RAF El Adem in the 1960s
 

Interesting film - how it used to be, RAF flying the army out for an exercise.
And have just found a similar film on Aden

Did a few dets to El Adem from Cyprus. Always took some oranges for the perm. staff. Saw my one and only camel spider there, in the line tent one night. Our tough old WO almost passed out with fright!:eek:

Night stopping there in 1960, after spending the evening in the 'Transit Bar', returned to our transit accommodation, and one of our guys found one in his bed!

We all then checked VERY carefully before getting between the sheets.

I didn't think they had waafs there.

Much enjoyed those links ... Thanks, Ricardian.

I managed to avoid being posted straight to El Adem after the ATC course, unlike one of my fellow Plt Offs. I also avoided Salalah, after Innsworth discovered I hadn't done the Unit Fire Officer course, so they sent me to Tengah instead :cool:

So, apart from Stanley, it was life on main bases or large ATCRUs. And HQs. Somehow I feel I missed out on the full experience.

Sharjah 1963-64 was an RAF station in miniature, eg. CO = SqnLdr, SATCO = Cpl

PN:-
Well if they ever did it would have been before Feb 1949. :)

My memories of El Adem are restricted to brief night flying detachments on 242OCU, both on Hastings and Hercules. Lots of night, little light, other than from the airfield lighting itself.

One night we ended up sharing the circuit with a Hunter. As a result of the difference in the finals distance that we each required, the Hunter ended up on extended finals, presumably then losing spatial orientation, and managed to do a touch and go on a sand dune some 2 miles out (as was subsequently confirmed the following day). He wisely decided on making his intended roller a full stop, and packed it in for the night. We however had to stumble on...

As others have said El Adem had little to commend it. Idris on the other hand did, and it was a sad day when the RAF (and hence the OCU detachment) was obliged to quit it.

i'm sure they deployed fg offs as SATCOs in the region ... suitably supported by SNCO controllers, of course. I have access to a photo of the fg off SATCO at Salalah ;)

There were some teachers down in Tobruk at the Services School. I used to meet them every time I went through El Adem. One of my friends married one.

Brilliant place - enjoyed almost every minute - it helped if you were a sailor or a diver. Lived most of the tour in the sailing club in Tobruk, completely unspoilt and very basic, hot bread from the hole in the floor, food from the souk.

What more could one want - ah yes, the older scaly brat summer visitors who just wanted to be on the water. In between shifts one could sail for 3 days without returning to base. :ok:

A truly nostalgic video - thanks for posting.

Imagegear

Chug, scurrilous joke.

Anyway, we did a ranger there, 65 IIRC, at the same time as the Hastings had been grounded world-wide. Rather than recover the crew from El Adem they were attached to the GD Flt and on unit strength.

Meanwhile the staff in the aircrew feeder had little to do. We were messed in the feeder rather than the mess and before flight each day we were presented with th d evening menu.

I had my first chateaubriand there and one of the best and most memorable steaks ever in 50 years.

Ricardian

Thanks for the two links in your first post. The major exercise mentioned in link one is I believe "Exercise Starlight".

I was with 99 Sqn flying Britannias at the time and took some 8mm cine film during this exercise. Two screen grabs from my cine film below.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...eStarlight.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...dem-Finals.jpg

During STARLIGHT 99 and 511 Sqns flew twenty-nine Britannia sorties carrying 3,190 men, each with 80 lb of kit. I did three trips for this exercise between 9 - 18th March 1960.

Flight magazine has a three-page spread about the exercise here:
1960 | 0432 | Flight Archive

Did anyone ever call it 'Marham with sand'..?

No, because lots of people visited El Adem whereas Marham was more select.

For those that don't know, El Adem was renamed Gamel Abdel Nasser Airbase after we left.

"The Army and RAF work together to ensure their equipment fits."
Well, I can't speak for 2014 but that did make I smile :p

El Adem was the first place where I sampled brackish water :yuk:

Re Aden and the likes, one of the guys I was with served there and he told us one day that they built two of those big high water towers you used to see on a metal legs, after getting about 3/4 of the way up one stopped and started to get smaller while the other one continued up, enquiring he was told that someone had cocked up and that one was being built at the wrong camp. True or not I don't know, but it sounded about right.

When on det. there with 32 Sqdn the only water we had on
the line was supplied by a water bowser, it was foul. One day the El Adem Staish flew with us and whilst waiting to sign for his a/c asked for a drink of water, he was given one from the bowser. He was not amused when informed that was all we had. He immediately phoned the mess gave them an earful and pronto several large mess urns turned up with chilled, fairly fresh water.

Anybody who drove. or was driven in to Tobruk may have noticed that the telephone poles switched over half way to the coast road. This was because when they put up the poles and telephone lines they had started at each end, as agreed, on the left hand side, of the road.

In Aldershot there was, maybe there still is, a barrack block that had verandas and doors on both floors of the building. Work & Bricks had been given the plans for an Indian Army block by mistake and they had built it 'like what we were told'.

The Astra at Akrotiri (1965-67 time) was built 180 degrees out of kilter. It should have been an indoor cinema in winter and outdoor in summer. However, for outdoor use the audience would have had to sit in the main road.

And no mention yet of the 'Royal Toilet' built at El Adem, or the sound at night of exploding land mines left over from the Desert Campaign?