling with the same crew continuing eastbound, but on the way home we spent two or three days on the island.

Amongst the memories I have of these visits, the most enduring was the silence that we enjoyed in the early days when outboard engines were banned from use, meaning that the Maldivian workers rowed across the lagoon, coming to work in the morning and returning at dusk. Then, it was for me the most peaceful place on earth! Later, when permission to use outboard engines was permitted, the droning noise persisted all day long and that wonderful peace was broken.

When landing VC10s at Gan I had always to remember that the runway was narrower than almost anywhere else, and so the perspective on crossing the threshold was that we were higher above the surface than was actually the case. To forget this, meaning that the roundout was later than it should have been, resulted in a firmer touchdown (aka a hard landing) than we aimed for! Incidentally, at Brize Norton the flight simulator used a three-dimensional wall-mounted map of Gan that, coupled with a camera and associated screen, enabled pilots undergoing refresher training to practice emergencies such as engine failures on takeoff. On such occasions, the first engine would be 'failed' just after passing V1 (no longer sufficient runway on which to stop) and the second engine at Rotate, for which the speed would be achieved further towards the end of the runway than normal. The climb out would then have to be very, very gentle whilst raising the gear and flaps and jettisoning fuel down to a weight at which the pilot could begin a turn back towards the island to be followed by a two-engined landing.

On the way home, our passengers would be taken by bus to the Transit Lounge where we, the whole crew that is, would follow. Whilst they would be able to stretch their legs and get a drink, we would obtain jugs of beer and - a special treat, this - fried chickens to divide up amongst us! Some 20 minutes or so after we had reached the lounge the passengers would be called back to their buses, the new crew would be ready to receive them on board, and shortly afterwards the VC10 would roar off into the night sky. I remember one occasion when one of the passengers who knew a member of the crew joined us for our beer and chicken, and missed the call to get back on board his bus. As the aircraft took off he said words to the effect of, 'I didn't see a second VC10 on the pan: is it often as busy as this?' There was no way out until the next aircraft came through.

Also on one occasion whilst I was there a Britannia came through from Singapore. As these aircraft were slower than the 10s their crews stayed with them - and their passengers. On this occasion the passengers were all, it was said, Navy wives who were being returned home for being 'naughty' (whatever that meant). You can imagine that the presence on the island of a number of young women was greatly appreciated by those who were based there, and I understand that a great time was had by the latter. As our VC10 crews often/usually included female cabin crew, our visits to the cinema were generally very warmly welcomed!

There were only two little niggles I had about our flights through Gan. One was the insistence by our commanders in the UK that we had to wear uniforms that accorded with what the 'locals' were required to wear. This meant that we VC10 crews had to wear No 1 blue uniforms out of Brize Norton and carry tropical uniforms, both short sleeves/short trousers and long sleeves/long trousers to wear when departing en route stations. What a nonsense this was, and how heavy our luggage! The second was that in order that passengers leaving Singapore and Hong Kong could do so at an hour that suited their Air Movements personnel, we had to depart from Brize Norton at midnight. This meant that we had to check in three hours beforehand (for the Navigator to draw up his charts). Our stopover at Bahrain was 26 hours - a period that the UK CAA has said should be avoided (anything between 18 and 30 hours) - meaning that it was all but impossible to get a decent period of rest (i.e. two periods of eight hours sleep) before departing for Gan and the stations further East. On my first two flights to the Asian destinations after completing my co-pilot course, after refuelling at Gan each Captain fell asleep at the controls before reaching top-of-climb and without handing over to me. I found it a real struggle to stay awake for the four hours or so this took us to reach Singapore (RAF Changi).

It wasn't, of course, always sunny at Gan, and many of our landings were carried out in heavy rain when the blurry glow of the runway lights viewed through the windscreen was most welcome. However, it is the good things that stay foremost in mind, and I recall with pleasure the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises so often seen from Gan. Happy memories!

[Warmtoast]

Basil

Warmtoast, Not, perchance, Bruno of CotSAC?

Nope - not me.

WT

[Shackman]

Nugget 99 - I'm surprised you could 'hear' the silence over the noise of the air conditioning in the VC10 crew only accomodation (the only aircon on the island in the early 70's).

[Fareastdriver]

Paid for by Bomber Command for V force crews, apparently.

[ian16th]

Nugget 99 - I'm surprised you could 'hear' the silence over the noise of the air conditioning in the VC10 crew only accomodation (the only aircon on the island in the early 70's). In 1960-61, the Electronics Centre was air conditioned. For the benefit of the electons, not the 'umans.

I spent time up the rear hatch of a Valiant, working up a sweat, and then carrying the removed kit into the Electronics Centre, to be hit by the icy blast of the air con.

Bl**dy freezing it were.

[MPN11]

Ah, aircon ... like the new Officers Mess wing at Tengah, intended for V-Bomber crews. But fortunately the rest of us managed to occupy it. Two floors of 48 (? ... ISTR I was in 47) rooms in total, with a central system than ran cold air and noise h-24 through the ducts.

[DON T]

Remember sitting in the Astra cinema one night about six rows from the front. There was a gannite in front of me who faced the screen and never turned around until he shouted out 'There's a woman in here somewhere.' Sure enough a female loadmaster off a VC10 had just taken her seat at the rear of the cinema. Happy days. Spot the dog and regular features of the Lonely Men of Coral Command.

[goudie]

Navy wives who were being returned home for being 'naughty'

'Time' magazine published an article about RAF Gan in the late '60's.
It mentioned the fact that there were no women on the island apart from a middle aged WVS lady.
It also told the story of the corporal who, having had a 'quickie' behind the 'Blue Lagoon' with one such 'naughty wife', discovered he had caught a dose. Apparently he was carried shoulder high to sick quarters every morning, by his colleagues, to have his injection!

[uffington sb]

DON T.

Spot the dog, siggy siggy siggy, and all the other squadron/section slides all came with plenty of noise from the assembled audience apart from a slide featuring a gorilla, which was always met with silence.
No one had any idea which section it was. I found out just before I left Gan that it was us, ATC/Ops!!!
And not forgetting 'Shut the shop'.
There was talk of BCal taking over the place as a holiday destination, we all thought who'd want to come all this way on holiday!!!

Happy days.

Uffers ex Gannite

[Shackman]

Goudie,

It wasn't Time, it was the Illustrated London News, with a picture of Gan taken from (of course) a Shack on the front page. I still have my copy, but it's too big for my scanner to reproduce, but if I can get around the problem I'll post it here as well

[goudie]

Shackman, not sure if it was the same article but I'm certain I read it in 'Time'.
Perhaps the article was syndicated.

[Brian 48nav]

Like you I hated this business of carrying both sets of uniforms and on the Herc of course we had to wear flying suits. I can recall in January '72 there was a panic on - all the standby crews were called out and instructed to carry blue and KD. A VC10 came from Brize to pick the 60 of us up and then took us to Santa Maria in the Azores. The idiots on high knew where we were going and could easily have said no blues needed as we were bound ultimately for Belize.

In my time ( 67 - 73 ), the only time Herc' crews reported 3 hours before departure was going across the North Atlantic as we didn't know what the track would be. For anywhere else, including Bahrain, it was an hour and a half. Also of course we had standard nav' logs drawn up for the 'trunk routes'.

Sorry for the thread drift folks!

[goofer3]

Gan, 1964 or 1965.

http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae294/goofer33/Gan%20800_zpsmkzfmflm.jpg

[Danny42C]

goofer3,

Probably a stupid question, but what are the "glider-form" objects at the SE tip of the island, adjacent to the jetty ?

Exactly in alignment - solar panels ?

Danny.

[vmv2]

Solar panels? I would guess they are accommodation huts.

[goofer3]

Maybe to give some idea of scale, bottom left of the apron is a 4 prop taildragger so possibly a Hastings.

[Shackman]

Bottom right hand corner (actually NW) Officers' Mess, then accommodation huts and other Messes, cinema etc. Suspect tail dragger is the resident SAR Shackleton.

[GlobalNav]

Some of the buildings, same shape, still seem to appear in the Google Earth view

[Warmtoast]

Continued - Part 8

RAF Gan - Amateur Radio


In April 1958 Cpl. Barry Bonser the RAF Far East travelling radio trouble-shooter from RAF Seletar in Singapore arrived in Gan to install and service some ground-based radio equipment. As a licensed radio amateur he took the opportunity to get the Maldives on the air by bringing with him an amateur bands transmitter and a receiver.
In 1958 in the amateur radio world the Maldives was a ’new country’ i.e. it had not before had a licensed operator operating an amateur radio station, and as such contacts with Barry were much sought after — in the ‘Ham’ world the more contacts you make, the higher your status. Being a Singapore licensed Ham, Barry was able to use his Singapore callsign with the Maldives suffix VS9, which made his operating in the Maldives legal. He operated as VS1BB/VS9 (Barry’s Singapore callsign with the suffix VS9 for operation in the Maldives) and was overwhelmed with contacts from around the world. In amateur radio terms Barry’s visit was a resounding success with well over 1,000 contacts being made with fellow radio amateurs during his short visit.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/Gan751_zpshggzibgf.jpg
Barry (right), me (left).

