RAF Nicosia - Cyprus.
 

RAF Nicosia remains officially an RAF airbase despite being embedded in a UN Buffer Zone. It is a terrible waste of an aviation asset but in 2010 I was tasked to conduct a survey on the airfield. The Control Tower made an impression, as beneath the decay lay an Art Deco building that once upon a time would have been a fantastic building / workplace. I decided that I would do my bit to preserve the aviation heritage of the RAF at Nicosia and paint the scene circa early sixties. If you like, the lull before the storm that was the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The oil painting that I have created took months to complete, but I am very happy with the result and hope you dont mind if I share it on this most appropriate of internet pages.
http://home.btconnect.com/aeroartist/hastings.jpg

Great Painting
That brought back many happy memories
thanks for sharing

Beautiful painting. You've caught the atmosphere of that time perfectly. Including the pride in the job shown by lining up the props!

Fantastic painting, TM.

Why did you decide to have the airman saluting?

I could BS you and say that the pilot was a VSO but in reality I witnessed someone looking afar and despite being downstream of the sun, they used the cup of their hands for shade. You have to portray humans doing something else thy all look like matchstick men. You are the second person to make that observation.

TM,
Thanks for the reply.

It's a GREAT painting - up there with Cuneo. Well done. I am envious of your skill.

Impressed you have great talent.

Thank you very much for sharing it here - you certainly achieved your objective with this excellent painting.

I have a feeling many on here will use the picture as wallpaper on their desktops. Very well done!

TM

I think that it is smashing, can I now encourage you to do another one with the UCB Beverley?

I did a Beverley many years ago depicted overhead Borneo.
http://ukmamsoba.org/ArtBev.jpg

What is a 'UCB' Beverley?

TM

I'm jealous of your talents, another smashing picture.

It was a scheduled weekly flight, the UK Cyprus - Beverley.

It left RAF Abingdon on Friday morning. Stopped for lunch/fuel at Istres/Orange, then onto Luqa, where freight/pax for Malta were off loaded and the crew night stopped.

On the Saturday it flew to Nicosia, where their freight/pax were off-loaded and return freight loaded. Again the crew night stopped.

On the Sunday pax loaded and it flew Nicosia - Luqa, another night stop and returning freight/pax loaded.

Monday morning, Luqa - Istres/Orange stop for lunch and fuel.
Monday afternoon home run to Abingdon.

The a/c that crashed with the police dogs on board in I think 1957, was a UCB!

When I was posted to Istres in Sept 57, I went out as 'supernumerary crew' on a UCB. We 'pax' were labeled supernumerary crew as the pilot was not qualified to carry pax!

I was sure that the 'U' would be for 'ungainly', but I stand corrected...;)

Lovely paintings!

Impressive painting Tiger mate. I took these early morning photos in April 1958, a rather barren scene looking south.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...s3d7d4d00.jpeg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...s932e4a88.jpeg

The thing is, Brakedwell, there isn't much to see in that direction until you come to the Troodos range. Looking north, however, as Tiger mate shows so well, you have the Kyrenia Range. I was lucky enough to fly Wessex there in '69 as part of the UN force, and much of our work was resupplying the posts up in the ranges. Off duty was sailing off, and drinking in, Kyrenia.

Ah, Kyrenia, Clitos and the Harbour Club.
One of our tasks was to remind Eoka they were being watched when I flew the Levant Comm Squadron Meteors. Authorised low flying in the Troodos mountains was very popular with us youngsters.

1963 No 88 Entry from the Towers undertook the last College leadership camp in Cyprus, based in a little camp called Yialla in the Kyrenia Mountains. These days we often have a week or two in N Cyprus with friends who long term rent there in the winter. Couple of years back out on a drive unexpectedly came across Yialla Camp, now occupied by the Turkish Army so did not hang around nor take pictures. Last year found ourselves in the waterfront hotel with the dome, cannot think of the name, and realised I had last been there 52 years earlier - from memory did not seem a lot had changed, except for the very rude Russians.

