A Great First Tour!
I was lucky enough to fly the PR9 when it was first used on 13 Squadron in Cyprus. It was a challenging and hugely enjoyable first tour for a very young Pilot Officer! We spent a lot of time in Bahrain covering the now largely forgotten 'First' Gulf war, when Iraq threatened to annex Kuwait in 1961. The response involved Hunters, Beverleys, and Argosies later on and loads of ground troops, obviously.
13 Squadron's other tasks included the completion of the East Africa survey, flying over Yemen operating out of Aden, daily border recce in Kuwait and routine survey tasks around the Med. Before I joined the squadron there had been some operations in the Eastern Med which, I believe, involved a PR7 being shot down. Nothing much has ever been said about this and probably for good reason!