Four Wings
4th Nov 2019, 11:10
Old timers, particularly those with a South Arabian background, may be amused by the following extract from an article in the current issue of the Journal of the British-Yemani Society. The article is a compilation of letters written by Winkie Allen from Aden to her three daughters at school in Britain 1948-52. She was the wife of John Allen, British Agent in the Western Aden Protectorate (WAP). She often travelled with him, although not on this occasion.
Travelling in WAP wasn't easy, as there were very few proper roads. The beach formed the road eastward to EAP [Eastern Aden Protectorate], but inland and westward any tracks were rough and treacherous, and often swept away by flash floods. John and his fellow [political] officers often needed to get around quickly, so they used planes from the RAF base. On one occasion John was flying with some senior local dignitaries, when they ran into a sandstorm. It ripped loose the fabric on the nose of the elderly plane they were flying in, and the material whirled back over the cockpit, completely blinding the pilot. A dignified Arab drew his dagger and passed it forward to the co-pilot, who was able to reach round and cut the fabric loose. The Arabs were quite unperturbed: they evidently thought this was an everyday happening, like mending a puncture or dealing with a recalcitrant camel!...
The dagger will have been a jambiya, the large ornately decorated curved dagger worn slung over the stomach by many Yemeni men.
I wonder what the plane would have been? I suggest a Dragon Rapide, ubiquitous at that time, but does any body know what the RAF might have had as a fabric covered communications aircraft in Aden (old Khormaksar) during that period?
Travelling in WAP wasn't easy, as there were very few proper roads. The beach formed the road eastward to EAP [Eastern Aden Protectorate], but inland and westward any tracks were rough and treacherous, and often swept away by flash floods. John and his fellow [political] officers often needed to get around quickly, so they used planes from the RAF base. On one occasion John was flying with some senior local dignitaries, when they ran into a sandstorm. It ripped loose the fabric on the nose of the elderly plane they were flying in, and the material whirled back over the cockpit, completely blinding the pilot. A dignified Arab drew his dagger and passed it forward to the co-pilot, who was able to reach round and cut the fabric loose. The Arabs were quite unperturbed: they evidently thought this was an everyday happening, like mending a puncture or dealing with a recalcitrant camel!...
The dagger will have been a jambiya, the large ornately decorated curved dagger worn slung over the stomach by many Yemeni men.
I wonder what the plane would have been? I suggest a Dragon Rapide, ubiquitous at that time, but does any body know what the RAF might have had as a fabric covered communications aircraft in Aden (old Khormaksar) during that period?