The Lebanon Crisis of 1958

[DougGordon]

I'm doing some research about the air operations in the Lebanon crisis of 1958. I've unearthed a lot of information about the participation of the USAF; but, so far nothing about any participation by the RAF. Some of the USAF documents suggest joint ops with the RAF but are not specific. Please could anyone shed any light on this?
Thanks Doug

[ian16th]

I played a miniscule part in this!

I was assigned to the RAF Liaison Party at Istres where we refuelled Transport Commands finest Beverley's and Hastings that were ferrying troops out to the eastern Mediterranean.

I have vague memories of Hunters being ferried out at the same time, but I cannot remember if they were specificly for the Lebanon crises.

[DougGordon]

Thanks Ian.

[brakedwell]

Doug, could you expand on the 1958 Lebanon Crisis? I was involved in an aborted operation to supply arms to Jordan from Cyprus in July - August 58. On the first night the lead Hastings was turned back by Mirage fighters when Israel suddenly withdrew overflight clearance. A few days later several USAF C119's arrived and completed the task over several weeks. We reverted to practicing large night formations of Hastings and Beverleys for another secret (madcap) scheme, which we learned much later would have been an airborne assault on Teheran before continuing on to Bahrain. I can't remember any talk of troubles in Lebanon during my two month detachment at RAF Nicosia.

[DougGordon]

Here's a potted version of the crisis from 'Not War But Like War' by Roger Spiller, published by the Combat Studies Group in jan 1981.

"In May 1958, political instability in Lebanon led to armed
rebellion . Well-equipped but politically divided Moslem rebels
seized control of much of the country and demanded the re
moval of Camille Chamoun, the Christian president . Chamoun
refused to resign, and the situation stalemated for several
weeks . The overthrow of the Iraqi government on July 14
prompted President Chamoun, who feared the coup would
spur renewed action by rebels in Lebanon, to immediately re-
quest military aid from the United States, France, and Britain.
Lebanese rebels stated that they had no hostile intentions
against the United States, but the possibility of losing a pro-
Western ally to an anti-Western regime was not palatable to
U .S . policy makers . Several months before the unrest, the
United States had announced its willingness to support any
Middle Eastern government who requested aid against armed
aggression. Besides, U .S. military preparations for assistance
had begun as early as mid-May ; consequently, response to
Chamoun's request was swift. On July 14, U .S . President
Dwight D . Eisenhower ordered the U.S . Navy's Sixth Fleet to
land U .S. Marines at 3:00 P.M. local time the following day, thus
implementing BLUE BAT, the operational plan for Middle East
operations . The Air Force's involvement was divided into three
distinct actions : Composite Air Strike Force "Bravo" deployed
into Adana (present-day Incirlik) AB, Turkey. At the same time,
the U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) airlifted U.S . Army troops
and supplies to Lebanon . Finally, the Military Air Transport
Service (MATS) deployed numerous aircraft from the United
States to Europe to assist in the USAFE airlift .
The first of three U.S. Marine landing teams startled loung-
ing, bikini-clad vacationers when it arrived on Lebanon
beaches in the mid-afternoon hours of July 15. Within hours,
they had assumed control of the Beirut International Airport
and moved into the city itself early the next day. The marines
encountered no resistance .
Before the marines waded ashore, the Air Force was order-
ing its units into action . C-124s from the MATS 63d Troop
Carrier Wing (TCW) at Donaldson AFB, South Carolina, began
flying out late on the evening of July 14 . Twenty-six were in
place at Rhein-Main AB, Germany, by July 16, and another
ten from Donaldson arrived the following day..........................

and so on.
I'm trying to determine whether or not the UK got involved, or whether the crisis in Jordan overruled any support for the US in Lebanon.

[Wander00]

ISTR a film, maybe RAF, made about the crisis and shown in cinemas


Thinking about it, the film I am thinking of may have been a Kuwait crisis in the 60s.

[brakedwell]

Any UK military aid to Lebanon would almost certainly have been channelled through RAF Nicosia or Akrotiri.I never saw or heard anything involving Lebanon during my two month stint in Nicosia. As all our Hastings formation/para dropping exercises were at night I flew the Levant Comm Squadron Meteors out of Nicosia during the day, when it was too hot for Hunters to operate, so I was aware of what was going on in the air around Cyprus at that time. I don't think the UK did get involved in the Lebanon, unless Transport Command's aborted operation to fly arms to Amman was part of the bigger picture.

