I was involved in the trooping after Suez when it was get the lads home for Christmas time. Went to Luqa, night stop then a shuttle to Nicosia and back to Luqa, night stop, then back to UK,( St. Mawgan)
Somebody had worked out the exact floor space allocated to each of the 28 troops. As co-pilot I did the walk round, climbed in,and made sure the door was secure. Now the tricky bit getting from the rear door to the right hand seat with every square inch of floor covered with bodies. I was lifted and passed up to the front end of the aircraft !
I can not remember the reason but Shackletons were involved in trooping to Cyprus in June 1958. We collected the troops at Abingdon where the regiment band was playing as the 28 troops squeezed into the Shackleton.