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Just like Null Orifice (Post #2 in the thread) I was posted to 60/64 Sqdn. Kuching detachment in May '64 never having played with Javelins, so was sent to Tengah or a month in June for familiarisation training. Accomodated in the 'Stables' convenient for the swimming pool and JC's curry stall. Frequent Mercedes taxi races to town and back. One day was advised by a local to get back to base as there was trouble - apparently a Chinese resident had thrown something at a Mohammed's Birthday parade and it escalated. We were confined to base until it died down, and as part of the preparations for further trouble found myself issued with one end of a banner reading 'If you pass this point you will be shot' in multiple languages. Requests for information om my personal status if they passed that point did not elicit an encouraging answer. In the event, after a few days normal Bugis Street sorties were resumed.
While at Kuching we could take 2 weeks leave either locally (transport to/from Changi available) or save it for return to UK. As a singly, local was welcome; I set of on a leisurely trip up the peninsula to Penang via Malacca, KL and Ipoh, intending to visit a few other places during the second week; arriving at the Sandycroft NAAFI Holiday Centre outside Georgetown started a 6 day stay there - too much opportunity for tourism and mischief. Commuting Singapore/Sarawak on RNZAF Bristol Freighter or Beverley wasn't luxury air travel, but got you there. Happy days. |
Originally Posted by Fitter2
(Post 10164631)
arriving at the Sandycroft NAAFI Holiday Centre outside Georgetown started a 6 day stay there - too much opportunity for tourism and mischief.
Astra Gazette No 4 - British Pathé |
1 Attachment(s)
Roving, the leave centre shown in that news clip is not Sandycroft but the original RAF Leave Centre, Elysian.
The building was an old colonial villa that belonged to the family of an ex-RAF Changi Stn Cdr who, around the start of the Emergency period, allowed its use as a leave centre for Singapore-based RAF personnel only. Elysian was some two hundred yards up the road,closer to town, from Sandycroft which, at that time was the Army Leave Centre. Elysian closed circa 1960(?) and NAAFI took over the Army centre which was then used by all the services. It was demolished some time ago and the site now houses four tower blocks of high-end condos. Much of Sandycroft is still recognisable today and is now known as the Dalat International School. |
74 Sqn losses
MPN11 and Roving
In your posts on 29 May I think that you might be muddling 2 separate losses here (in addition to that of Frank W). It was Mike T (not Pete) who had the control problem downwind but that was in September 1968. The 26 May 70 loss was John (Jock) Webster who flew into the sea at night. |
Much of Sandycroft is still recognisable today and is now known as the Dalat International School. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dala...ational_School http://www.dalat.org/web/da-school-history/ As conflict began to grow in the region around Dalat School, missionaries who worked in neighboring countries questioned the wisdom of sending their children to Dalat. Was it safe? Then on Friday afternoon, April 16, 1965, the US. Embassy in Saigon notified the school that it could no longer guarantee its safety. Dalat was given 48 hours to pack up and leave. It was Easter weekend. The school choir sang its cantata as planned on Sunday morning, but the rest of the time was spent sorting, packing, and crating. The librarian was allowed to choose 100 books. All file cabinets had slat crates build around them. The children’s bicycles and pets were left behind. On Monday, four C-123 U.S. military planes safely transported the entire student body with its 11 tons of belongings to Bangkok, Thailand. |
Originally Posted by lauriebe
(Post 10165223)
Roving, the leave centre shown in that news clip is not Sandycroft but the original RAF Leave Centre, Elysian.
The building was an old colonial villa that belonged to the family of an ex-RAF Changi Stn Cdr who, around the start of the Emergency period, allowed its use as a leave centre for Singapore-based RAF personnel only. Elysian was some two hundred yards up the road,closer to town, from Sandycroft which, at that time was the Army Leave Centre. Elysian closed circa 1960(?) and NAAFI took over the Army centre which was then used by all the services. It was demolished some time ago and the site now houses four tower blocks of high-end condos. Much of Sandycroft is still recognisable today and is now known as the Dalat International School. |
nipva ... yes, I did indeed get some of the facts muddled. It’s an age thing, of course! |
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