The stream of Beverleys and Hastings staging through Orange and Istres around that time were in fact flying to Nicosia for the Amman airlift.

[brakedwell]

Thinking about it, the film I am thinking of may have been a Kuwait crisis in the 60s.

That was triggered on July 1st 1961 when Kuwait became responsible for it's Foreign Affairs.

[Cornish Jack]

Yes, we were briefed for Amman and set off but were recalled IIRC about half an hour out - presumably when the Hastings were turned back.

[Gerry Mobbs]

In 1958 I was working ,as a National Serviceman,in ATC at Waterbeach.In July three of us were suddenly(2hrs notice)sent to Innsworth and then after a few days posted to Nicosia.The intention was to be part of a force to go to Jordan.When we got to Nicosia in fact we replaced people who had already gone.I worked in Wing Ops until December when I was posted back to Waterbeach.During this time a lot of USAAF flights passed through Nicosia from Adana .I can only remember C124 globemasters doing this run and no C119,s.Hope this is of some use to you.
Also at this time there was a RAF Comet at Nicosia which had a modified nose which was very "pointed" It used to take off after dark and return in the early morning and a number of personnel would take over one of our rooms and playback what must have been recorded data from portable machines.I have never been able to find phot,s or descriptions of this "spy plane".

[l.garey]

Gerry Mobbs:
That Comet could have been one of those operated by 51 squadron on surveillance flights from Nicosia to the Black Sea region. The first of these was XK655 (ex G-AMXA) modified to the R2 ELINT version by Marshalls in 1955. There were several others also modified for 51 squadron. XK655 went to the Strathallen museum, where it suffered a landing accident, then the nose went to display at Gatwick and now resides at the Al Mahatta museum in Sharjah.
https://sites.google.com/site/lgarey/rafsharjah%2Calmahattamuseum

see also:51 Sqn in the 1960's (http://www.spyflight.co.uk/51sqn.htm)

Laurence

[Gerry Mobbs]

Thanks for the info,Laurence.I was beginning to think I had imagined it!

[Jackonicko]

Gerry,

As I.Garey says, No.51 Squadron did operate Comets in the electronic/signals reconnaissance role.

They became operational from February 1958 with No.192 Squadron (which re-numbered as 51 in August that year). The first two Comets (XK663 and XK659) operated in the Middle East several times during 1958, and in July 1958 both aircraft (together with Canberras WJ775 and WT301) deployed to Nicosia for a series of what were euphemistically known as 'Radio Proving Flights'. They returned to the UK on 16 July.

Better yet, in his 1983 article on 'Cryptic Comets' in Aviation News, Paul Jackson described another 51 Squadron Comet, XK697, as being "used for training and some special installations (at one time carrying a nose probe) before being retired on 9 February 1973."

In his book on the Comet, Martin Painter wrote about the same aircraft: "........ the aircraft was transferred to electronic intelligence 51 Squadron at RAF Wyton. The Comet was used for training and some intelligence gathering work, necessitating the fitting of a long nose probe for a period."

Could this explain your pointy-nosed Comet?

Unfortunately, the aircraft in question did not join No.51 until 1 March 1967, and there's no evidence of the other Squadron aircraft ever carrying such a probe.

Moreover XK697's previous history included loans back to DH for Comet 4 Q-feel and ASI development in 1959 and 1960, which could easily have necessitated the installation of just such a probe.

Jackson's article included this photo:

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/12042908_10207952683637582_8610194533252448461_n.jpg?oh=455e 3263b1200293e78aff1d07544a9a&oe=56898530

Here's a close up:

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/v/t1.0-9/12187649_10207952684477603_2112514942100209989_n.jpg?oh=b699 31c093ececd7d38777a2568a73e5&oe=56CB1BE5

But in 1958, 192 and 51's Comets looked like this:

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10460781_10207952663477078_2224694656038824420_n.jpg?oh=05f7 1b3a2c800f59588fed6318909c7a&oe=56847736