Nimrods on Malta ?
 

While there are numerous images of Nimrods at Kinloss and to a lesser extent St. Mawgan, there are very few out there of Nimrods while serving with 203 Sqn. Does anyone have any interesting photographs or stories concerning the Maltese Nimrods that could help to fill a void for a publication planned for a year or so ?
Thanks XV148

Nimrods in Malta
 

I was on the first crew to arrive in Luqa on 203 sqn ostensibly to replace the venerable Shacks and ironically, the first crew to depart again during the Mintoff/ Carrington withdrawal. We didn't get very far - as far as the hold at Gozo until PLE because we didn't have Dip Clearance to go anywhere. After departing very noisily over Valetta, we landed again very quietly back on 06. The Malts were shooting 12 bore at us at our Sunspot dispersal so we moved all the machines further away from the boundary fences. We eventually left on New Years Eve to Akrotiri arriving about midnight.
That started 6 months of living anywhere and everywhere and eventually Sigo-piggin-nella living in the famous holiday camp.
Character forming? Hardly.

5aday

That sounds like a great dit abbreviated far, far too much.

Any chance of the full story please? Genuine request, I have no knowledge of these events.

"I have no knowledge of these events."

I think thats true of most of us
Did the Maltese population in general want us to go? or was the shooting just from a few extremists? I have a feeling that the UK exit from Malta is one of the least understood of our retreats from Empire
Any education would be appreciated!

I was there on the very last Nimrod out of Malta. By that time 203 had departed and this was a symbolic departure, flying around the island and then dropping to very low level in Grand Harbour to overfly the RN warship also departing for the final time.
This was on 120 Sqn.
Still remember the Gut, nowhere like that left anywhere.

I was in Malta for two years from 75-77, we were constantly being briefed to avoid the local Mintoff mafia who deliberatley tried to provoke responses from the Resident UK Mil. I got to know a lot of the local Maltese (had a flat in Gzira) and they were very happy with the status quo, sadly the backing that Mintoff had from countries like Libya seemed to play a big part in it all.

End result, massive riots in downtown Sliema after one of the lads form 40 Cdo was given a hiding, the rest of the Unit took umbrage. 41 was confined to barracks for about 4 weeks afterwards to let the dust settle.

IIRC it was summer 1976 when a Grimsod found the Kiev on her first sortie into the Med.
For weeks up until then, Morning Prayers almost always contained the phrase, or words to the effect of: "When we pull out of Malta".
On the Monday following the discovery, and photography, of the Kiev, there was a subtle change to the phraseology which then became: "If we pull out of Malta".

I was fortunate to have been brought up there and we had a load of Maltese friends. When I met them in 1976, the most common question I received was: "Tell me it's not true that the UK is leaving the Island!"

We went back for a holiday in '92. What was remarkable was the military barracks etc had simply been abandoned as if they were waiting for us to return. Bighi Hospital, as seen from Grand Harbour had, IIRC a massive set of doors that were open but the place desolate. The barracks at Tigne were only just being used as squats. Out of town there were camps, gates locked, barbed wire rusting but abandoned.

XV148,

Check PMs.

I was there from 74-77 as groundcrew, I was asked if I wanted to stay to the end but declined though not sure if that was a good or bad decision.

My memory was Mintoff and Gadaffi got in a deal over de-salination plants that Gadaffi would pay for in exchange for the use of Luqa with the RAF to leave.

I have some scanned in photos in a not very good condition (aged and discolored) taken of a Russian sub being loaded from a support ship in the Med, also some when we had to divert to Faro due to low fuel after a hairy attempt to land at Gibralter, and a couple of the Gibralter Hunters that decided to escort us in one day and play about on the wing tips, but I will let any aircrew who were on those trips add more detail if they so wish.

It was a good tour from my perspective, my wife who was of Maltese extraction was born in UK and had never been there and I never saw any trouble when there. Since then we have enjoy holidaying over there and the museum in Valetta used to have a whole section on 203 sqn, but I could not find it last time I went.

I was lucky enough to get an overseas Summer camp to Malta in I think 1976 (?) or thereabouts and we were billeted in Hai Far ?(sp), but did most of the week at Luqa.

As a snco (flight sergeant Staff cadet I think) I was given the chance of a trip in a Nimrod on the proviso that I had my hair cut there and then to bring it to regulation length. To that end, I had a mate in the barracks hack it short with a pair of scissors, looked a right dog's breakfast, but at least it was short !

And so on the bus to Luqa, only to get stood down at the 11th hour as there was "a bit of a flap " on, some vessel of interest that took precedence over our air experience flight.

So near, so far.

