In those days all junior forecasters were passed as observers so the tradition was to allow the observer an hour sack time 0001 to 0100 Zulu when observations from all sources were staggering in. The forecaster did both jobs. We all had RAF airfield passes on lanyards and habitually took them off once inside the office. Even at Nicosia there was sometimes low stratus so the height of cloud base needed to be measured by cloud searchlight. One dark night I made my way to the post holding the sighting alidade, on a little roundabout, disguised by shrubs and with the mandatory white kerbstones. After noting the degrees, I was taken a bit short so decided the bushes were as good as anywhere. The dog’s hot breath interrupted my flow. With button flies agape and no ID, and only a stupid tale to tell I was escorted to the Met. Office, where there was nobody awake to vouch for me. The snowdrop saw the funny side of it, we had a coffee, and the dog a saucer of milk.
The sting was that I had forgotten the angle, so had to repeat the more conventional part of the exercise.
On more serious notes [and almost unbelievably] I cannot recall any flap, any awareness even, of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. No unusual movements, no tightened security, zilch. The news of the assassination of President Kennedy was broken at a party on OMQs in Comet Crescent. The party ended, some in tears.
Bloody Christmas 1963 , when Greek v Turk communal violence broke out in Nicosia and spread rapidly, disturbed RAF Nicosia like an anthill poked by a stick. Only two other forecasters lived on camp inside the wire, but they were not current, C Met. O. and his deputy. Within hours all personnel off base were told to stay indoors, and not a few forecasters had bullet holes in walls and broken windows. They were sustained by armed convoys carrying huge Union flags over the next few weeks. The Regiment emplaced a Vickers .303 at the bottom of my garden in Comet Crescent, and a Bofors next door but two. Thus we stocked up with NAAFI tea, coffee, sugar, milk and Jammy Dodgers and adopted ‘our’ gunners.
C Met. O, a Scotsman’s Scotsman, was unwisely outside the wire one day and was stopped at a Greek roadblock, shoved against a wall and frisked. “Ah, English, is OK, you can go!” To his shame he confessed to being English.
Workwise the three remaining Met. Men kept the airbridge supplied with forecasts. Large numbers of military were trooped in, and families near TOUREX were compulsorily sent home after some very cursory march-outs. These included my little family [a daughter and son had been born] and that is when my daughter learned to swear like a sailor. I went to live in a Mess bungalow [two to a room] and the Turkish orderly kindly offered me one of his very clean daughters, because I must be in need of solace.
We worked 8 hours on, 16 off for what seemed like a long, long time, and I have no idea what arrangements were made after I flew out exactly three years after arrival, April Fool’s Day. In those circumstances one doesn’t look back.
Leeming next stop.
Last edited by langleybaston; 5th Apr 2024 at 11:21.
Reason: for **** read shot