RAF KHORMAKSAR
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Zetec2
Were you on 90 or 214 Sqdn?
I was on 214 from Feb 59 - Oct 62, we 1st used Karachi (Mauripur) in 1960. This was a 3 week detachment when we had tankers in Cyprus and Karachi to refuel one of our Valiant's doing the 1st non-stop flight to Singapore, and return.
We ground crew flew out in a Hastings. It took 3 days, with night stops at El Adem and Khormaksar. We stayed in a dump called the North Western Hotel. The orficers were in the Pak Air Force mess, it turned out that we had the better deal!
But, we ALL got dysentery.
On the way back we stopped for 2 nights at Khormaksar, porportedly to rest the Hastings crew, and our MO told us to rest and drink lots of liquid. At this point some wag calls out; 'does that include beer Doc?' To which the MO replied 'Yes, beer is fine.'
So we all spent our day off on the beach with the fenced off piece of sea. Alternatively drinking beer and cooling off in the sea. In my memory, the 'club' on the beach was referred to as some sort of NAAFI establishment. We all thought it luxurious after Karachi.
But thankfully I never visited Khormaksar again. As after that trip, Transport Command always supplied us with a Britannia, which had the range to reach Karachi in 2 days, via Akrotiri.
For my sins I visited Karachi another 4 times
though the RAF used a slightly better hotel, The Palace. The orficers also stayed there, no more PAF Mess for them.
My last visit was in slightly humorous conditions. After my almost 4 years on 214, I was posted to Akrotiri, there I assigned to the Green Satin bench in the Electronics Centre. A very different existence to on the line with a Sqdn.
73 Sqdn were going to Mauripur for a 1 week CENTO Exercise in the 1st week of December 1963. But one of their Radar Fitters was tour ex in December, and he might have to go home in the 1st week. So they asked the Signals Squadron to supply a replacement, and I got lumbered.
I was told to report to the Sqdn with my passport. So this nice clean moony from the air-conditioned 'gin-palace', gets a lift to the dispersal and arrives at the Flt. Sgts desk and hands over my passport. He looks up at me while opening my passport and says, 'You know we are going to Karachi, don't you?' At this point he looked down at my passport, he had opened it where it had two pages covered with Karachi in and out stamps!
It turned out that I was the only person on the detachment that had been there before. I immediatly had credibillity and I became the Sqdn Guide!
As for the 'whore's draws' on the Valiant, even as a fairy, I did my time on those bl**dy winches.
Were you on 90 or 214 Sqdn?
I was on 214 from Feb 59 - Oct 62, we 1st used Karachi (Mauripur) in 1960. This was a 3 week detachment when we had tankers in Cyprus and Karachi to refuel one of our Valiant's doing the 1st non-stop flight to Singapore, and return.
We ground crew flew out in a Hastings. It took 3 days, with night stops at El Adem and Khormaksar. We stayed in a dump called the North Western Hotel. The orficers were in the Pak Air Force mess, it turned out that we had the better deal!
But, we ALL got dysentery.
On the way back we stopped for 2 nights at Khormaksar, porportedly to rest the Hastings crew, and our MO told us to rest and drink lots of liquid. At this point some wag calls out; 'does that include beer Doc?' To which the MO replied 'Yes, beer is fine.'
So we all spent our day off on the beach with the fenced off piece of sea. Alternatively drinking beer and cooling off in the sea. In my memory, the 'club' on the beach was referred to as some sort of NAAFI establishment. We all thought it luxurious after Karachi.
But thankfully I never visited Khormaksar again. As after that trip, Transport Command always supplied us with a Britannia, which had the range to reach Karachi in 2 days, via Akrotiri.
For my sins I visited Karachi another 4 times
though the RAF used a slightly better hotel, The Palace. The orficers also stayed there, no more PAF Mess for them.My last visit was in slightly humorous conditions. After my almost 4 years on 214, I was posted to Akrotiri, there I assigned to the Green Satin bench in the Electronics Centre. A very different existence to on the line with a Sqdn.