Wander00, thanks for reminding me of the Dome. I was trying to remember the name of the hotel we used to stay in back in 1958. Us Transport Command lot used to have a three week accomodation rotation while waiting to take part in a "secret" airborne assault, but which never happened, somewhere in the Middle East. Many years later I learned the target was Teheran with a diversion to Bahrain after dropping the paratroops.
For three months Hastings and Beverley crew accommodation was rotated, with week one in tents at RAF Nicosia on permanent standby from 1800 to midnight when not practicing large night formations (cock-ups), week two at the Ledra Palace in Nicosia on standby from 0600 to 1200 and week three in the Dome at Kyrenia letting our hair down. All this was done with a Smith and Wesson, loaded with five bullets, shoved in our trouser pockets as there were no holsters available in Cyprus. Sometimes I swapped my Ledra week for another tent week on the airfield to get more hours on the the Levant Comm Squadron Meteors.
Returning from a heavy night in the Harbour Club our Flt Sgt Signaller met an EOKA terrorist on the second storey landing in the Dome, drew his six shooter and fired at said EOKA man, who drew his gun at the same time. A full length mirror shattered and our crew had to chip in for a replacement. The real problem was getting another .38 bullet. I think the Flt Engineer twisted an arm in the armoury and an almost inevitable Court Martial was averted.

Brandy-sour ice-cream anyone?

Quite near to Nicosia was an airfield at Tymbou. I believe it was last used for regular flying by the French Air Force during Suez.

Hi Rosevidney1, I believe that airfield is now the main airport for the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, now renamed Ercan.

Re. the Dome hotel and the Harbour Club - Bev crews were allowed 3 days 'R&R' at the Dome after a week or so in shared tents on Niccy airfield. The trip there, in 3 tonners, was hair-raising at the hairpins on the descent on the Kyrenia side. The Harbour Club was excellent for night time activity and, until the house was trashed 3 years ago, I still had one of their bar cards which carried a description of downing Brandy Sours concluding with something like "I'm not half as thunk as some drinkle peep I am ..." the rest has faded with the departing brain cells - an effect of Brandy Sours, perhaps??
Niccy airfield was also where a demo of a Bev landing with brakes on caused considerable chaos and the Cyprus Airways Trident diversion. It was also where the perils of Bev towing with nobody on the brakes was shown to be VERY expensive.
HOW LONG AGO!!!:eek::eek::eek:

I have to ask, what type is the aircraft in the painting (post 1)?
My Spotting Superpowers have failed me.

Edit: is a Handley Page Hastings ?

HP 67 Hastings C Mk 1.

Thanks brakedwell.
Transport aircraft were a low priority for boning up on when I was younger.
:)

Lovely photos Brakedwell, that Mystere is actually an Indian AF machine on delivery.

Thanks Steve. I had that wrong for almost 59 years! BTW I enjoyed Meteor Boys.

Out of interest I note the reference to Timbou, a satellite A/F to Nicosia. I recollect we used this field fairly frequently in the early '60s for 38Group Exercises flying in and out with the early Argosy.
One beautiful early morning in Summer 1963, two of us were relaxing having operated several times in/out to Nicosia, watching the newly formed Army Air Corps doing circuit training in the still air of Timbou.
In shock horror and regrettable hilarity we observed the 3 Army aircraft consecutively destroy themselves in quick succession!
A deep destructive landing was followed by a more injurious short landing and the third tyro was gunned down by a 'friendly' mortar, low level downwind!
I am told no fatalities resulted thankfully but we rather blotted our fraternal service association by recounting with amazed 'superior' glee our experiences on return to the Nicosia mess to incredulous pilots of all types back in those heady days!
A BOAC colleague, ex Army Air Corps, was not convinced of this story in later years until evidence was 'dug up'! How are you Barry C down in OZ?

Lovely painting Tiger Mate :)
It is a really nice little control tower - funnily enough we saw it on a film a couple of days ago - They Who Dare 1954 with Dirk Bogarde.
They used Nicosia for the Airfield scenes - the Aircraft being 3 x Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 (Lebanese Air Force) Trimotors.