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/Gan761_zpsqx52ji3l.jpg


As a radio operator myself I was keen to help and make Barry Bonser’s amateur radio activities at Gan a success and helped him as much as possible. Whilst he was at Gan, I together with another Ham operator (Sgt Don Tranmer) discussed with Barry the possibility of being ’gifted’ from his contacts in the States a suitable transmitter and receiver to establish an R.A.F. Amateur radio club (station) at Gan. Barry was able to arrange for an AR88 radio receiver and a Heathkit 50-watt CW and AM radio transmitter to be donated to Gan for use by R.A.F. radio amateurs as an R.A.F. amateur radio club station. However, there was one small snag — we couldn’t use this equipment until we had been allocated an official Maldive Islands callsign.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/Gan771_zpshri24jgq.jpg
Me operating as VS9MA — July 1958. AR88 radio receiver on the left, Heathkit CW (Morse code) and AM (voice) transmitter on the right and an antenna tuning unit on top of the transmitter. By present day standards primitive, but at the time top class equipment.


With considerable difficulty and following constant reminders (at our instigation), from the Officer Commanding RAF Gan, around June/July 1958 Mr Didi the Maldivian government representative on Gan finally received permission from the capital Male for the use of callsign VS9MA as the radio callsign for the RAF Gan amateur radio club. With this permission we started operating.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/Gan781_zpsh4mh3l6o.jpg
Operating VS9MA with Sgt. Don Tranmer (background). We were the first operators of the R.A.F. Gan Amateur radio club station callsign VS9MA. When making voice contacts we would sometimes hold the microphone by the window to broadcast the sound of breaking waves, being only 6ft away from the water this was easy to do and made our contacts very envious! - below


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/Image3_zpshegsbfj9.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/VS9MA%20QSL%20Card_zpsyp04qsv2.jpg
One of the prized VS9MA QSL cards which was sent out to confirm a contact with another amateur radio station, in this case G6GH in the UK on 24th July 1958. Operator’s name ‘Don’ (Tranmer). It showed the contact was on 21MHz with a transmitter power of 50 watts into a Long Wire antenna.

[Warmtoast]

Danny

Probably a stupid question, but what are the "glider-form" objects at the SE tip of the island, adjacent to the jetty

See my post #33 bottom picture

[uffington sb]

ATC/Ops and Movers lived in BB60 which was the first one of the three nearest the runway.
It was strange how you got used to four mighty Conway engines spooling up just yards from you at 04:00'ish, with only a prefab building and no glass in the windows between you and them. Your whole body would shake, but after a few weeks, you'd get used to it and sleep on.

[CoffmanStarter]

Warmtoast .... Brilliant !

I have a feelining AA62 is going to become all misty eyed seeing those QSL Cards ;)

[goofer3]

Shackman. Tried to blow it up a bit to see if it helps on ID.

http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae294/goofer33/Gan%202_zpssbsnl8qz.jpg

[Shackman]

Certainly looks like it. One crew out from 205 Sqn at Changi for 2 weeks in every 20, 20mins readiness 24/7, covering the whole Indian Ocean. Ostensibly for Transport Command movements, but it could be used for any emergency in what was (had become?) our area of responsibility.

[ancientaviator62]

Warmtoast,
as Coff rightly points out I do like your Amateur Radio pics and the QSL cards. Never operated from Gan but used to from Masirah until some clod worked Israel and got the radio station sin binned for a while.
When the Shacks of 205 were hard pressed we used to do SAR standby at Gan with the Hercules from 48 at Changi.

[Danny42C]

Warmtoast (your #60),

goofer3's #53 is the best pic of the things I mean. Assuming the photo to be correctly oriented (which I understand, it is not), then they are at the SE corner.

Have had a good look at your pics Nos. 13 & 14 on your #33, and goofer3's #63 (the Hastings [?] near the oil [?] storage tanks), but they are much further away along the coast to the left.

Nothing I see on any of the structures on other pics remotely resembles accommodation buildings with a plan like these, but if that is what you say they are, then of course it is so. But why align them with such mathematical precision ?

Puzzled, Danny.

[Danny42C]

Warmtoast (your #59),

Another visual feast ! Of course, a "ham" radio station would be a perfect way of spending spare time which might otherwise hang heavy on your hands; you have all the skills and you seem to have set up a very professional outfit indeed - congratulations !

One thing troubles me: pic 3 shows a "Pyrene" type fire extinguisher on the wall. These are carbon tetrachloride devices, and were supposed to have been withdrawn in the '50s because the vapour is highly toxic. Still, where you were, adequate ventilation would be no problem.

It is most useful stuff, as it will clean almost everything (including the residue from Sellotape), but it dissolves plastic, so it is no use trying to keep it in a plastic bottle !

Cheers, Danny.

[MPN11]

"The Buildings" ... as GlobalNav noted earlier, some are still visible on Google Earth. Zooming in shows no trace of a footpath to the short extensions [my first thought was some sort of entrance porch], so I would surmise they're the ablutions associated with the accommodation block. Sadly there are no decent images pre-2005 using the 'time-line' imagery on GE.

And of course they were laid out neatly - this is post-War work, with no need to distribute randomly in case of air raids :)
Laying drains and other utilities would also be easier in straight lines, I suspect.

[uffington sb]

Danny.

The photo in Goofers post is upside down. The accommodation blocks were on the NW of the island.
In '75 there wasn't any resident or detached ASR there, just the MCU.
A local dhoni went missing, and a transiting Herc was pressed into service. I went up in it on a search mission looking for the boat. Para doors open an leaning out. There was a Caribou engine on a pallet IIRC , but we never found the boat.
Strangely there was always a Nimrod there when a Royal went out to the Far East. I got a trip in one and went and did an approach to Diego Garcia.

[uffington sb]

MPN11.
Yes those stubs half way down the 'wings' were indeed the ablutions.
It was always a good idea to lift the seat with your foot and drop it a foot or so to get rid of any cockroaches that had a habit of lurking under the rim/seat. These were big buggahs, about 2 inches long, and could shift and even fly.
We never had any problem with mosquitos as after it rained, a little Maldivian guy would spray puddles with a paraffin mixture, and every week he would come round with a back pack machine that gave out clouds of blue/white smoke. If you were in trap one after a curry the night before, even despite your protestations, he'd stick it under the door so you got a face full!!!

[Danny42C]

uffington sb,
...These were big buggahs, about 2 inches long, and could shift and even fly....
Geriaviator in his boyhood recollections of Khormaksar, # relates how there were small land crabs which kept the cockroaches under control. Did you have anything like that in Gan ?

(# On "Gaining a RAF Pilot's Brevet" Thread - read Page 178 #3558 if you really want a good laugh !)

Danny.

[JW411]

Danny42C:

We were still using neat CTC to clean the chinagraph off the ops (perspex) boards in the 1970s. We used gallons of it and nobody told us it was dangerous. I can also remember using neat toluene to get exhaust stains off cowlings. How I got to celebrate my 75th birthday is difficult to understand!

[Fareastdriver]

Think of all the luminous instruments we were fooling about with.

[uffington sb]

Danny,

I can't recall any land crabs, but there were fairly large lizards with none to keen eyesight. If you saw one running towards you, you did a quick sidestep other wise they'd end up in your shorts.
Although I was the flight planning clerk working the usual Monday to Saturday routine, I filled in for the tower guys when they were sick or on leave.
At night there was just one assistant on duty, and we would adopt a relaxed posture on the camp bed and turn the lights out. After a few minutes you could hear the rustling noise of the critters. On with the lights and whack whack whack with a rolled up newspaper. We used to keep a score of how many we got!!
We would get a Springbok call up every night bound (I think for HKG) Springbok 247 and 248 on the way back.
One night some jolly japer called up hours out while I was still alone, with one of those ghostly laughing recordings. I nearly cr*pped myself.
Funny thing was, I got so used to the 10 taking off at 04:00 I would sleep through it, but wake up if it didn't come in.

[harrym]

Nugget90 - your#41

Thank you for stirring the memory cells! Two things I particularly remember about Gan: (1) those hot, still nights and an aircraft loaded with fuel & payload to the last lb of its AUW for that long drag up towards Masirah, over Iran and Turkey to destination Akrotiri – V1 seemed to take an age to come up with not over-much stopping room left, and then how at lift-off one was immediately plunged into a totally dark environment as we climbed away over the water. (2) you mention post-flight fried chicken but my recall is of bangers & chips, a match made in heaven with a cold beer or two (or more!)

Re uniform this was something the shiny element of the transport force never got right, for to the best of my knowledge it was the only flight organisation in the entire world that required its crews to buy their dress out of their own pockets (and no allowance for it) – I refer to tropical uniform, although of course for officers the no.1 blue was also a 'private' purchase – a most convenient arrangement for HM Treasury! Visiting international airports in the superb VC10 it was good to meet the 707s and suchlike on equal terms, but I always felt sadly let down by our rumpled, dowdy KD – what high-up goon thought this to be suitable wear in the late 20C for those tasked with upholding the honour and prestige of her Majesty's Royal Air Force?

[MPN11]

FED ... the old GCA truck (of fond memory) had many dozens of luminous buttons and switches and text everywhere, together with a UV lamp on a bungee cord at each of the 3 control positions to wave around to wake them up. In my day we all wore dosimeter tags, replaced and sent to SHQ at regular intervals. However, I no longer glow in the dark, and it didn't seem to affect my reproductive abilities.