73 Sqdn were going to Mauripur for a 1 week CENTO Exercise in the 1st week of December 1963. But one of their Radar Fitters was tour ex in December, and he might have to go home in the 1st week. So they asked the Signals Squadron to supply a replacement, and I got lumbered.
I was told to report to the Sqdn with my passport. So this nice clean moony from the air-conditioned 'gin-palace', gets a lift to the dispersal and arrives at the Flt. Sgts desk and hands over my passport. He looks up at me while opening my passport and says, 'You know we are going to Karachi, don't you?' At this point he looked down at my passport, he had opened it where it had two pages covered with Karachi in and out stamps!
It turned out that I was the only person on the detachment that had been there before. I immediatly had credibillity and I became the Sqdn Guide!
As for the 'whore's draws' on the Valiant, even as a fairy, I did my time on those bl**dy winches.
We were indeed issued with goollie chits. Here is part of mine (the original is about A3 size and it won't fit in my scanner). For fun, I used to carry it with me when I went cross-country in a glider in UK. If I landed out I used to present it to the farmer and it raised many a smile.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
JW, I had pads of these all copy numbered. As they promised an adequate reward to the holder on handing over a complete aircrew they had monetary value.
I never had any instructions on when to issue or how to account for them. Logically each should have been issued against name and signature. I wonder if mine would still work today.
I never had any instructions on when to issue or how to account for them. Logically each should have been issued against name and signature. I wonder if mine would still work today.
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Valiants !
Ian16th, 214 Sqd, engine then HDU fitter.from December 1960 to March 1962, were you there when the bog blew up ? frozen Ascot vent pipe if memory serves, Al Smith wrote "an Ode to a Bog" which even appeared in Air Clues, I had a blue Isetta bubble car, any help, Paul H.
I never had any instructions on when to issue or how to account for them. Logically each should have been issued against name and signature. I wonder if mine would still work today.
Valiants at Karachi and we stayed in "Min" Wallers hotel,
Each room had two cold and two hot taps on each sink. One produced water and the other running slime. The theory was that they had decided to change the plumbing but hadn't taken the old lot out.
There were two lift shafts. There was only one lift. Beside the gates was a unguarded void which was the other lift shaft.
The kitchen was fully fly-screened. That was to stop the flies coming into the dining room.
All our aircrew and ground crew stayed there, I shared a room with a flight sergeant, but the detachment medics stayed in the Speedbird.
Pontius Navigator wrote:
I'm surprised that you haven't already tried to flog them on eBay, along with your old aircrew socks and shreddies......
I never had any instructions on when to issue or how to account for them. Logically each should have been issued against name and signature. I wonder if mine would still work today.
Pas devant les memsahibs ....
Did any of you local Aden heroes have any business or social contact with the inestimable and allegedly invaluable Mrs Maria Theresa ? I haven't seen her mentioned yet, so was she ever allowed into the Tarshyne Club, for instance ? ........ ..... LFH
..... LFH
allegedly invaluable Mrs Maria Theresa
Lordflasheart - you're not by chance mistaking Maria Theresa for Mrs Thaler?
Latter is familiar to me (and my wife). Mrs T opened many doors in the souk if you flashed her to the locals.
Mrs T's from my collection below:
Latter is familiar to me (and my wife). Mrs T opened many doors in the souk if you flashed her to the locals.
Mrs T's from my collection below:
MT Dollars:
I can well remember taking boxes of MT Dollars to Riyan and Salalah. The local workers would not accept being paid with anything else and certainly would not countenance paper money. I believe Maria Theresa died in 1780 so any dollar minted after that, still carried the date of 1780. They were also replicated in quite a few other countries other than Austria but the one common denominater was that they were 11/13ths fine (in old measurements). In other words, each coin had a silver content of about 85%.
I can well remember taking boxes of MT Dollars to Riyan and Salalah. The local workers would not accept being paid with anything else and certainly would not countenance paper money. I believe Maria Theresa died in 1780 so any dollar minted after that, still carried the date of 1780. They were also replicated in quite a few other countries other than Austria but the one common denominater was that they were 11/13ths fine (in old measurements). In other words, each coin had a silver content of about 85%.
