The announcement having been made that we were going to withdraw from Aden at the end of 1967, we were also told that repatriation of our families would commence in May. As flats fell vacant on the main Maalla Sraight, we were moved out of Bazara South into one of them on the north side. For the life of me I can't remember which block we moved into but we were opposite Osborne Flats. Nothing very much happened while we were there apart from a couple of general strikes when the streets around us became pretty much deserted. I have posted some photographs taken from our new flat during such an event.
It had been decided that 105 Sqn would operate as a "split" squadron until the withdrawal. Those of us who had the least amount of time to serve until the end of their tour were to have their families sent back to UK in July. The rest would have their families moved up to Bahrain. Luckily, I fell into the latter category so our next flat was in Manama just 100 yards from the Malcolm Club near the old Green Palace. It was wonderful to get out of Aden intact and life in Bahrain was good.
From a flying point of view, very little changed. We operated from both ends and when it was necessary to night stop at the Aden end, we would as often as not get rooms in the air-conditioned comfort of Merrifield House which had hitherto been the preserve of the Shiny Fleet (VC-10s and Brits). A lot of the chaps had moved out of Maalla when their families went home and they were now living in vacated married quarters behind the wire at Khormaksar. I went to some good parties there.
My last night stop in Aden was 22/23 November. We went down to the NAAFI and bought a large amount of booze to take back to Bahrain. The NAAFI were virtually giving the stuff away. When we paid for our booty I asked the cashier (a local) what he was going to do when the British left in a few days time.
With a great smile he announced that he was going to become the new NAAFI manager! He had it all worked out or so he thought.
Next morning we flew XP408 back to Bahrain and I never saw Aden again.