I was SNavO 75-78. I well remember watching the Air Malta 707 (Pakistan Airways with a Pakistani crew), doing CT on the new runway 31. It managed a heavy landing on the nose gear which detached on rotate, depositing the gear amongst the Victors neatly lined up outside the Nimrod hangar.

203 kindly let me keep my hand in & occasionally even conveyed me to Akrotiri.

My Maltese staff in flight planning were heart broken with the closure of Luqa. I can honestly say that I enjoyed my 3 years there but have had no desire to return.

Tezzer, were you one of the detachment that had to be pulled out of Valletta one night because there was a bit of an anti-Brit nause going, shots fired etc?
You are right, air cadet camps were based at Hal Far - afaik the last time the old Officers' Mess there was used by British forces. I was based there for the whole summer of 1976 as Adj Air Cadet camps.

Nimrods in Malta
 

We started our posting to Malta by forming up with 38 sqn as a holding unit at St Mawgan, sharing accommodation with the resident Canberras. Mintoff had already started creating so we had two or maybe three crews on this holding unit.
We finally arrived in LMML as crew 1 in the lead aeroplane skippered by S/L Patterson and almost instantly set about partying (as Nimrod crews often did) and that lasted until Mintoff and Carrington fell out. The crewing was all changed around and I ended up on Crew 2 with ‘Keefy’ Merret as the skipper. I mentioned our intrepid flight to Gozo and back again in the previous post. And then it finally started – the withdrawal - on New Years Eve and our crew were deployed to Akrotiri. This was the start of six months bouncing around. I was single but the married guys had to endure their families being sent to crappy records quarters at Gaydon .
We flew into Akrotiri to be met by nothing except a dog handler. A bus finally arrived and we were taken to the mess where a big celebration was evident.
Arriving in the mess the CMC (dressed in a ballerinas tutu) told our very senior Master Aircrew Air Engineer that we could not enter the mess in overalls. We were allowed about 14 kg of personal kit ex LMML so fancy dress did
not make the packing list. (I had two changes of shreddies and socks and my four bottles of Southern Comfort from my bunk in Luqa. I left everything else behind and never saw any of it again . Our Eng told this CMC in no uncertain terms that the Malta withdrawal had started about 5 hours ago and he will have to get used to Nimrod crews ruling the roost in the Akrotiri (his) mess.
After about three days on the Keo the Station Commander summoned our captain and asked him to tone things down a bit as he was trying to get his station back to work. We repaired back to Malta again on about the 10th January to give a hand and helped with the withdrawal – parking cars (owned by 203 crews who were away on trips or training) for shipment home with RN and RFA ships, packing things up in general and trying to sell things off to anyone who would have them (tv sets , washing machines, Fridges etc) I ended up throwing some things into the sea off Dingli Cliffs.

Every Kg on every ASC c130 flight to the UK was accounted for and filled with personal effects. Finally we departed with another aeroplane to Sigonella - It was ok to begin with as our accommodation was in the Central Palace in downtown Catania. Our first operational flight out of Sig was a comedy of errors and someone ordered Alitalia meals from Fontanarossa catering. Well - poncy angel cakes and a small bottles of Italian rosso at a crazy rate of Lira is not the thing of Nimrod Galleys.
Our next flight was catered by the US In Flight Galley at Sigonella. Free for enlisted men and one dollar for each officer – and almost any amount of food you could carry on board. The Americans were brilliant to us. Far better than our own types in Akrotiri who just seem to think we would rape and pillage their base.

Life carried on between Akrotiri where, if I recall correctly, we often had two Nimrods, and training fortnights in the St Mawgan Simulator and back to a very wintery Sigo piggin nella. We were using the Italian Mess for lunch and the Aeroplanes didn’t do a great deal except the occasional dry trip around the soviet anchorages and the occasional SAR. The Italian mess served crude Vino Tinto at lunch so the afternoons were invariably a write off. One of the aeroplanes was manned as a comcen alternating with CW to and from Episkopi, and Voice comms on Upavon. There were two routes back from the mess to the aeroplane - one a circuitous route and the other meant jumping a ditch. In the ditch was bamboo shoots growing so you would have thought that anybody jumping the ditch would have taken that into account especially after the Vino Tinto. My room mate, who will remain nameless, miss cued his vino induced jump and fell into the ditch. He went into an Italian hospital with a bamboo ‘spear’ right through the palm of his hand and out the other side. If he reads this he might just own up.
Next we were moved to a holiday camp and things went rapidly down hill from there.
Right –time for the pub.

Nimrods in Malta
 

I too was at ATC camp in Malta in 1977, based out of Hal Faf. My memories of that trip were the large number of Nimrods still on station there. If only I could find the camp photograph taken in front of a Nimrod during August 1977 (the week Elvis died!!).

