Yes I was in beautiful Aden
By 4158122 S.A.C.  B.J.Holloway

My time at Mauripur came to an end late March 1956 when my posting came through to go  to HQBF Aden.

I tried my damnedest to get out of it as I had spent a leave in Aden which was a duty free port just to get a camera and some goodies for the lads; so I knew what a rotten, stinking hole Aden was.

Eventually I had to leave Mauripur a few weeks late and arrived at the same time as some others from the Canal Zone which was gradually closing down. I teamed up with a chap named Mick Murcott .We spent the first night in a grotty transit billet at Khormaksar and next day we were both transported to Steamer Point Sheba Camp which was in a state of total disrepair as people were gradually being moved up to Chapel Hill. We had to sign in at the Orderly Room and then sign in various sections around Sheba and HQBF up the hill. It took us a couple of days of quite leisurely walking around as it was far too hot to rush. We were told to find our own bed spaces as the place was so full and we eventually settled for a couple of beds on the balcony of a Chapel Hill building .

The Chapel Hill billets were quite nice looking buildings with high ceilings, long wide rooms, the legs of the beds were placed in old cigarette tins filled with paraffin and each had a balcony. As I said the only space Mike and I could find was on a balcony with a panoramic view across the harbour over to Little Aden so we could sit and watch the ships going to and fro, tankers, warships, passenger liners and cargo ship, which was all quite interesting to a newcomer. The only problem with the billets was that they were bug infested. You could lie on your pit and watch them having a parade along the wall above your head.

There were many different characters in the billets, many were 2-year national servicemen, while some should have never been in the RAF. One came to light when we had an AOC inspection and we had to lay all our kit out on our pits. When they arrived at his bed most of his kit was missing and it appeared that he would parcel up his dirty clothes and post them home for his mother to wash so he had two or three parcels in transit to and from home; he was of course sent home and discharged; I often wonder if he was mad or just crafty!!.

On the first day looking around for a bed space I was amazed to come  across a locker with a photo of a girl on it from back in Shrewsbury that I knew quite well. I remarked this  to one of the lads nearby and he told me it was Jim Taylor's bed space and that it was a photo of his wife. I didn't know Jim and when we met later we had quite a laugh. Much later after demob I found out Jim and his wife lived just around the corner from me. When Jim and I would occasionally meet in a local pub he would take great delight in telling the whole bar how we were first met.

Our billet overlooked the WRAF compound. Their shower room was within walking distance from their quarters and they would walk to and fro from it in various states of undress and the lads used to take advantage of this 'perving' at them through binoculars. Then one day one of the 'pervs' said, "The cheeky bitch; there's one of them women looking up here through binoculars" and as we used to walk around much the same as them there was a big rush to cover up. The girls sent us a message on the local radio with a record, "Jeepers Creepers where did you get those Peepers." One of our wits sent a response with, "A Kiss for every Candle," as if!

After a couple of days I duly reported to the Movements Office and was immediately on the mat before the Flt/Lt I/C for being so late and also being an LAC as he was expecting an SAC.

The Movements Office was a small wooden hut overlooking the harbour. It was quite a view, actually, as my desk and window looked out straight over the harbour across to Little Aden and I had a panoramic view of the ships going in and out of the huge anchorage. The staff consisted of Squadron Leader Wright who had his own air conditioned office. In the second office was the Flt Lt ,a couple of RAF NCOs and an army captain.

I shared my office with a Flt/Lt and an RAF W/O who were responsible for the armuory stored in various locations around Aden. It was a bit weird that the Flt/Lt and myself never mentioned what part of the UK we came from and a couple of years after demob I met him pushing a pram in Shrewsbury and after that we used to bump into each other on a number of occasions

My daily duty was spent mostly on the phone ringing around the various Orderly Rooms RAF, Army and Navy calling forward personnel that were due to fly out of Khormaksar to the various bases, Ryan, Salalah, Masirah, Bahrain and Eastleigh in Kenya and just a few went to Mauripur, which was to close in a few months time so not many went there. The real lucky ones were the ones going home to the UK. Some mornings my job got a bit hectic when there were a large number people to call forward for the next day flights and I used to get  quite irritated with the WRAF on the telephone exchange if she didn't answer me straight away so on one occasion I said something like, "Hurry up you cow!" and she reported me to the movements officer. He just reprimanded me and told me, "Don't do it again even if she is". The section had a direct line to Air Movements at Khormaksar and it was a shared line for me and the movements officer. On one occasion, whilst talking to Sgt. Hibbert who had not long arrived from Mauripur, he was asking me various questions about HQ and one of the questions being what was Flt/Lt Felstead, the movements officer, like and I replied quite favorably not knowing that he was also on the line listening in. I could do no wrong after that in fact and it was he who later got me a seat  that was spare on a VIP Comet returning to the UK when my tour was up.