[The Oberon]

Danny42C:

We were still using neat CTC to clean the chinagraph off the ops (perspex) boards in the 1970s. We used gallons of it and nobody told us it was dangerous. I can also remember using neat toluene to get exhaust stains off cowlings. How I got to celebrate my 75th birthday is difficult to understand!
This is one I struggle with, around the same time, I was using CTC for cleaning and getting grease out of my hairy battle dress. I was soldering with pliers in my left hand, the iron in my right and the lead based solder in my mouth. A few years earlier, I had been covered in bleach burns due to HTP leaks. 3 score and 10 this year, I don't know how I made it.

[goofer3]

Sorry for the confusion gentlemen, here it is the the right way.

http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/ae294/goofer33/Gan%20800%20N_zpsr1tqpokw.jpg

[MPN11]

ATC had a small industry of AATC's cleaning perspex totes and GCA plaques ... I was just glad someone else did it! No idea what they used, but it was in small red 250 tins [or Imperial equivalent]

We used to have "Cloths, Cleaning" to wipe radar tubes etc. My contribution to the Defence Budget as a SATCO was to suggest to my SNCO Admin that instead of binning them when filthy, they might be laundered. He complied, somehow, probably at his own expense ... because Dave was like that.

[MPN11]

goofer3 ... NP, many [but not all] of us can read maps and radar tubes upside down :)

[goofer3]

We used to have to read and write upside down and back to front...

[Danny42C]

MPN11

Good ad hoc chinagraph remover: rag + spit + cigarette ash.

You actually had dosimeters ? - Jammy !

Danny

[Warmtoast]

Danny


Re Land Crabs. Gan absolutely teemed with them. Crushed by a stone the shell's contents were irresistible to fish and were ideal bait for rod fishermen.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2019%20-32/Hermit%20Land%20Crab_zpsmuttcly2.jpg

[Wander00]

Goofer 3 - useful skill - meant you could read what the boss had written on your ACR, not what he said he had written

[MPN11]

Danny42C ... cigarette ash was indeed an efficient eraser of chinagraph. And, of course, in the average Tower there was a plentiful supply [back then].

[Basil]

Recollect on a day off on Gan:

Nav 1: "Hey, Bas, I'm going snorkelling to film sharks, do you want to come?"
Bas: "Well, er, SNORKELLING with sharks, not SCUBA you say."
Nav1: "Well, Nav 2 is going!"
Bas: "Oh, well, OK."

Shortly afterwards heard from along corridor: "Well, Bas is going!"

Later:

Find shark - formation dive with Nav 1 filming - shark flicks off into the deep blue.
On surface Nav 2 (sensibly) says he's had enough and is RTB whilst Nav 1 & Bas remain.

Subsequently heard that, on way back, Nav 2 saw fish head looking out of hole in coral and dived towards it. 'Fish' came out to greet Nav 2 followed by very long body. Nav 2 had met his first Moray :E

[Basil]

JW411 & The Oberon, As ex apprentice eng and seagoing marine eng before RAF I concur.
I sometimes go on about excessive elfin safety but they do have a point cf some of the risks we unknowingly took.
About '57 we used Trichloroethylene (Sp?) for degreasing at the bench straight from the can. Many years later I noticed that it should be used in a box with an extractor fan running. I've a can in my workshop but always open the door and windows when I'm using it now.

[ian16th]

On the CTC sub-thread.

In the radio trades we used CTC to clean the mess from equipment when oil filled capacitors and transformers burst.

During the period Oct 62 to Oct 64, while I was in the Akrotiri Electronics Centre, it suddenly became forbidden and we had to use unleaded petrol.

Unleaded petrol didn't work! It didn't clean, it just diluted the oil and left a greasy residue.

[Fareastdriver]

We used to have to read and write upside down and back to front...

A job I had as a yoof was with the Bulawayo Chronicle in the advertising department. One of my duties was to proof read the adverts on the slab before the flong was moulded for the page. It was all in lead type, either hand placed or strips of Linotype. One read it from the top, upside down, backwards, the wrong way round and upwards to the bottom.

Slab: The paged size frame on a slate bench that the type was set into.

Flong: A fibre sheet that was pressed onto the type to produced a casting face. The page was cast from it and bent to suit the printing rollers.

Linotype: A machine that had an ABC keyboard and dropped casting letters so that a strip of type could be cast from them. The typecasts used to clatter down a chute all the time they were being operated.

[Stanwell]

Thanks for that picture of one of your previously-mentioned 'land crabs', Warmtoast.
I'd been wondering just what type you had over there at Gan.

That's a Terrestrial Hermit Crab.
Here, called sand crabs, they can be bought in pet shops and are reputed to be intelligent, friendly and clean.
There's a local pub in Sydney (The Friend in Hand) that keeps a dozen or so in a large aquarium-type tank.
Every Wednesday is "Crab-Racing Night" (Great Prizes to be Won!) - and it's a real hoot!

Anyway, on the question of their intelligence, I'd turned up something that military types would identify with - the "Vacancy Chain".

As you'd probably know, hermit crabs adopt second-hand sea shells as a portable means of shelter and protection.
To save taxing my limited brain cells too much, I'll just quote a couple of excerpts from Wiki:

"As hermit crabs grow, they require larger shells. Since suitable intact gastropod shells are sometimes a limited resource, vigorous competition often occurs among crabs for shells.
Several hermit crab species, both terrestrial and marine, have been observed forming a "vacancy chain" to exchange shells.
When an individual crab finds a new empty shell, it will leave its own shell and inspect the vacant shell for size. If the shell is found to be too large, the crab then goes back to its own shell and waits by the vacant shell for anything up to eight hours."

Now, here's the interesting bit...
"As new crabs arrive, they also inspect the shell and, if it is too big, wait with the others, forming a group of up to 20 individuals,
... holding onto each other in a line from the largest to the smallest crab.
As soon as a crab arrives that is the right size for the vacant shell and claims it, leaving its old shell vacant, then all the crabs in the queue swiftly exchange shells in sequence, each one moving up to the next size."


Sounds a bit better organised than what I've experienced around the 'Quartermaster's Stores' and elsewhere.

[uffington sb]

HI can't recall seeing many of those crabs, the island certainly wasn't teeming with them, probably because the early Gannites smashed them with stones and used them for bait!
Also, the mpbw dug up most of the palm/coconut trees and planted non native trees like pine, which the crabs didn't like to nest in, the roots that is, not the branches.
Warmtoast. It wasn't the palmed treed tropical island when I was there, but there were a few coconut trees by the Marine Bar IIRC.

[thunderbird7]

I'd just like to say, this is one of the most enjoyable threads I've read on here for years. Having heard so many tales of these places from the 'senior' chaps on the squadron when I joined, its nice to see they weren't just making it up!! I think things really were better 'back in the old days'!! Thanks for the stories and the excellent pics.

[Dougie M]

The crabs in Gan may have been few and far between but a little further over the Indian Ocean the ones in Diego Garcia were definitely unfriendly. On my first trip there where we slept in yellow sheets on bunk beds and the walls never reached the ground courtesy of the U.S. Navy. We had a heavy night in "The Ship" the Brit run Pub which was the only source of serious drink on the Atoll. Our R.N. mates advised us against leaving toes, fingers or soft dangly bits hanging over the side of the bed because of nightly marauding land crabs. "Switch the light on before stepping out of your pit" they said. I was on the top bunk but at Oh Christ o'clock when the Co in the bottom bunk needed a wazz he leapt at the light switch on the wall from his pit and the din accompanied by a stream of profanity when the fluorescent light tube inches from my head burst into life woke all the block. I preferred Gan myself.

[Warmtoast]

Continued - Part 9

RAF Gan - Mementoes and Souvenirs

There wasn’t much in the way of trinkets or souvenirs to bring back from Gan apart from coral or sea shells and one item that I particularly admired, which was a sheath knife made locally. According to what I was told the metal blade of the knife was made from steel salvaged from the military vehicles and equipment abandoned on the Atoll at the end of WWII.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/Sheath%20Knife%201_zpsmzgdu18x.jpg
“Made in Hitadu” Sheath knife and Scabbard. The knife is wickedly sharp.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/Sheath%20Knife%20Scabbard%20-%20Copy_zpsfnhpxpkg.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/Sheath%20Knife%20-%20Made%20in%20Hitadu_zpsosf8yhmx.jpg
Close-up of the “Made in Hitadu” stamp on the knife blade


Shells were purchased/traded from the local Maldive Islanders, normally in exchange for cigarettes. I don’t recall the going rate for a Cowrie shell, but it wasn’t much, just a few cigarettes. I also broke off a small Coral head or two that I brought back with me but they have long since been lost.
The knife I still have, the coral has long gone as have most of the sea shells, but I still have a couple as shown below.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/Gan%20Sea%20Shells_zpsnhrrdeqd.jpg

During my recent trip to the Maldives I noted the large signs displayed prominently in the airport departure halls that it was a serious offence to export from the Maldives without a special licence coral heads and sea shells - presumably they've been plundered to extinction!

[Warmtoast]

Continued - Part 10

RAF Gan and Atomic Testing - 1958

Was Gan Affected by Nuclear Tests in 1958?
…well Yes ….and No

Nuclear Explosion Effects on HF Communications
As a VHF/DF radio operator I was based at R.A.F. Gan in the Maldives from January to November 1958. Gan had two HF/WT (Morse-code) circuits for connection to the outside world: an “Admin” circuit to RAF Katunayake (Negombo) Sri Lanka (Ceylon) for routine matters and an “Ops” circuit for communication with aircraft / ships etc on their way to and from the island.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/WT%20Ops_zpszfvzfckg.jpg
R.A.F. Gan wireless operators working the “Admin” and “Operational” HF/WT Morse code circuits to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1958.