I have been working for the past ten years on a book on the Nimrod and I want to make sure the Malta nimrods and crews are not religated to a short paragraph as is often done in most Nimrod books.

I didnt pick up any hostilities from locals or from station personnel so these comments are interesting, keep the stories coming.

Thanks XV148

Nimrod in Malta.
 

I am sure any aggression towards us based at Luqa was purely the thugs in Mintoffs labour party. The average Maltese man women and child was so incredibly nice towards us and the older Maltese generation knew better than to bite the hand. We were told that we contributed £35m to their economy and during the withdrawal that part of their economy almost but disappeared. The lesson was not wasted in Mintoffs office either.
His connection with Gadaffi and Libya was well documented and his invitation to Gadaffi and in particular ,his commandos, to fly into Luqa ostensibly to take over the airfield, was neatly rebuffed by the presence of 42 marine surrounding Gadaffis men.
There was in incident over the med north of Libya which apparently involved some U.S. aeroplanes going against some of the Libyan Air Force. This resulted in a restriction of us not transiting south of N35.00.00 for a while but I've heard that a C130 with a few funny bits on it did and probed the area a few times before they shot up his (Gadaffis)palace in Tripoli -was that about the time of Pan Am?
I don't know if that N35 thing was ever rescinded.

Perhaps if there are any of the navs from 203 in the early 70's around they could elaborate a bit further.

I was on APC at Luqa in 1977 just before we were invited to leave.

An Air Malta Boeing 720 was carrying out crew training and had been pounding the circuit for a few hours. After a particularly firm landing, the trainee slammed the nosewheel onto the runway and, given the stresses and strains of mishandling, it promptly separated from the aircraft and bounced off under its own steam.

Foam was laid on Mr Mintoff's brand new runway and the 720 orbited for another hour or so until it was down to a sensible landing weight. After a nice piece of flying by (I'm sure) The Captain, the nose was lowered carefully to the tarmac and the aircraft stopped safely. The runway was black for quite a few hours.

The link with the Nimrods was that the 203 Sqn line was to the left hand side of the runway when viewed from the approach. As the nosewheel left the Boeing, it bounced majestically down the runway narrowly missing the line of parked aircraft. One observer said it actually bounced between 2 Nimrods before heading for the bundu. Luckily the 720 stayed on the runway after landing so the carnage of hitting a parked Nimrod was avoided.

I may even have a news clip of the incident somewhere in the boxes.

Apologies because its a very grainy, cropped image but if you look closely you can just see the Nimrods in the background lined up parallel to the runway.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...9072714_01.jpg

I was on detachment at RAF Luqa, in Vulcan XM 594, in the period 8-15 Nov 77 when this happened (don't remember the exact date). We were taxying back after landing on the southwesterly runway and the 707 was doing approaches to the northerly runway. I was stood on the ladder between the two pilots when I spotted this large object bouncing between the parked Nimrods; how none of them were hit was a miracle.

I am not completely sure but I also seem to remember that a Canberra jumped its chocks in an overnight storm and ran off downhill until it met with the perimiter wire!

3P:ok:

Threeputt: that brings to mind I heard last summer that the Marsa golf club has named one of the holes (or was it bunkers!!) after Freddie Fielding (RIP)

Martin, have sent you an email...

threeputt; from the newspaper clip the nosewheel incident was Mon 14 Nov 77

I will post the Camp photo later, off up to the attic to dig it out !

Really interesting stuff on a series of events not often discussed, if at all.

Thanks everyone, particularly 5aday.

Mon 14 Nov
 

In that case we had just returned from doing an Italian LL route 13.....remember that?

3P:ok:

I was on 203 from 74-78 - single, lived in Marsascala for a couple of years. I used to have a beer or 3 regularly at the local Labour Party club. Never had a problem with the local Mintoff stalwarts ... even when the local election fisticuffs kicked off. Had a lovely cleaning lady who regularly left fresh lampuki in the fridge for us ...

Regrettably not. We never got farther than 40 miles off the coast with the F4 (gunnery, combat or intercepts)

I was out in front of Golf Dispersal watching the Boeing incident unfold and then watched it land. I missed the bouncing wheel though.

I did a couple of short dets to Luqa in 1978 with 35 Sqn (a Lone Ranger in January and a Solar Flare in July) and both were great fun! Apart, that is, from the wretched MRR borexes we had to fly...

We never witnessed anything except friendliness from the Maltese - except for the time when our Nav Plotter had his wallet lifted whilst we were on a cultural visit to 'The gut', that is...:\

But signs of Mintoff's hostility were around - including such pettiness as the coats of arms have been hacked off the red post boxes with an angle grinder.

Many happy nights in the City Gem in Sliema, of course!