Whilst at HQBF a leave scheme was started in September to Mombassa so being on air movements I got on one of the first flights. It was for two weeks and along with a mate from Chapel Hill boarded an Eagle Airways Viking with a real dolly bird hostess on board. The flight was via Hargeisha  in British Somaliland where we landed for fuel. The leave centre was at Nyalli Golden Sands and it was sheer heaven after Aden with cooling sea breezes flowing through the centre, decent food and bottles of chilled milk, the first I'd seen for two years!  Mombassa had some super bars and restaurants and other 'entertainments' and the two weeks went all too quickly. We were billeted in native type hut, 6 to a hut ,with all the amenities we needed which was all very civilized  except for the giant spiders and other creepy crawlies including millipedes about a foot long. There was a nice a nice bar and games room just a few yards away and a glorious white sandy beach near to us.

Whilst we were there we had a Royal visit with Princess Margaret and Prince Philip. The streets were decorated with flags and buntings and a huge pair of tusks arched over the main street with a crown hanging from them. The streets were crowded with onlookers  and we had a good view as the Royals passed by in their open car. There were quite a few Kenyan police officers minglingamongst the crowd, all armed, as we were to find out that  night. They were billeted at our leave centre and on the last bus back to Nyalli there was a rather drunk African who the young police officers took exception to so they kicked him off the bus and one of them brandishing a revolver  got off as well and escorted him away; to where we never knew. His mates tried to dissuade him but he was very angry and they both disappeared into the dark.

As I said time went far too quickly and we were soon back at Killindini Airport to catch the Viking back to Aden. After a very small time out the hostess informed us that there was a problem and we were returning to Killindini. On landing we were met by a host of police, military and civilians and were herded into the lounge and then interviewed individually by a police officer. It appeared that the night before some 'pratts' returning from Mombassa to the leave centre, which was about 5 miles away, had ripped up every sign post and damaged lots of house gates. Because we were returning to Aden the next day our flight was under suspicion but after a bit of a grilling we were let go and the flight left 24 hrs late.

On arriving back at Chapel Hill I'd got a load of dirty washing for the dhobi wallah and on pulling a shirt out of the bag there was something wriggling in it so I threw it away as quickly as I could and a foot long millipede fell out .It had obviously crawled into the bag in the hut at Nyalli where there were all.sorts of creepy crawlies around. I felt sorry for it as I wouldn't wish it's fate on the barren rocks of Aden (famous song).

A troopship arrived  in Steamer with the Camerons on board on their way to Malaya. It stayed just to refuel and then next day continued it's voyage. However, it returned a couple of days later and brought them back to Aden because the Suez invasion was due to start, something then that we knew nothing about. The locals were getting a bit 'bolshie' with Nasser screaming over the radio torise up against us, Anyway the Scots, all their gear being jungle green. shirts, pants, towels, etc. stood out like sore thumbs against the shale sand colour of Aden. We used to get up pretty early each morning to go on duty but the Camerons got us up even earlier with a lone piper wailing away at the top of Chapel Hill.

Some of the locals used to come up to HQ selling various  items; Ghaleb, who had a shop in No 1 street in Steamer, would be there each morning with soaps, shaving creams, etc that he used to sell far cheaper than NAAFI prices so he was very popular. Also a fisherman would come into the office to sell his lobsters, crabs, etc to the lads who were in married quarters with their families. We would cut the string holding the lobster and crabs claws and they would race across the office floor with the fisherman cursing us and chasing his escapees.

We had a local work with us in the office named Anwar. He was of  a Pakistani family and on occasions when off duty he would take us fishing off the breakwater in the main harbour and through Crater to Ras Marshag where we catch some real exotic sea life including snakes. We would also watch the locals shark fishing from long narrow boats a little way off in the bay, and some catches measured 15-20 feet long. When a member of his family got married he invited us to the wedding in Crater .

