…... After a few minutes of talking, a steward brought in a salver of sweetmeats. However, he had obviously let them slip, and had pushed them all back into place on the tray with his fingers. The RAF colleagues naturally felt obliged to sample one or two of the sweetmeats but, given the prevalent sanitary conditions, also felt very concerned as to whether or not the steward had recently washed his hands.


The discussion continued with the Egyptian Colonel about what was planned for the Exercise, which comprised launching from Akrotiri to carry out an attack against Egyptian ships off the coast of Egypt, followed by a simulated attack on Alexandria Harbour. Knowing that the Harbour was central to the City, the Chairman asked for the height restrictions to fly over Alexandria. The Colonel asked his Air Defence colleague, an Air Commodore, to explain. The Air Commodore looked at the Chairman as if he were a bit stupid, and then said: “There are no height restrictions.” The Chairman later remembered that Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian President (then a dictatorship), was an ex-Air Force Air Chief Marshal. Was anybody actually going to complain if they ‘grazed’ over a city of 3 million people at ‘nought foot six’? Probably not! With this realisation, the Chairman’s question began to seem disconcertingly stupid in context!


The Chairman then shared some photographs, which showed some of the sights they had seen during the small amount of ‘down time’ they had enjoyed between discussions with the Egyptians. There were the Giza Pyramids just down the road from the hotel, and the chaotic scenes in Cairo, particularly one roundabout, which had six exits and twelve policemen: two policemen per exit. The Air Attaché explained that everyone in Egypt was required to do National Service, and this was one way of absorbing the numbers. At the same time, all of the drivers were sounding their horns. The Air Attaché also explained that, in fact, no-one was angry, but was just ‘beeping’ their horns to say that “I am here.” This was evident everywhere they went.


Eventually, their Naval colleagues arrived, along with their clothes, and the detachment headed back to the UK. All of this had happened in March and then, in April, came the time for the Exercise itself.


A formation of 5 Buccaneers launched from Lossiemouth, stopped in Rimini en-route, and landed in Akrotiri on 6 April 1990. The Red Arrows were there doing their work-up training and, in the bar on the Friday night, Bill Cope got talking to their very-famous Japanese photographer, Katsuhiko Tokunaga, and asked if he would like to come on the Exercise, and so he did.


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