Aaaaah! Rick's Bar at the City Gem ... anyone manage to drink the top row of the display behind the bar?

Just remembered - the fine display of Wardroom cutlery from the old submarine base in use in the restaurant!!

Photo here of that 720B minus nosegear:
JetPhotos.Net Photo » AP-ATQ (CN: 18745) Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Boeing 720-040B by malta

Malta
 

In for a penny in for a pound. It was only a short jump and the aeroplane was SO close to the ground but what the hell - blow the slide and be done with it. They will only add a few grand more to the bill.
I wish the Nimrods had that sort of luxury instead of sliding down a rope and holding a peice of fabric.

I was the token aviation enthusiast in Nimrod ASF 75-78 at Luqa and thus have a fair few Nimrod slides which might help with your project. PM me for details.

It is often forgotten, and in fairness was probably not known to the aircrew on 203, that right up to the day we left there were RAF Malta personnel in the same uniform as us, supporting the Sqns. These were local people who joined the RAF and were trained in the UK, but only signed on to work in Malta. We had a Cpl and 2 SACs on the Nimrod; there were many more in Canberra ASF. They obviously lived at home and occasionally you would hear of their difficulties with other people on the island.

To an outsider it seemed, you were either for the Nationalists or for Labour; there were no half way houses. Each had their own social clubs and when we lived out in Fgura during the 1977? elections, one side set about the other’s club in the square with such violence that supposedly a full sized (slate) snooker table was pushed out through the wall and onto the road. From the first floor.

A couple of happier memories from a good tour. Well respected Chief is walking through the hangar with a Royal Marine, as we were working on a Nimrod tail. Arms are being pointed in our general direction. We were asked if we had heard any bangs earlier in the morning? The Nimrods used 2 Park, beyond which lay 3 Park – used by APCs and the few NATO visitors. It was guarded by 41 Commando and earlier in the day one of them had accidently fired a burst from his GPMG. When asked which direction, he pointed at the then biggest building on the airfield, Nimrod ASF! We were OK and never heard anymore of the incident.

The hangar had been relocated from Kalafrana, where it had been used by Sunderland’s. In an interesting turn of history, when I last heard it was being used by Lufthansa for Airbus maintenance.

Finally, there were two flag poles at RAF Luqa – one for the Station and another outside the Air Commanders complex. One Sunday morning both the Ord Cpl and the Ord Officer were from 203. The former had a bicycle, the latter, as befitted his rank and station, a Mini. A race was set up and on the 2nd whistle blast from the Cpl at the Station flag pole, both ran for their steeds.

The Mini, though faster, had to follow the road layout - the cyclist just set off across the bondu, in a virtual straight line. Evidently the Cpl got to the 2nd flagpole first and tossing the bicycle to one side, he started clipping the ensign to the rope, as the strained snarl of the Mini got ever closer. `Sir’ arrived in some disarray, and ran for his spot, hat in hand. But when the single blast of the whistle announced the end of the race, who won became irrelevant for the Air Commander was in his office, come grandstand, and had seen the whole event! Just another day in RAF Malta...

Malta Nimrods
 

I am trying to confirm if the following aircraft were on the 203 books or just on detachment:
NimrodStartFinishXV24601/03/1977XV22615/01/197317/09/1975XV245Jan-78
Did anybody record or fly on these with 203 while in Malta
Many thanks XV148

Malta Nimrods
 

formatting didnt work, here they are again:
XV246 which finished on 01/03/1977
XV226 which started on 15/01/1973 and finished on 17/09/1975
XV245 which finished in January 1978

Flew in XV245 & XV246 on 203 Sqn but not XV226. Was in XV246 for the detachment to the Seychelles for their independance in June 1976.

many thanks for confiming these, I will also add the 246 detachment to the 246 history record, thanks (XV148)

I had exactly the same experience as Tezzer. Senior NCO (CWO) on our Air Cadet overseas camp in 1975; Based at Hal Far...duty NCO on first night, while everyone else went to Valetta.... was told my reward was to go flying the following morning, after the obligatory haircut. However, my Nimrod flight was always "tomorrow", due to a vessel of interest in the Med. My next flight was the 1-11 back to Gatwick.

Risking a moments thread creep here. Pakistan International must make a hobby of nose-wheel problems. I was in a PIA 707 landing at Karachi 13 December 1976 at o dark thirty. The nose wheel collapsed and we made a good bow wave before grinding to a halt.

@ Malcolm 380
 

I will dig out the camp photo when I get home from Warsaw, got a funny feeling you might be on it !!

I too did an ATC summer camp at Hal Far in 1975. Looking forward to seeing the photo on the offchance I was there during that particular camp. Unfortunately I can remember very little of the trip, but that is more a function of memory loss with age rather than the quality of the camp.