By the end of the month Britain had announced that she was unable to implement a policy unacceptable to both sides and in the absence of a settlement must plan for an early withdrawal of forces from Palestine. Meanwhile the Squadron was on detachment to East Africa on what was termed a reinforcement and mobility exercise. This turned out to be a highly successful goodwill tour of such places as Mombasa, Kisumu, Eastleigh, Nairobi and Zanzibar where the Squadron put on flying displays and in return were royally feted. On their return they were called upon once more to show the flag and carry out reconnaissances as the Jews and Arabs had resumed fighting between Arab held Jaffa and Jewish held Tel Aviv.


By February 1948, things had quietened down and it appeared that the Arabs were waiting for the British to hand over to the UNO commission in May. The following month the Squadron moved to Nicosia leaving eight pilots and aircraft at Ramat David to cover the final British evacuation of Palestine. During the rest of the month the Squadron detachment carried out photographic reconnaissance flights over the Palestine coast for the Army, continued their policing work and practised cine combat attacks.


History - 1945 - 1950 (5)

…...continued

The following months were relatively quiet as further parleying took place and this permitted the Squadron to resume normal training and pipeline patrols. In February 1947 the problem was submitted to UNO for resolution. During the following months while a special committee was investigating the problem the Squadron continued with its shipping reconnaissance and normal duties and was re-equipped with Spitfire XVIIIs. The prospect of UNO settling the Palestine problem inspired further outrageous behaviour by the Jewish terrorists.


In September the committee recommended that partition be implemented with boundaries more favourable to the Jews. Immediately guerrilla warfare broke out with the Arabs showing that they would not submit tamely while the Jews were out to consolidate their advantages.

February 1947 Squadron re-equiped with Spitfire XVIII                              9 August 1949 208 Squadron moves to Nicosia, Cyprus

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