We used to deliver ammunition boxes full of MTD's to the Sultan's Armed Forces spread around Muscat and Oman. They were dumped in our twin pins with no covering paperwork or signatures required. i remember one box being forgotten when a roll of borasti slipped and covered it during heavy turbulence. Returning the MTD's to their rightful owned was a hell of a palaver.
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On a stop over in Salalah I once helped to "count" several ammo boxes worth of MT dollars we had brought in with a mate of mine who was the "Fallous Man" on the strength there as a punishment posting. He said that one in a thousand was a genuine minted MT dollar from 1780 and all the rest were copies valued at a third of a pound each. I don't remember finding any genuine ones and we turned up at the mess with hands black as a miners from the silver. It cost him a lot of gin and tonics before the mortars started coming in from the Jebel. At that stage we couldn't care less with a couple of mil of wriggly tin above us to keep them out. Scared the little birds in the aviary though.
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I attended a conference in Vienna, C1974, all of the attendee's were given a MTD as a keepsake.
Yes it is dated 1780.
SWMBO promptly had it mounted to wear on a chain.
Looking at, it needs a clean
Yes it is dated 1780.
SWMBO promptly had it mounted to wear on a chain.
Looking at, it needs a clean
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Dubai 1972
Mid '72, was in the workshops of the GM Dealers getting my 'Pontiac Acadien' (a Canadian built Chevy Nova!!!) serviced and this wizened old Arab appeared
Apparently he was there to purchase his 'boycotted' Jaguar XJ 6 (or 12), he had a 'Dick Whittington ' style poke on a stick over his shoulder which he proceeded to empty onto a workbench
Yes you've guessed it, the complete purchase price (probably about £3K in those days) in Gold coin - £5 & sovereigns plus MT dollars!!!
As mentioned this was a 'boycotted Jaguar', apparently there was a list of approximately a dozen pre boycotted orders and every time one wa imported a small fee ensured that the outstanding balance remained the same!!!!
PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)
Apparently he was there to purchase his 'boycotted' Jaguar XJ 6 (or 12), he had a 'Dick Whittington ' style poke on a stick over his shoulder which he proceeded to empty onto a workbench
Yes you've guessed it, the complete purchase price (probably about £3K in those days) in Gold coin - £5 & sovereigns plus MT dollars!!!
As mentioned this was a 'boycotted Jaguar', apparently there was a list of approximately a dozen pre boycotted orders and every time one wa imported a small fee ensured that the outstanding balance remained the same!!!!
PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)
Who remembers the shanty town on the mountainside overlooking Maalla ?
We lived on the South side of Maalla in a penthouse hiring. My memories from there were of looking out the back at Slave Island and seeing the ancient art of building dhows. I also recall a big fire in shanty town, it swept right across the mountainside and I think it was all but over by the time fire engines got there. My dad said he reckoned that most of the houses were built from MFO boxes and suchlike.
We lived on the South side of Maalla in a penthouse hiring. My memories from there were of looking out the back at Slave Island and seeing the ancient art of building dhows. I also recall a big fire in shanty town, it swept right across the mountainside and I think it was all but over by the time fire engines got there. My dad said he reckoned that most of the houses were built from MFO boxes and suchlike.
Here are some more shots of Steamer Point. I love the photographs that R4H is posting. They obviously show the beginning of Maalla Straight etc as we knew it. As for the shanty town referred to by AnglianAV8R; I also lived south of Maalla Straight and I think you can see the shanty town in my posts 212/213.
MT Thalers
As I commented previously in another thread:
Thalers bearing the date 1780 are not worth much, too many were made including many made by the London Mint. They were made in London until 1962 when production ceased.
FWIW the Maria Theresa thaler bearing the date of 1780 is a "protected coin" for the purposes of Part II of the UK's Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981. Among other things this Act makes counterfeiting legal as long as it's done by the government!
FWIW the Maria Theresa thaler bearing the date of 1780 is a "protected coin" for the purposes of Part II of the UK's Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981. Among other things this Act makes counterfeiting legal as long as it's done by the government!