Here is a screen grab -the image will enlarge if you click on it !

I was there late last year, and was sorry to see that the tower was in a 'state of disrepair' for want of a better description. Unfortunately I didn't have time to take any pictures of it, although I still have some from UN Whirlwind days, including some of the shrapnel damage from the invasion straffing.
(Couple of stories from that day - Wg Cdr Ops at Akrotiri shouting down the phone to SATCO (hiding under the table) to get the bloody airfield open as they needed it as a div for the Lightnings, and C** A** suffering a 'flesh wound' whilst standing on top of the tower taking photos of the Turkish F84's in GA mode!)

I once had to refuel a Hastings in a howling gale at Keflavik on the way to Christmas Island via Goose Bay. To get to the fuel tank cap I had to remove a disc of the wing's skin that should have been attached by a bonding wire. It wasn't. It slipped out of my frozen fingers and set off on it's edge downwind at a great rate. I slid off the wing and set off in pursuit. It went b****y miles before fortunately fetching up in a snow drift. It was a long cold plod back up-wind to the aircraft. Configuration Deviation Lists hadn't been invented then or I might have been tempted.

The more that I look at that picture (and I look at it every time I switch my computer on) the more I see an imperious chameleon sizing up the bloke with the fire extinguisher with its left eye before flicking out a tongue and gobbling him up!

I see nobody has followed up on the brandy-sour icecream. There was a bar on the front at Kyrenia where we would repair after an afternoon's sailing. The idea was a very cold icecream, over which one would pour a brandy-sour. The icecream warmed a little, and the drink cooled. A delicious combination.

Another thing that comes to mind, does anyone remember the UN convoy that ran daily between Nicosia and Kyrenia, through the Turkish area? The purpose was to enable contact for families and traders between the two Greek Cypriot areas. Our aim was to try and get off work early enough to beat this. It travelled, with a UN escort front and rear, at the speed of the slowest vehicle. Cypriot family car?

That sounds like a great idea Herod, unfortunately it was after my time. The island was still one politically, yet split ethnically. We got on very well with the Turkish Cypriots. At that time the Greek Cypriot owner of the Dome had been detained for his EOKA sympathies/connections. Did you frequent Clito's up the hill on the main road into Kyrenia IIRC?

UN Convoy
 

@Herod, I certainly do remember the convoy. I was only young at the time though. My father, now retired after 30 years in the RAF, was posted there in 1969, and we left in 1972.

I can still remember arriving at Akrotiri in August 1969. It was so hot it felt like landing in the middle of the Sahara desert. And going back to the UK in November 1972 felt like going back to the arctic.

We lived in Berengaria; does anyone else here remember it?

One of the things I do remember is the convoy, although my memory of it is that we just drove straight past it.

I have a lot of other memories as well, not strictly relevant to this thread, but the 8-hour flights to and from the UK on the Britannia is one of them.

The last time I went into Clito's the poor chap was in a bit of a state. He had been beaten up by some drunken Canadian UN soldiers and was almost blind. He told us to help ourselves and leave some money. Very sad.

That is more than sad Jock. He was a super bloke, who cheerfully put up with five armed idiots who couldn't hit a barn door at five paces.

1962-64 there were some married quarters there, I believe ex-Army, that were used by Akrotiri. Friends of ours moved into one of them, when we visited, we were introduced to the cat! It was the size of a medium dog and came with the property.

There was also a NAAFI Families Shop there.

I was one of a large detachment sent to Cyprus in July 1957.The object was to give support to King Hussein of Jordan who's cousin the king of Iraq had been overthrown and assasinated.I was an ATC ops clerk and worked for some time in the local control of the tower so the painting brings back memories,the heat was intense and I think we worked 20mins on and 40mins off.
In December I flew home by the UCB flight via El Adem and overnight stop in Malta.The Beverly went u/s in Orange so we were put up in a hotel overnight then a Hastings was sent out the following day to get us back to the UK.