Cyprus

I see cyprus has been mentioned in another thread. I went there in '74 with 2 Queens as part fo the UN. Me and another mechanic called Brian Allot. I do remeber it as a good time, though the detail is a bit vague. !!! too much brandy i think.

I've been to Cyprus many times but never on a posting. Once when the Turks invaded working with the British High Commission arranging evacuations, and 3 times on coffer installations.

and more times than I can count on holiday.

I went there in 1980 with the Transport Squadron i was with. Only problem was they took me as the Electrician and i wasnt needed. Spent 4 of the 6 months UN tour working as part of the staff at the Parachute Centre in Dhekelia.

This is me on my first day in Nicosia at the back of the Workshop accomodation.

Awe!!!!so young and innocent looking

Nice shoes - were you in the RASC as well?

Hee, naughty naughty

They were probably brand new desi wellies mate.

Nice photo Nobby. I never got to jump at Nicosia, but we did do a lot of sea kayaking, which was fun given it was supposed to be a trouble hot spot.

I managed a spot of that Steve, that and water skiing, good fun.

Wasn't all 'fun and sticky buns' in 1954 ... Jesus 1954 .. no wonder I'm losing some of the threads on this site ..

Len (Ciphers)

steve jones wrote:

Nice photo Nobby. I never got to jump at Nicosia, but we did do a lot of sea kayaking, which was fun given it was supposed to be a trouble hot spot.

Had a jump at Larnaca once.

Not Nicosia then ?

I think we all got a jump at Nicosia, but i was talking about a skydive. i seem to remeber nobby that they only opperated in the morning because the wind always came up in the afternoon. of course these were the days of round parachutes and so a little wind, especially if you lived on an island, could be a problem.

brum wrote:

Not Nicosia then ?

Nicosia was for "Other Ranks". Sniff......

steve jones wrote:

I think we all got a jump at Nicosia, but i was talking about a skydive. i seem to remeber nobby that they only opperated in the morning because the wind always came up in the afternoon. of course these were the days of round parachutes and so a little wind, especially if you lived on an island, could be a problem.

Your right there Steve. Meant i could work in the morning and be on the beach in the afternoon.

Here is a pic of a round that looks like rags.

Nice one mate, its a Para Commander of some kind. I remember advancing to one of those and thinking i was really hot stuff. prior to that it was T10 LL or TU's. i was so glad when squares were invented !!!!!

Anybody do 'Kingsfield' Dhekelia?

Happy days at Sennelager along with Pete Hough (later REME Free Fall Team). Chief Instructor Bob Ackerman. Great guy. Great times!



Rheingold is the plane. - The pilot even entrusted us to do the Annual Service on the plane with him..

alan8376 wrote:

Happy days at Sennelager along with Pete Hough (later REME Free Fall Team). Chief Instructor Bob Ackerman. Great guy. Great times!



Rheingold is the plane. - The pilot even entrusted us to do the Annual Service on the plane with him..

Now there is a name from the past. Pete Hough.

I was on the Freefall team with Pete, and a few others. Wally Wallace, Mike Smith, Pete Padley.

alan8376 wrote:

Anybody do 'Kingsfield' Dhekelia?

What did she look like?

That's where we landed in the Herc from Germany when the Turks invaded, just a grass strip in the middle of nowhere. It's also where we took refugees to be flown back to the UK. I doubt they flew the whole way in a herc so there must have been some other place to land and put them on a civil flight. Am I right in believing that Nicosia was the only airport on the island at the time.

Here is a photo of Kingsfield Airstrip, Dhekelia. The strip is now tarmac.

LH middle: is a Hercules cammed up (not really effective!). There again, that is why this photo was taken, as the MOD was developing methods for planes.

Top left: is the road from Dhekelia going to Pergamos Camp

Rh top: Shows the water tanks for drinking water

Pergamos forest is where the Majority of Turkish refugees fleeing the fighting we kept and being guarded by 1 or 2 Para? I think.

wally wallace and pete hough i knew. jumped with wally at natherhaven years after i left BAOR. i did my first ever jump with the parachute display team, i was at Arborfield with 32 AYT, they were just up the road. i organised a bunch of youths from wokingham to do a one jump course at Brize Norton. Shortly after that i got posted back to munster and did a course at RAPA, and the rest as they say is history.

jim wrote:

That's where we landed in the Herc from Germany when the Turks invaded, just a grass strip in the middle of nowhere. It's also where we took refugees to be flown back to the UK. I doubt they flew the whole way in a herc so there must have been some other place to land and put them on a civil flight. Am I right in believing that Nicosia was the only airport on the island at the time.

Kingsfield was a tarmac strip even in 1974. We couldn't afford the grass. Up until the Greek Officer Cadre's attempted coupe and the subsequent Turkish invasion it had been used for gliding and parachuting. The evacuated refugees had to endure a +9 hour flight to the UK depending on the wind. It was only really used in the early phase of the evacuations.
Nicosia airport was the civil airport. It's Control Tower was run by the RAF. It was closed temporarily.
RAF Akrotiri was used to evacuate refugees from the WSBA and later also took evacuees from the ESBA.

With the refugees all the families living outwith the SBAs were flown home too. BFBS Radio's most requested song at the time was, "When will I see you again," by the Three Degrees. It was played day and night until we were all sick of it!

I have to laugh. We had a view people who didn't like Cyprus, it was too far from home, you couldn't get this or that, it was too hot or it was too cold. What really PMO was some whingers even complained, "There's nothing to do!"
Our family was young but there were fantastic beaches. Aya Nappa was still a sleepy village just an hour away. In and around Dhekelia there was dinghy sailing, scuba diving, water skiing, parachuting and a whole myriad of social clubs incuding Scottish Country Dancing!
As far as we were concerned it was our best posting, a two-and-a-half year holiday with minor interruptions for work.