Most times HF/WT comms worked well except for the occasion in late-August and early-September 1958 when contact with Ceylon was lost for a couple of days. This resulted from Operation Argus, the secret detonation by the Americans between 27th August 1958 and 6th September 1958 of three low yield nuclear warheads in the upper atmosphere over the South Atlantic to assess whether very high-altitude nuclear detonations could interfere with the magnetosphere and the Van Allen radiation belts and if such blasts would affect long-range high-frequency radio communications — in the event as far as R.A.F. Gan was concerned these detonations did so — and badly!

Background
Over the years from the first A-Bomb test in the United States in July 1945 well over 1,000 nuclear weapons were detonated mainly in the atmosphere.
After a slow build-up, the United States and Soviet Union together with the United Kingdom routinely held atmospheric nuclear tests; between 1953 and 1958, the United States, Soviet Union and the United Kingdom, held a total of 231 nuclear atmospheric tests. So testing was quite routine, but all was to change at the end of 1958 as the big powers decided that a temporary ban on nuclear testing would be imposed, but the USA wanted to test a couple of weapons before any test ban came into operation and so Operation Argus was born.

Operation Argus
Operation Argus was a series of three high-altitude nuclear tests conducted by the United States Atomic Energy Commission in the South Atlantic Ocean in August and September 1958. The results of Operation Argus proved the validity of the Christofilos theory.
This theory proposed that a radiation belt is created in the upper regions of the Earth’s atmosphere by high-altitude detonations. The radiation belt affects radio and radar transmissions, damages or destroys the arming and fusing mechanisms of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile warheads, and endangers crews of orbiting space vehicles that might enter the belt.
The tests, conducted in complete secrecy, were not announced until the following year. Low-yield devices were carried to an altitude of approximately 300 miles by rockets before being detonated.
More than 4,500 military personnel and civilian scientists participated in the test operation.
All three shots were launched by a specially modified Lockheed X-17A three-stage missile fired from the USS Norton Sound.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/Nuclear%20Test_zpsy4yw8l5z.jpg
After effects of W-25 Nuclear warhead detonation

Operation Argus from Published Sources
The three Argus tests with their W-25 nuclear warheads were detonated at high-altitude. Argus 1 was launched on Wednesday, 27th August 1958 and detonated at a height of 124 miles (200 km), Argus II on Saturday, 30th August 1958 and detonated at a height of 159 miles (256 km) and finally Argus III on Saturday, 6th September 1958 detonated at a height of 335 miles (539 km) — perhaps the highest nuclear explosion ever.
A total of nine (9) United States Navy ships participated in Operation Argus. Each ship left port separately with no knowledge of the others. Collectively known as Task Force 88 (TF-88), these ships came together for the first time at the Operation Argus South Atlantic test location in August of 1958. The missile launching ship for Operation Argus was the USS Norton Sound. Approximately 4,500 individuals participated in Operation Argus with the entire effort classified as Secret. The secret was well kept as it was only in the following year (1959) that the New York Times broke the story of this closely guarded secret test series.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2041%20-%2050/Argus%20Test%20-%20Lockheed%20X-17A%20three-stage%20missile%20_zpsv54dj74k.jpg
The three Argus test warheads were launched in specially modified Lockheed X-17A three-stage missiles fired from the USS Norton Sound. The W-25 nuclear warhead was 27-inches long, 17-inches in diameter and weighed 220lbs (100kg). It is contained in the bulge at the top of the X-17A missile shown here ready for launching.

Problems at Gan
The absence of communications at RAF Gan caused a major upset as we didn’t know what was going on and with no reliable communications to the outside world we were totally in the dark! Shortly afterwards communications with the outside world returned to normal and as far as I can recall there was never an “official” explanation as to what had caused the communications blackout.
At the time I was one of the two operators who operated the RAF Gan amateur radio station VS9MA and communications on the amateur radio bands in the southern hemisphere were badly affected too. When things returned to normal there was much speculation by amateur radio operators on the HAM bands as to the cause of this major disruption, most theories centring on unusual solar activity being the culprit as abnormal solar activity is a known and regular disrupter of high-frequency radio communications.
With no other explanation, this theory afforded a plausible explanation of the event until it was finally reported a year later that the detonation of nuclear warheads in space was the real cause of the radio black-out.

[Danny42C]

Warmtoast,

Fascinating ! I remember that my Dad, who had been in Nigeria in the early 1900s, brought a whole lot of cowrie shells home as souveniers. They were used as a form of currency there, he said. They were all very small, as I recall - around 1cm long.
...The radiation belt affects radio and radar transmissions, damages or destroys the arming and fusing mechanisms of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile warheads...
Pity the effect is so transient, as otherwise we would seem to have a good defence against nuclear attack ! (but then, I suppose, a way would soon be found to shield these vital parts from the radiation belt).

Danny.

[pkam]

I wonder if anyone has any gen on the Victor parked on the pan on Gan when arrived in 1966 and I think still there when I left? I was told it was the victim of an electricl fire in the bomb bay due to excess baggage en route to the UK. Great thread, lots of things come back to mind, must search the attic for the copies of the GIP up there somewhere.

[Warmtoast]

Danny

Pity the effect is so transient, as otherwise we would seem to have a good defence against nuclear attack ! (but then, I suppose, a way would soon be found to shield these vital parts from the radiation belt).

The US followed-up the ARGUS tests by a couple more tests (ORANGE and TEAK) at a lower altitude and later in 1962 a much more ambitious test "STARFISH PRIME" was detonated. The design yield was 1.4 megatons, but STARFISH was bungled and its electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is reputed to have knocked out several satellites in low Earth orbit and caused damage to several others including the UK's first satellite, Ariel 1. Damage was also caused to about 300 street lights in Hawaii - 900 miles away!
The after effects of the detonation of STARFISH were being observed two years after the test.

More about STARFISH PRIME here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime

Exciting days if one had a background in radio!

FWIW
A few years ago during a visit to the National Archives in Kew I asked to see any files regarding the communications outage at Gan in 1958. Seems file/s are available but not in the NA. NA referred me to the RAF Historical Branch, but enquiries there drew a partial blank, files existed, but the official in charge of and holding of these files was on extended sick leave (well over three months) and no one else was available to field a query, so I never did see what the official UK reaction / response to this event was, which is a pity.

[uffington sb]

Another popular souvenir to take home was a painted turtle shell, the painting was usually of a Gan sunset and coconut trees. I did take home some cowrie shells and others including a giant Triton the I found while snorkelling.
All are (thankfully) totally unacceptable now.
The Pakistani DoE airfield electrician used to sell onyx figures, ashtrays etc outside the airmen's mess IIRC.

[MPN11]

My souvenirs were confined to:
Wife #1 from Singapore
2 x 105mm Shell Cases and a quarry-blasting rock-let from Port Stanley.

The latter were considerably cheaper ;)

[Shackman]

Don't forget the 'Gan Boats' - Palm wood (?) models of a typical Maldivian dhow which were also quite popular. Unfortunately although I got mine home with the rigging still intact central heating did for it in quick time.

[farefield]

WT Thanks for this thread,very enjoyable.I joined the RAF in '78 and wondered whether I'd ever get to any of the places I used to hear about from the older hands;Masirah Changi,Tengah, Gan etc. Well,I flew Victors and VC10 tankers so I did get to Salalah,Paya Lebar and Diego Garcia so that was fairly close.

The link below is to a film which I know all on here will find fascinating,it's on Live leak so won't be as well known perhaps as something on Youtube.It's called True Bearing about the RAF in the far east.


http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=896_1325197737

[Warmtoast]

Farefield

Thanks for the link - fascinating.
I recognise many of the locations shown and they bring back memories, especially as during my time in the Far East (1956 - 1958) I served at Changi, Katunayake (Negombo), China Bay, Seletar and Gan and later at the time the film was made (1961), with 99 Sqn whose Brits are featured in the film.
I see from the credits it's a COI Film made in 1961 for the Air Ministry, but it's the first time I've seen it.

Thanks again.

WT

[Union Jack]

Stand by to wallow ..... BZ Farefield!:ok:

Jack

[t7a]

My abiding memory of Gan is, after climbing out of a hot sweaty Vulcan (1967), watching the SAR Shack crew disembark. All were dressed in shorts/swimming trunks and flip-flops. Best equipped crewmembers wore T-shirts!

[harrym]

Thanks farefield, some great nostalgia there especially those lovely airborne cine clips of the Britannia, though the stilted R/T was a bit toe-curling as was most of the rest of the dialogue - probably by professional actors, speaking as directed by some MOD official.

The shot of airmen nonchalantly strolling about on a Beverley tailplane obviously pre-dates 'elf 'n safety!

[Shackman]

I can asure you 12 hour sortie in trunks and flip flops was very uncomfortable. We left our kit in the aircraft in case of a scramble, which happened fairly regularly, so we could 'converge' on the aircrraft from any point on the island so as to make our 20 minutes. Invariably as the 'baby co' my flying kit was lost on one scramble, but funnily enough found just after landing.

[Ddraig Goch]

Thanks farefield for posting that FEAF video - it brought back many memories:D

[MPN11]

Excellent, farefield ... thanks for that. Much nostalgia!

