Anybody, Ex Bevs, Akrotiri '61-62 remember this incident ?
The best I can recall.
……..the Beverley’s were amazing aircraft. From our school playground at Akrotiri we could watch their ops. They would load up with parachutists and stagger up to a suitable height and deposit these unfortunate soles on the salt flats just to the north of Akrotiri. Sometimes they would disgorge a Land Rover or Light Tank supported by several parachutes.
One morning we watched from the playground as a Beverley turned towards the DZ, its rear doors wide open. At the appropriate moment a Land Rover was dispatched out of the rear of the lumbering giant. It fell away and we all waited for the tell tail sign of the trail chute to appear. We waited and waited. One parachute opened but the other three just candled. The receiving ground crew were on the ball. As we watched for the other three parachutes to open they were already running.
The Land Rover hurtled into the ground at a huge rate of knots and disappeared in a cloud of sand and mud and metal. We kids shouted and cheered. Fantastic stuff, the likes of which we had never seen before. This was the only talking point in the playground for weeks to come.
Later that day, my father took me to the scene. The Land Rover was about two feet tall…………
Clint.