|
Alvis Leonides
Thanks for that, tlightb.
We have an airworthy Twin Pin not far from my mate's place. Quite an impressive performer - with a lovely sound. |
Even the Twin Pin became tactical camo coloured. It was not used in anger before I left for Bahrain in September 59. |
They never quite got to our apartment (thanks to the Poisoned Dwarfs) but it did create a certain amount of entertainment. - JW11
More "Poison" than "Poisoned" I suggest, although the bürgers of Minden would probably have preferred the latter....:hmm: Jack |
This was a daily occurrence . . er entertainment.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...pswe7izoey.jpg |
Re the above, one of our more exciting activities when I was with the regiment squadron at Khormaksar was to go off in a Whirlwind and "drop in " on the side of the road, usually somewhere near the causeway, and set up an impromptu road block for 20 minutes or so until the aircraft came back to pick us up. On one occasion I remember having to placate an angry car occupant as one of my chaps had asked his wife to get out of the car instead of asking the man himself to do it. Woman of course couldn't be searched, and who knew if their burkas were concealing small arms, grenades etc, which meant that the whole procedure was flawed.
Good fun though! |
Aircraft Pan at Khormaksar circa 1963
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b078610f5.jpeg
My own work https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....654d2f094.jpeg Unknown photographer |
Union Jack: Quite right; poison not poisoned.
|
http://www.frpilot.com/Dad/XH172.jpg
Here is another visiting Canberra. PR.9 XH172 from 39 Squadron. |
http://www.frpilot.com/Dad/88JB.jpg
Another French Air Force visitor; C-47A 42-100962 from Esc.88 in Djibouti. |
Kamaran
What a fascinating thread; the mention of Kamaran Island particularly peaked my interest.
My uncle was an Observer with 203 Sqn (Blenheims IVs) based at Khormaksar in 1940; at the time they were protecting shipping convoys from Italian attack. On one morning of action in Oct 40, the crew shot down their fifth Italian bomber, but before any celebrations could take place, they needed to rearm and refuel on Kamaran Island. Unfortunately they lost an engine on takeoff and whilst trying to get back to the runway, hit a mosque. The aircraft cartwheeled into the ground and burst into flames. Pilot killed outright, uncle and gunner survived impact but died of wounds the next day. I have pawed over Google Earth images of the island and can see something that is marked as a runway To the southern end is some ruins that I take to be what's left of the outpost (the words Kamaran Island can be seen in the sand) https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@15.35...!3m1!1e3?hl=en And just a little further south of those ruins I can more ruins (village?) with a building labelled as Al Iraqi mosque. I can only assume that this is the mosque that was hit. If any of you can shed any more light on RAF activity on Kamaran or indeed on this story, I would be most grateful. |
Dean,
IMHO they are wicker panniers that we also used on Hastings. SEAC packs were smaller and made of a canvas type of material. I wonder what mon ami 'dragartist' would make of the rusty roller ! |
I don't remember throwing anything out of the back of an Argosy made of wicker. It's a long time ago but I had it in my mind that SEAC packs were canvas containers weighing about 250 lbs.
The most common delivery method up-country in Aden was the 1-ton container which rested on the roller-conveyor floor of the freight bay and were pushed out over the sill of the clamshell doors by dispatchers. We would normally deliver 8 of those. We also had the ability to deliver two MSPs (Medium Stressed Platforms) which would typically each contain a Landrover and trailer but to my knowledge, this was never used in anger either in Aden or even later in Oman. Interestingly enough, there were several up-country strips (Mukeiras comes to mind) where we could have happily operated into but the powers that be in MEAF HQ would not authorise us to operate to Military Operating Standards. So, by applying Performance A standards we were restricted to the extent that we could actually deliver more payload by parachute than we could by landing! |
http://www.frpilot.com/Dad/MukeirasDZ.jpg
This was a dawn drop at Mukeiras. The DZ party were a bit surprised and if you look really closely, you will note that they have only just set off the aiming point flare (blue) to the left of the strip, halfway down. I believe we had a defence radar at Mukeiras? As you can see, the temptation to just go in and land was very high but our lords and masters at HQ were too involved in the art of CYA. |
We had 4 TAC qualified crews on 105 in my time. The plan was to rotate them so that everyone did their fair share of para detachments at Muharraq, but that never happened. I dropped quite a few One Ton Containers up country, but never landed there. Our 4 ship formation team was called "The Thunderboxes".
|
Harness packs to Habilayn
|
Mukeiras Radar.
JW411. I remember the Army had radar at Mukeiras and I had a look in the bunker at the display set up. I believe it was a mortar locating radar designed for locating incoming PDQ. A search shows the Army used Green Archer at this time so perhaps that was the kit. Someone out there may know more.
Mukeiras used to get a bit lively at times I seem to remember, the Yemeni border was very close. |
Harness pack results
DZ marking was very uninspired in those days with no distance markers.
http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...psfthqrqng.jpg |
Dhala Airstrip & CSE show May 1963
Dhala airstrip was regularly visited by 233Sqn Valettas. You could only land and take-off one way. An overshoot on a missed approach could be a challenge. ( I think that this is Dhala).
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....485c99ee7.jpeg Edna Savage was the star attraction. https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....8430f310e.jpeg https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7cc009abc.jpeg https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6fda8b68a.jpeg |
Nice to see photos from when we actually had an Air force
|
| All times are GMT. The time now is 08:14. |
Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.