Not very strong on runway marking, I note, and the poor old Shack looks a bit battered! Tower r/t patter a bit dated ... it later became "c/c, Your True Bearing is 080 True, I say again 080 True." Relating the numbers made sense! ;)

[Warmtoast]

RAF Gan 1958 - Continued - Part 11

Maldive Islanders

I took these photos mainly on the island of Fedu. Given that these photographs were taken 58-years ago in 1958 and the children shown were then aged about six to nine years old, if they are still around they’ll be aged about sixty plus-years old now.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Image20_zpsepgdybhi.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/IMG_0166_zpsn6cndrrv.jpg

When Britain obtained permission in 1956 to re-establish its wartime airfield on Gan, it was agreed that islanders living on Gan would be resettled on the nearest island, Fedu, with some of the islanders from Fedu moved to the next island, Maradu, where they formed a new village.

As a result the only Maldive islanders we RAF servicemen came into regular contact with in 1958 were the few who worked at Gan. On visits to other islands, mainly Fedu, families with kids would be seen, but that was about all. So my photos of islander’s families were taken on Fedu and Hittadu.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/IMG_0167%20A_zpsnhkrvfsq.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Feydu%20-%20Kids%20playing_zpsg9ninv45.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Image5_zpslo8htcxo.jpg
Kadjan (Palm Leaf) Weaving

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Feydu_zps02vcvpl9.jpg
Women using a pestle and mortar to crush Taro. Taro is a tuber that was cultivated extensively on Fedu up to WWII, but declined afterwards with growth confined to people’s gardens.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Maldive%20Boy_zps3rmztetj.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Coconut%20collector_zpsmmob7jsv.jpg
Coconut Collector

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Dhoni_zpshecpylny.jpg
Caulking a Dhoni on Hittadu

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Dhoni%20Bailers_zpsxjhvjlea.jpg
With no ship's chandlers for hundreds of miles, the Islanders were adept at using local materials for essential boating artefacts. Here - chop down a tree, hollow out the trunk and bingo! one has an efficient bailer.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Bigaloo%20600dpi_zpsitlpsmmn.jpg
One of the more unusual vessels I photographed was this "Bigaloo". Used for longer inter-atoll journeys.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Dhonies_zpsdstj7da2.jpg
These Dhonis moored at Gan conveyed the islanders working at Gan to and from the further away islands such as Hittadu. They had masts with sails that could be raised that allowed them to make good progress in the fairly regular winds.

More to Come

[Warmtoast]

Continued - Part 12

The nearest island to Gan is Fedu which during WWII was connected to Gan by a causeway of concrete blocks laid with wooden beams and planks. These were used as a simple road to connect the two islands, but when we were there in 1958 the timber linking the concrete blocks had long since gone. Legend was that with no workable land-based wheeled vehicles left in the islands once the R.A.F. left at the end of the war; the islanders just removed the timber from the causeway for building purposes.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Image18a_zpstt9ql2cf.jpg
The WWII-built causeway linking Gan to Fedu can be seen in the background in my 1958 photo above.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Image3%20-A%20-%20Copy_zpstz931vib.jpg
..and close-up showing where the timbers were originally laid.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/IMG_0165_zpss75wbtgz.jpg
Photo taken on Fedu as I demonstrated my Rollieflex camera to the kids.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%201%20-10/Billet%20Boy_zpsldjatogt.jpg
Hussein our billet boy. We paid him in cigarettes - about 20-cigarettes a week was the going rate ISTR. The walls of our billet consisted of woven palm leaves "Kadjan" - see the earlier photo of them being woven.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image16_zpsvwu5w61x.jpg
Wading across to Fedu. Local Islanders can be seen wading across too.


More to Come
WT

[MPN11]

Lovely collection!

[Union Jack]

Don't forget the 'Gan Boats' - Palm wood (?) models of a typical Maldivian dhow which were also quite popular. Unfortunately although I got mine home with the rigging still intact central heating did for it in quick time. - Shackman

These Dhonis moored at Gan conveyed the islanders working at Gan to and from the further away islands such as Hittadu. They had masts with sails that could be raised that allowed them to make good progress in the fairly regular winds. - Warmtoast

Curiously enough, I was asked only the other day to set up the sail and rigging on a model dhoni which had been given to a friend by the butler of his accommodation on Meeru. Just glad that it wasn't rigged like the "Bigaloo"....

Very taken by your photographs, Warmtoast - no wonder you were asked back!:ok:



Jack

[Shackman]

Mine was 'Bigaloo' style and looked very good before the rigging parted company. However, there were no more of these around the islands - the story was that there had been an 'uprising' (read protest) against the central government on Mali, and they in turn sent round a gunboat which destroyed all the larger boats in retaliation, leaving the islanders at the mercy of the government for all supplies. I might add that by then (1969) we were forbidden to visit the other islands, again by request of central government.

[Warmtoast]

RAF Gan 1958 - Continued - Part 13

Return to the UK
During my two-year Far East tour between October 1956 and November 1958 I’d been stationed at R.A.F. Changi (Singapore) - briefly, R.A.F. Negombo (Katunayake) Sri Lanka, R.A.F. China Bay (Trincomalee) Sri Lanka, R.A.F. Seletar (Singapore) and finally R.A.F. Gan.

I spent eleven months at Gan from January to November 1958. At the end of my tour I had the usual farewell party and departed Gan on the 12th of November 1958 to R.A.F. Katunayake near Colombo in Sri Lanka to join the Troopship Nevasa for my return to the UK.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Gan%20from%20Booklet/Pages%2037%20-%2039/Image12_zpsdaevzfym.jpg
Farewell parties when someone returned home to the UK could be pretty lively events with plenty of drink being consumed as seen here at my November 1958 farewell party.
Tradition was that we all bought our own drinks, but at the end of the evening I was plied with many from friends and have only a hazy memory of the event, luckily I took this photo as a memento in the early stages of the party!

Return Journey — November/December 1958
Almost two years later to the day I'd arrived in the Far East, on the 12th of November 1958 to be exact, I departed from my final FEAF posting (RAF Gan in the Maldive Islands) having earlier during my Far East tour been stationed at Negombo, China Bay, Seletar and finally Gan, I flew from Gan to RAF Katunayake near Colombo in Sri Lanka to join the Nevasa at Colombo for my return to the UK.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Nevasa/Image23.jpg
Tour Ex - The best part of any posting - departing Gan.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Nevasa/NevasaatColomboHarbour.jpg
On the way from Gan to Katunayake we flew over Colombo harbour. The Nevasa, the large white vessel can be seen at anchor in the harbour.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Nevasa/Nevasa-Colombo-WaitingfortheFerryMedium.jpg
The next day on the 13th of November 1958 I embarked on the Nevasa for the return voyage to the UK. Here Waiting in Colombo harbour for the ferry to the Nevasa that can be seen in the background.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Nevasa/NevasaBetterQuality.jpg
The Nevasa in all her glory

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Nevasa/Nevasa-DepartureColomboLarge.jpg
Departing Colombo Harbour en-route to our next stop - Aden.

We called at Aden and had a day ashore for duty-free shopping (I bought one of the newly introduced transistor radios very cheaply).

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Nevasa/Aden-SteamerPoint.jpg
This view of Steamer Point shows the RN shore base at Aden (HMS Sheba) the low building on the extreme left alongside the waterfront with the Crescent Hotel immediately behind it.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Nevasa/Nevasa4atSea.jpg
Our passage along the Red Sea to Suez was easy and calm.

We sailed though the Suez Canal viewing the wrecks of ships sunk during the crisis two years earlier and we dropped anchor at Suez for a very short stop. We weren’t allowed ashore here but the bum-boats that swarmed around the ship did a brisk business in Egyptian trinkets and souvenirs. Following this short stop we were on our way again to our next stop in Gibraltar, our final stop on the way home, where we were allowed ashore again.

Some Memories
I have some memories of the trip home; the comfort level of the ship was improved in that the bunks were in tiers of three rather than the four that we endured on the way out. But the rest of the voyage was very similar to the journey out, PT on deck, team games and rifle shooting at balloons, more films in the evenings, most of which we’d all seen months earlier. The dining arrangements were similar to the journey out, but this time only with two sittings for meals rather than three. Thankfully we didn’t run out of beer on the way home, which was a relief.
Noteworthy was the sudden overnight change from the warmth of the Red Sea to the chill of the desert as we travelled north up the Red Sea. With the arrival of the cooler weather we were told to change from our tropical KD uniforms into standard UK uniforms. This caused a few problems as most of us hadn’t worn these for two years or so. Like many, my uniform had been sealed up in a waterproof bag shortly after my arrival in the Far East supposedly to stop it being affected by the high humidity, but in my case something had gone seriously wrong because when opened the uniform had gone mouldy – thankfully there was an Indian tailor among the ship’s crew who knew exactly how to deal with this problem (from experience perhaps?) and he passed it back to me, minus the mould, but stinking to high heaven — this musty odour remained with me for the rest of the voyage!
With my newly acquired transistor radio to play with as we travelled north up the Red Sea we searched the wave-bands for English broadcast stations and sure enough we started to receive the BBC relay station in the Middle East relaying the BBC World Service. Memorably the current hit, the Italian song ‘Volare’ which had featured in that year’s Eurovision Song contest was being played regularly. Whenever I hear it played today the catchy tune brings back memories of the Nevasa plying its way along the balmy Red Sea towards ‘Blighty’ in 1958.


Leaving Suez we entered the Mediterranean. The passage to our final stop at Gibraltar was notably rough. I was under the impression that the Mediterranean was a calm and blue sea, but in late November 1958 my assumptions were proved very wide of the mark — it was really rough!

