Met 5

ANECDOTAL HISTORY

EVENT

extreme cockpit temperatures at low level (we had no aircon) the sketchiness of the mapping, and the distance of some of the targets - we sometimes flew most of the sortie on one engine to save fuel — made this in some ways the most demanding flying of my tour. In event of a forced landing or bale-out the tribesmen were notoriously hostile. So we carried the famous “gooleychits” enshrined in RAF folklore. These promised the tribesmen generous rewards if they returned us to the British with our dangly bits still attached. (1 heard years later that they were probably written in the wrong language, although I shudder to think of the trials they must have done to establish that!).

{Tim Webb’s Comments - In Aden we showed Salah, our coffee boy, one of the ‘gooleychits’, once he recovered from his laughing fit he acknowledged that they were indeed worthless - they were in the wrong language!}

RAF Takali - Operation Musketeer

By August 1956 Col Nasser had nationalised the Suez Canal and planning was under way for Operation Musketeer to reoccupy the Canal Zone. Their Airships decided (wrongly, in our view) that the Meatbox could achieve little against the might of the Egyptian Air Force, who by then had Mig 15 So we were sent back to Malta — Takali this time-and became the air defence of the island. . For the next three months we were given carte blanche to beat the hell out of the carrier group working up for the Suez invasion. We used to send off sections of four aircraft as quickly as we could turn them round. We found that if we stayed well below 50 ft for the last 100 miles and kept the speed well up above 400 knots, we could usually avoid the Sea Hawk CAPs, which were directed by Skyraiders and an outer screen of frigates. We had many splendid scraps with the Sea Hawks — usually after we had shot up their carriers. If the sea was reasonably rough we used to land with our windscreens well salted-up.

The outbreak of the Suez war caught the squadron napping. Both Flight Commanders had flown a T7 back to UK for a long weekend to attend the Annual Reunion, held in those days in a Soho pub. On 29th October we set off to return to Malta via Istres, an Armé de 1 ‘Air experimental base near Marseille. A “dodgy” radio “forced” us to night-stop there. We managed to borrow a Landrover and driver from the local RAF detachment and set off to explore the town — or rather the seamier part of it. I seem to recall a number of “boitesde-nuit” where we compared the merits of Pastis, Ouzo and Raki before returning to our Chambre d ‘Hôte much the worse for wear. No sooner had we ‘flaked out” when the RAF Detachment Commander almost battered down our door, waving an Immediate signal from AHQ Malta demanding our instant return. I did not think it politic to answer saying we would comply as soon as we had sobered up! It was still dark when we lurched into the air with Jack in the back clutching a case of champagne on his lap. I also thought it tactless to route via Tunis, which was normal practice in the T7 which carried less fuel than the FR9. So to give us some sort of a margin in case the weather was duff at Malta, I had to take her up to 40,000 ft — and the T7 was not pressurised. All went well except for a few minor explosions from the back, which served to keep me awake!” They were only corks blowing from Jack’s champagne. An hour 40 mins leg, unpressurised, above 30,000ft, should have given us both an attack of the “bends”, but neither of us suffered. “Had we accidentally discovered that alcohol prevents the nitrogen bubbling in one’s blood?” The war itself was a non-event for 208. All we did was to mount a battle flight of four aircraft on ORP. We only got scrambled once and that was because the bomber stream of Valiants and Canberras based at Luqa were recalled early and nobody remembered to tell Malta Sector or Madelena Radar! And that was the end of my tour, and a memorable one it was.

Conclusion

208 was, as Twinkle remarked last year, the world’s best flying club. But what we may have lacked in professionalism we more than made up for in esprit-de-corps and joie de vivre. And it has been a constant source of pleasure and amusement at these dinners to see many of the old faces at the top of their profession in civil aviation in such Blue Chip organisations as Cathay Pacific and British Airways and to remember them as the “bad lads” of 208 in the 1950s. In conclusion Tricia and I would like to thank the Association for a very pleasant dinner.

March moved to Akrotiri in Cyprus

June a permanent detachment of four aircraft established at Khormaksar

August Sqn returned to Malta - Tai Kali
4 aircraft Battle Flight established following the deterioration of the political scene in the Eastern Mediterranean

August a detachment was established in Muharraq

1957

September news of re-equipping to the Hunter

Meteor [5 of 5]

........must come down

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