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Nevasa/Gibraltar1.jpg
Approaching Gibraltar

Having docked at Gibraltar and been allowed ashore for more shopping, we departed for the UK.
The Nevasa docked at Southampton on the morning of the 1st of December 1958, and following the usual inspection by HM Customs in the customs shed at Southampton we joined the special steam-drawn boat train to London Waterloo only to find that there was no heating in the carriages; we had arrived in the middle of an early and particularly cold, cold spell and the steam heating of the carriages had frozen, leaving us with a two hour journey to Waterloo in a freezing cold train.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Nevasa/Southampton-CustomsShed-Dec1958-ResizedLarge.jpg
The Customs Shed at Southampton - December 1958

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Nevasa/Southampton-CustomsShed-Dec19582.jpg
..and the Customs officers doing their business - "Anything to declare sir?"

Finally having reached London around mid-day I was met at Waterloo by my family and I had a short spell of leave before my next posting to RAF Abingdon near Oxford.


More to come
WT

[Warmtoast]

RAF Gan 1958 - Continued - Part 14

Back Home — 1959 Medical Scare — Elephantiasis

Following my arrival home in December 1958, early the following year (1959) whilst stationed at R.A.F. Abingdon I was contacted by the station medical centre and told that I had to attend the R.A.F. Hospital at Halton for a medical examination; no reason was given and I was provided with a letter for me to report to the Institute of Pathology and Tropical Medicine at Halton. As it specialised in tropical medicine I suspected it was something to do with my recent service in the Far East, but otherwise I was puzzled by the need for the appointment.
Accordingly I attended the hospital, had a blood sample taken and was given a general medical examination. I was told I would be summoned back for further examination if any abnormalities were found — in the event about a month later I was sent for by the MO at R.A.F. Abingdon who told me everything was all clear and that I was not infected, only then was I told that there had been a scare that a case of Lymphatic Filariasis (Elephantiasis) had been diagnosed in a servicemen who’d been stationed at Gan with the result that I and others who’d served at Gan had had to be screened for possible infection.
Until then I’d no real knowledge about the disease, although I seem to recall that the walls of the waiting area at the Institute of Pathology and Tropical Medicine at Halton Hospital were adorned with gory photos of sufferers who exhibited the typical symptoms of the disease with gross deformities of the limbs and in men hugely enlarged Genitals (mainly the scrotum).
It is only relatively recently with the potential for research via the internet that I found that the R.A.F. had cause for concern about the health of airmen returning from Gan as a 1950’s United Nations (WHO) study based on a survey of the southern atolls of the Maldives, including Addu Atoll where Gan is located, showed that Filariasis (Elephantiasis) was endemic in all the villages (islands) of Addu Atoll with a filarial infection rate in the population of 14.1%.

United Nations (WHO) Addu Atoll Study
The introduction to the UN (WHO) research paper states:
“Filariasis is an important public-health problem in the Maldive Islands. The World Health Organization received a request through the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for technical assistance in the eradication of the disease. To comply with this request, the decision was taken by the WHO to appoint a consultant on a short-term assignment to study the problem and to submit recommendations for the control of the disease. The author was appointed as the WHO Filariasis Consultant and, with the assistance of Dr. M. I. Mathew and Mr. M. A. U. Menon, carried out investigations during January to March 1951 on Filariasis in the Maldives.”

Description of the Disease (from WHO Website)
“Lymphatic filariasis is infection with the filarial worms, Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi or B. timori. These parasites are transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito and develop into adult worms in the lymphatic vessels, causing severe damage and swelling (lymphoedema). Elephantiasis, a painful disfiguring swelling of the legs and genital organs – is a classic sign of late-stage disease.”

The photograph below is courtesy GlaxoSmithKline who make the drug albendazole an anti-parasitic drug that plays a vital role in helping to prevent the transmission of the disease.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Image3_zps100b7700.jpg

More to come - with photos of my 2014 visit

WT

[CoffmanStarter]

Warmtoast ...

What a simply fantastic historic record of your service ... the pictures bring everything to life.

Thank you ... and looking forward to your next instalment :ok:

[JW411]

I had a friend who caught filaria from a friendly mosquito in Sri Lanka in 1976. Luckily, he was diagnosed early and made a full recovery.

[Danny42C]

Warmtoast,

What a wonderful file of photographs - and a wonderful store of memories of your past youth !

Wish I'd got something like that. But in war zones (I think), even still photographs were forbidden (and even more "home cinema" stuff) for obvious security reasons (they might fall into the hands of the enemy, and skilled photo interpreters can find all sorts of useful detail from the seemingly most innocent of "snaps").

Gruesome picture of elephantiasis (rings bell, see my p.130 #2588 on "Pilot's Brevet").

(Customs at Southamptom): Get the shoes on that Preventive Officer - there's 'Bull' for you - a credit to the Waterguard !

(Customs Shed): We were luckier - ours shrank from us in horror at Liverpool [as being potential carriers of a new and untreatable smallpox] and waved us through without examination).

Thank you, WT - them were the days, weren't they ?

Danny.

[Warmtoast]

Thanks Gents for the compliments - much appreciated!

As a PS to the bit about the trip home, although the Nevasa looks splendid in my photographs, it wasn't all sweetness and light as can be seen in my photo of the sleeping arrangements in the troop decks.

Three tiers high - but on the way out in 1956 after delays to the trooping schedules because of the Suez crises, an additional tier of bunks were squeezed in, making them four high rather than the three shown on the way home - below.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Nevasa/Nevasa-TroopDeckBunks-2Large2.jpg


WT

[MPN11]

Warmtoast .. an ongoing, fabulous, memoir. I wish now that I had bought a camera back in the 60s in Singapore, but I spent all my money on car, beer and women ... and was still paying off my UK tailor's bill having spent my initial Officers' Uniform Allowance on a car 3 years earlier*! Come to think of it, I still don't have a proper camera, just a pocket Lumix :)

* In fact, I was for a while a 2-car a/plt off at Shawbury, and used to rent out the lesser one for 10/0 a night - "Make your own arrangements with the Police if you get stopped" :)

[Warmtoast]

MPN11

Warmtoast .. an ongoing, fabulous, memoir

I have another project on the cards once I've finished with Gan. This will cover my first RAF posting of two years at 5 FTS, RAF Thornhill, S. Rhodesia 1951 - 1953 - with many photos.

As to cameras I still have the pre-war Zeiss Ikon camera that I took with me to Rhodesia in 1951, followed by a Voigtlander Bessa I bought in Rhodesia, then a twin-lens reflex Microcord (UK purchased) and for the Gan photos a Rollieflex Twin-lens reflex bought in Changi village. In 1960 I caught the 8mm cine-film bug and used that into the 1970's meaning I have hours of cine-film footage.

WT

[Shackman]

The Illustrated London News (now sadly long gone) did a feature on Gan in 1970. Unfortunately it was a large broadsheet publication, but hopefully this scanned (and stitched together) will show a bit more of life on t'island.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7564/26489031313_de3065092e_h.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7743/27059669546_b934bff1db_h.jpg


https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7500/27092666075_479d5408bc_h.jpg[/url]

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7294/26998413912_dc62438154_h.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7313/27092672115_67b7704cc2_h.jpg


(MODs - I apologise if images too large - please PM and I'll reduce!)

[Warmtoast]

Shackman

Thank you for those evocative 1970's photos.

I left the RAF in 1963 and my logbook (99 Sqn) shows my last flight through Gan as a member of the RAF as 26 June 1963.

In 2014 I visited again - photos to follow of Gan and Villingili as they were two years ago.

WT

[uffington sb]

Shackman.

Interesting article, but I'm a bit concerned that the reporter stated that us Gannites went to the transit hotel (Blue Lagoon) 'merely to watch the children'!!!

I went to look at the adult female tottie.

[obst lamp]

Hi All,

Im reading this thread with great interest, as my father was posted to Gan shortly before I was born.

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who remembers him, for good or bad! His name was SAC Geoffrey Peter Barfield, known as Pete 'The Leak', and would have been out there in sometime in the mid 1970s, as I was born in March 76.

I no longer have any contact with him (personal choice on my part), but was always fascinated as a boy by the shells he brought back and the engraved metal plaque of the Addu atol we had on the wall.

Any photos with him in them would be great!

Cheers
Martin

[Roylejohn]

Anyone remember the beach bar?Large g&ts for 6d - hand measures!
I was SAC supply and offloaded supplies from Liverpool based ships.My ex school mate from Toxteth was on one Clan line ship- he gave me a crate of whisky for Christmas which I buried secretly in the sand.We supped it in the makeshift bar at Christmas!
Do you remember the first mobile NAAFI? Bread rolls rock hard!
[email protected]

[Reheat On]

http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/577447-raf-gan-1958-later-2.html#post9344955

Thanks for all this Warm Toast

My dad was Nav Plotter in that Canberra and this is the first time he has seen this picture. He later flew on 543, and the pilot, Ron Mudge was last boss of 543 before disbandment. Lifelong friendships and all that.

To say he has been overwhelmed is an understatement., You have made my old man very tearful

[ICM]

Warmtoast has provided a remarkable record of Gan's early days as a RAF station. With no wish to stop future contributions, I hope I can be permitted a brief description of its closure, based on a note I have from the late Wg Cdr Tony Richards OBE, who was OC 10 Squadron at the time and Captain of the final flight ASCOT 2274. The flight (VC 10 XR 806) landed at Gan from Bahrain on 27 March 1976 to fly out the following day with around half of the Station strength. The remainder were to embark on RFA Sir Percival. There was a final BBQ that evening, the Atoll Chief was given a tour of the aircraft next morning, crew members were garlanded with floral leis before starting the checks, closing the door, taking-off and heading north. Three people stayed behind - a young civilian doctor and his wife, who had moved into the Station Commander's house, and a retired Chief Tech who was going to keep comms going for some 6 hours after 806's departure. I understand that the closure was codenamed Op JETTISON.

[Warmtoast]

Reheat On

Background to me having these 1958 survey photos of Gan was that in February 2004 in connection with the R.A.F. Gan Reunion that I attended that was held later that year at R.A.F. Odiham I was in touch with the MOD and I was supplied with prints of this sortie that were shown at the reunion. In giving me prints of the survey the MOD stipulated that if they were to be posted or published anywhere they should be annotated “Source: © CrownCopyright/MOD” which I’ve done.
FWIW there is an earlier post on PPRune of these photos and others taken on this sortie here:
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/474740-ee-canberra-book-contributor-request-5.html#post7121453
Post #98

WT

[MPN11]

Re-reading this wonderful thread, I noticed there was (repeat was) a cross runway. I assume 'better' aircraft with increased crosswind limits made that redundant quite quickly.

[Warmtoast]

MPN 11
ISTR there were two WW2 runways at Gan, but only one was used whilst I was there and this became redundant as soon as the long new runway was built. I doubt that the original runway would have been long enough to accept modern (1960's - 1970's) aircraft.


Short runway in use in 1958
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Long%20Finals%20Coral%20Rwy_zpsf5zntgh2.jpg

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/FullIslandPhoto-Adjusted1.jpg
Gan - March 1958 - Survey photograph "© Crown Copyright/MOD"

[MPN11]

Ah, of course. Thanks, Warmtoast ^

[Shackman]

Until I saw that 1958 picture I too was unaware of any other runways (I did enough circuits there) but looking at the ILN picture above you can just make out faint outlines of one at the top right of the island. Of note, the guns in one of the picture were near what looks like an old dispersal in the same area; the islanders said that they had originally been part of the island's defence and had been properly mounted in an emplacement, which was then blown up when the anchorage was abandoned at the end of WW!!

[Matt Skrossa]

Unfortunately due to a couple of reasons (too young and joined the FAA) I never visited Gan when it was active, however, I have enjoyed two holidays at Equator Village, the holiday resort that uses a lot of the old RAF buildings. There are still reminders of the RAF though, firstly the Astra Cinema is still there and even though it's over 40 years since the RAF were there, the kerbstones in Equator Village are still being painted black and white! Not the best resort in the Maldives, but certainly a lot cheaper and when I was last there what was the Officers' Mess was also being converted into a holiday resort. It was also quite nice to see a standard RAF tower basking in the equatorial sunshine.

Were there ever any 'birdstrikes' with the fruit bats as they fly day and night and one of them down the engine, or in the prop would have been pretty exciting?

There are still locals who worked with the RAF, including some working the tourists dhonis and I know a lot of ex Gan personnel have been to this resort for reunions.

[oxenos]

Were there ever any 'birdstrikes' with the fruit bats as they fly day and night

At least one of 205 Squadron's Shackletons had a bat strike.. The reason the strikes were not common with the Shackletons was that we were in Gan to provide Search and Rescue cover, so most of the time the aircraft was on standby but not flown. Usually spent two weeks there at a time, and did not fly more than once, if at all.

[Shackman]

Fruit Bats were a menace - rumoured to carry rabies. We had one come through the windscreen at night when downwind, but it was only stunned. I think we were more shocked! As it came to it had a bit of a tantrum and was trying to bite anyone who came near it and was generally creating havoc in the cockpit. Eventually I think the eng hit it over the head with something and it was put in a bag or container and released after landing.

Since then i've often thought about those birdstrike reports where you were asked 'Did you send the remains to MAFF.' I wish we had!

Oxenos, speak for yourself - we seemed to average three or four sorties per two week stint, but spent more hours playing bridge! If I remember the only time we could do training sorties was when there was a window with no projected RAF movements in our area of responsibility (effectively the Indian Ocean!).

[oxenos]

Oxenos, speak for yourself

The memory fades. Checked my logbook, and works out at between one and two per visit, and then five in a week. As you say, we could only fly when there were no movements, so Transport Command must have been on strike

[JW411]

I can remember us hitting a dirty great bat at Falconara on lift-off in a Belfast one evening just as the sun was going down. When we got back to Brize, the Station Flight Safety Officer asked my captain (who could be an awkward sod at times) to fill in a Birdstrike Report. It was pointed out that a bat is a mammal and therefore, not a bird. SFSO was told that if he supplied a Batstrike Form then it would be filled in. The stand-off went on for weeks.

[JDLOWERY]

Here is a picture taken by RAF pilot Lowery on approach to Gan in a VC-10.
Don't know year.

[Poimier]

I wonder if anyone has any gen on the Victor parked on the pan on Gan when arrived in 1966 and I think still there when I left? I was told it was the victim of an electricl fire in the bomb bay due to excess baggage en route to the UK. Great thread, lots of things come back to mind, must search the attic for the copies of the GIP up there somewhere.

Hi pkam, maybe I can help with Kyle’s crash, I have some faint memories. At the time ACM Wallace Kyle was C-in-C Bomber Command and he went out to RAF Tengah in 1966 (in a Victor) when Vulcans were detached there.

On the return leg, the aircraft caught fire at Gan, either on take-off or on landing, probably landing, not sure. Fortunately, they all got out, but apparently the crewchief suffered burns when he returned to the blazing aircraft to recover the Boss man’s golf clubs, at least, that’s the story I heard. Can you imagine anyone doing such a thing ?

It wasn’t the only Victor to crash that year : ASN Aircraft accident 29-JUN-1966 Handley Page Victor SR.Mk 2 XM716 (http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=55302) RIP gentlemen.

Wiki has a long bio of Kyle, just in case you’re interested. This incident is omitted BTW.

I also found this for you :

“1966 brought more excitement when one of our aircraft [XL513], when returning from Australia, suffered a bomb-bay fire and had to land at Gan in the Maldives off the tip of India. A works team from Handley Page went out and re-wired the bomb-bay and we went out to service and check out all the aircraft systems. 5 weeks in the sun on a tropical island the highlight of which was listening to England winning the World Cup in the Sergeants Mess. From memory it was a very good (if somewhat alcoholic) night. Sergeant 'Clancy' Ross where are you now?? After a fire, re-wire, 5 weeks on the ground in tropical salt-laden air, there were many crossed fingers when she gingerly took to the air again. We must have done a reasonable job as she flew safely home none the worse for her ordeal.”
From : http://www.********************************/victor/memories.php?comm_page=4

Ten years later 513 made its ABF landing : "... it was a bird strike but the captain chose to abort take off after V2! Brakes and brake chute failed to stop aircraft slowly going into the overshoot. One main undercarriage broke off backwards and I think if memory serves me right [the Victor] broke it's back. Apparently one of the crew managed to get his parachute hooked up while exiting the aircraft and streamed it across the grass but everyone got out safely."”
ASN Aircraft accident 29-SEP-1976 Handley Page Victor K.2 XL513 (http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=55300)

What a super thread, so many interesting stories and everyone is so gentlemanly too. Sincere thanks to warm toast, you are a Star Sir ! Make that five stars !

[NRU74]

Here is a picture taken by RAF pilot Lowery on approach to Gan in a VC-10.
Don't know year.

Was Denis your dad ?

[Ormeside28]

I joined 205 Squadron at Changi in August 1958. The Sunderlands at Seletar were being phased out but were still landing in the lagoon at Gan. Aircraft going to the Far East were transiting through RAF Katanayaka, north of Colombo.
In August 1959 there was an "incursion" on Gan from the North Maldivians and things got a bit heated. I went with my boss to Katanayaka. When we arrived there we were told that there was reported a Russian cruiser in Male. We were sent to check, low level, but when we got there the harbour was empty. We carried on and landed at Gan. At that time it was not really open and the HQ and control was an atap hut. We stopped for lunch but the food was awful. We decided that we would bring fresh food in our Shack from Ceylon.
Now started Operation Gay, not what it means nowadays!
This consisted of carrying out a reconnaissance of all the islands every other day from Male down to Gan reporting any signs of military activity and strange ships, landing at Gan and returning direct to Katanayaka. A nice gesture was when we landed at Kat we were met by a pretty Ceylonese girl with a tray of tea! Rack trip to Gan we would take fresh eggs, vegetables etc, and this continued when we eventually moved in and brought food from Singapore.
We carried out these patrols with one aircraft until Gan was opened for business and we kept two Shackletons for S and R at the end ofNovember1959 for two weeks at a time, the relieved Shack waiting until the relief was airborne from Changi.. we still carried out our reconnaissance up the islands, but in the end it died the death. When we moved in to Gan we were given the air conditioned transport command rooms, but we all decided that going in and out of the different temperatures was a bind so we opted for non air conditioned ones. One of the medical officers wanted to specialise in tropical medicine. Elephantiasis was endemic on the islands and he would go over to Hittadu in the evenings as that is when the insects were active. I did take the Sqn leader Admin up to Katanaike one night as he had to have an operation for appendicitis. Poor chap had to climb up the ladder as we couldn't turn a stretcher in the fuselage. He recovered! There was a visit of RAF Javelins, and we positioned off Karachi to escort them to Gan and next day over the Bay of Bengal en route to Singapore. One Shack went on a Jolly to Mauritius, so when I was there we did a lot of flying. My crew did SAR over Christmas 1959. The chieftain gave the OM a turtle as a gift but nobody had the heart to kill it so we returned it to the lagoon at midnight. When I was there our biggest worry was that if a SAA or Qantas a/c went in half way from Perth to Mauritius we would only have two hours on task. The Queen Mum diverted to Gan, not when I was there, saw a Shackleton and said "that is one of ours" but was dissuaded from using it to get home. With only eight aircraft and two at Gan, one on SAR at Changi, we never had a full complement at Changi. Gan did eventually have more facilities, but we left them in the lurch, and I hope they succeed with a Resort.

[Shackman]

The tradition of a bomb bay pannier full of fruit and veg to Gan continued on the 205 Shack changeover until late 1970 (ish), equally distributed between the messes and paid for 'at cost' - the crew paid for everything and got their money back on arrival. An equitable and much appreciated service. This all came to a halt with the arrival of a new NAAFI manager. When he 'discovered' this trade he played the 'NAAFI is the only 'allowed' importer' and complained to the Stn Cdr, all done behind closed doors. So when the next Shack arrived he appeared on the pan and insisted he bought all the fresh goods - the crew had no choice (he was backed up by the CO) - but assumed it would then be distributed as normal. However, nothing appeared in any of the Messes, but the NAAFI shop suddenly had fruit and veg for sale at astronomical prices - individual apples, oranges etc for more than the crew had paid (and sold) per pound, and the Messes complained they couldn't afford his prices. His excuse - he had the right to cover transportation costs for all his goods evenly! Funnily enough, most of the stuff rotted on the shelves or in his storeroom. And that was the end of the fresh food delivery.

PS - No mention yet of the water from the artesian wells (which had a taste all of its own), or the Wave Victor, the RFA permanently anchored in the lagoon with tanks full of fresh water for visiting vessels but not for Gannites!

[Octane]

Losing the annual 2 weeks leave to the joys of the far east would have been, well, demoralizing to say the least. Pity the poor CO tasked with that announcement to the troops...!

[JDLOWERY]

Was Denis your dad ?



Yes. This is a picture taken by him of Gan from a VC-10.

[Pontius Navigator]

I used to pick up a suitcase full of fruit from the Greens Shop at Akrotiri and deliver the same day to Gan. The padre was the one who college if from me.

As for the aircon accommodation was actually paid for by Bomber command for Blue Rangers, the Blue Steel soryiexy to Woomera.

[brakedwell]

I used to pick up a suitcase full of fruit from the Greens Shop at Akrotiri and deliver the same day to Gan. The padre was the one who college if from me.

As for the aircon accommodation was actually paid for by Bomber command for Blue Rangers, the Blue Steel soryiexy to Woomera.

I was under the impression Transport Command paid for the air conditioned accomodation for Britannia and VC10 crews.

[Pontius Navigator]

TC, was the regular user as they were there more often than the Bomber crews. I did my first OCU with a Wg Cdr as my plotter. He told me, he had flown to Oz single Nav on one of the ferry flights.

[brakedwell]

Opening of the crew bar for one hour after the arrival of a Transport/Air Support Command flight at Bahrain Airport, Gan Blue Lagoon and the Changhi Creek Hotel was an official requirement. According to the medics crews needed to rehydrate after longhaul flights. With a bit of luck another arrival before the hour was up would ensure we were properly watered. During far east resupply excercises they could be open 24 hours non stop.
Happy days.

[WIDN62]

BRAKEDWELL

Not to forget the chips and sausages!
I don't think I had ever had a beer before lunchtime until I became an Ascoteer.
If you were a slip crew at Gan, you just had to call in at the Blue Lagoon half an hour or so after an arriving aircraft and catch up with the gossip. It would have been rude not to have a beer with them as well wouldn't it?

[ancientaviator62]

Not to forget the manic table football games !
Hercules eye view only minutes away from the first beer.

[synthia331]

Hi Warmtoast and Everyone else thats been to Gan.
We run a flying school in Gan at the airport. The airport has recently been upgraded and now boasts a 3.5 km runway.
The name of the school is Asian Academy of Aeronautics. Flight Training | Flying School | AAA (http://www.aaa-fta.com)
Warmtoast thank you for the beautiful history.
Please do get in touch with us - Flight Training | Flying School | AAA (http://www.aaa-fta.com) - if you can come over for a few days. We can take you up for a scenic aerial view of the island and some of the luxury resorts that are situated around us.

[Warmtoast]

synthia331


TVM - Very interesting.
When I visited Shangri-La's Resort in Villingili a couple of years ago I recall seeing a Cessna flying around Gan - one of yours I assume?
Regards
WT

[synthia331]

Hi WT, Apologies for the delayed response.

Yes, that was our Cessna.

Are you planning to visit GAN anytime soon. I would love to plan a history lesson with yourself and our students to teach them something about the Island.

[Warmtoast]

synthia331

Are you planning to visit GAN anytime soon

Sadly no. My 2014 visit was courtesy Shangi La's Willingi Resort - there is no way I would pay £450 per night for half-board accommodation, even though the villa I occupied for five nights was absolutely superb.
WT

[synthia331]

Hi WT, I do understand the rates at Shangri-La are ridiculous.
We have an in-house accommodation facility, with beach side rooms. You are welcome to stay with us. Have a look at our flying school at Flight Training | Flying School | AAA (http://www.aaa-fta.com)

Please do let me know. Would love to have you over.

[rog747]

wonderful stories about Gan, the old Maldives and your RAF staging post

My experience first to the Maldives (where was that i thought? although I did see a nice article in the London Evening Standard in 1979 and thought yes, Mmmm) was in March 1979 or 1980 when I had over a months leave to use up after working on the PIA 707 contract we had in KHI before going home to BMA at LHR where I was a D/O
(BMA British Midland Airways and we had 707 leasing contracts all over the place)

PIA kindly offered us BMA staff free tickets anywhere they went so I thought lets go to Ceylon on an old PIA Boeing 720B!

Landing at katunayake Colombo airport at around 0100 in the morning was a very spooky experience indeed in the pitch black with nothing to see below you knowing that Loftleiðir Icelandic and Martinair had both pranged DC8's on Hadj flights on approach to there in the recent past with total or huge loss

- had a fab 10 days at CMB Mount Lavinia Hotel and down to stay at Hikkadua and Galle and I got to meet the then new Air Lanka SM who said why not go to the Maldives - we have just started a weekly 737 flight - I cannot give you a free standby as its always full but a 50% firm came my way and I duly booked myself on for a week at first.

the 737-200 was not new but the new Air Lanka crew and service was amazing - we landed at Hulule (MLE) which was not much more than a coral strip and was rough for a 737 and the terminal was an open air affair with a tin roof and fans going around with a line up at the jetty of dhoni boats

Hmm what next I thought - no hotels here - but after passport were checked there were a line of resort owners lining up like the Greeks do at ferry ports shouting at you if you need rooms but in the case of Male 'do you need an island'

well yes i do - a charming Ozzie guy called me over said he and his Scottish wife had a new island 2 hours north by dhoni boat called Gasfinolhu (very long and flat with two tall palm trees in the middle) $15 a day full board - Hmm that's quite alot for young lad from London but I thought Hey Ho Ok lets go and off we sailed into the sunset after first a supplies stop at the then very old fashioned crazy and traditional harbour at Male to pick up beers cokes fruit veg etc etc

well there followed an amazing 'no news no shoes' 3 weeks experience of sand floors in delightful thatched huts with a new shared clean ablutions block with water pumped up from the ground which no soap would ever lather and wonderful lazy days eating al fresco with chilled beers and cokes ( they had a generator for the honesty-bar big fridge and a few light bulbs that went off at 11pm then it was lanterns)
grilled fish cooked over the sand and fresh pineapples tiny bananas and coconut juice
I actually stayed 3 weeks and had the most amazing Robinson Crusoe desert island holiday swimming snorkelling and watching baby sharks play in the lagoon

we took dhoni trips to local and to the then few new resort islands but never got to Gan as it was so far down south although I asked about it

my love affair with the Maldive began then and I went back a few years later only to find the airport now with Air Lanka and LTU Tristars, Condor and Balair DC-10's and an Alitalia 747!

How things changed in the few years - One highlight was sitting on the beach at Bandos an LTU Tristar did a low level fly by twice at around 500' over the lagoon - their party trick to show their pax how beautiful the islands were.

I will go back to the Maldives one day but only if i can find a remote island that does not charge 450$ a day and one that has a ''no news no shoes'' ethos - does any still exist?

rog
PS
flew home CMB-KHI on the oldest DC-8 flying (was a Swissair ship HB-IDB) which by now was op'd by Cargolux and leased to PIA - goodness that was quite a flight leaving CMB at 0100
braking was poor or failed on landing at a very dark KHI and the full power thrust reverse saved us from going off into the sand - we taxied in with the FD crew not saying a word but they looked very white or green when they came out of the cockpit on our deplaning !
LX-IDB was retired a month later

then i jumped on a PIA 747-200 ex TAP ''all stations to LHR''
dep KHI at 0700 which then called at DXB(just a pile of sand then) FCO FRA AMS CDG (or was it ORY) then LHR by late evening
what a trip home