I remember an open air cinema at Steamer right on the harbour edge and sitting there on one occasion when a dust storm enveloped us. You couldn't see the screen so we just had to sit there and listen and use our imagination as to what was going on the screen.

Facilities started to improve after an outbreak of dysentery, which was traced to a cook in the filthy airmen's mess in Sheba Camp, who was a carrier of the bug but was not suffering from it. A new mess was opened on Chapel Hill as well as we had a brand new NAAFI open up. In October I was posted to Khormaksar as things were beginning to get a bit hectic while the invasion of Suez was coming and Aden was getting very busy. The billets in Khormaksar were bad. I was in a corner room of one of the main blocks along with three other lads, John Scott (Scotty), Norrie McCathie (Mac), and another.

My duties were in the passenger handling section and also organizing the flight rations which in those days were put up by the NAAFI for the communication flights (Valetta's) and also the patrol aircraft, which was an old Lincoln that used to take off fairly early in the mornings . I arrived one morning and the whole area was swimming in fuel. The aircraft had shed most of its fuel load so that was the finish of the kite and it was replaced by a Mk2 Shackleton. One morning there was a bit of a panic with tribesmen coming over the border and the 'Shack' was already taxiing to the takeoff runway as we arrived so the driver steered between the wing and tail plane whilst the kite was moving and I had to chuck the rations to one of the crew standing in the open door; so at least they wouldn't starve, as their patrols usually lasted eight hours.

The air movements officer was a bit of a loss. One morning I had to stop him from putting the Salalah and Masirah passengers on the duty flight to Eastleigh and, in fact, most of the officers hadn't got a clue and relied on the OR's completely.

On one occasion an Air India Constellation arrived with Emperor Haile Sellasie on board. The Camerons were the guard of honour whilst the Governor General, in all his finery, greeted the Emperor as he came down the steps from the aircraft and the R.A. gave a multi-gun salute from a couple of bulled up field guns.

On another occasion a DC-6 freighter aircraft arrived and it was parked way out on the airfield with doors left open. Of course we had to have a look see and drove our to see why it had been parked so far away. As we got nearer we could hear a hell of a noise and closer still a terrible smell! It was jammed full of cages of monkeys probably on their way to a doomed fate.

I was looking forward to packing my bags for home but no, we invaded the Suez and so all normal duties and flights ceased. We had all sorts of aircraft arriving all loaded up to the gills with freight, Avro Tudors and Yorks, and Hastings with freight and passengers and the BOAC Bristol Britannias put into service even before BOAC got them into service. The first two Brits arrived one night with a forward party of KSLI and air traffic control would advise us of any officers on board so I made a point of meeting the first one in and as we put the steps up to the open door out stepped John McKeirnan ex-school mate now in the uniform of an army 2nd Lt. I don't think he had a clue where he was or where he was going next day.There were also quite a few of the lads I knew from school and their next stop was Bahrain.

Whilst all the activity was on there were a couple of warships stuck in the harbour HMS Kenya and HMS Diana. A few of us had an invite to go aboard the ships and after I saw their living conditions and the food that they had to eat I was glad to be in the RAF, as our food was a bit grim but a lot better than theirs. HMS Diana was making her way back to the UK from the atom bomb tests on the Monte Bello Islands off the west coast of Australia.

By now Mauripur had closed and Dickie Dowel, Bert Brazier, Sgt Hibbert and Flt/Llt Blackwell joined me at Khormaksar. I should have left Aden at the end of November but I was still there for Christmas, in fact Christmas day. I had to go on duty in the morning as the AOC had decided to fly down to  the staging posts Ryan, Salalah and Masirah to wish them all a Merry Christmas. I guess they wouldn't have minded had he not bothered. We set up a Christmas bar in the billet and we moved the refrigerator from the section, stocked it up with booze and invited the movements officers and NCOs in for drinks.

One day at the end of January 57, I had come off night duty and asleep when I was woken up by Scotty and Mac informing me that I had got a seat on a VIP Comet leaving next day so I was up, dressed and out doing my clearance from the various sections and that evening had a a last tour along the Crescent in Steamer and quite, by coincidence, (I don't think) bumped into Flt Felstead and Sgt. Hibbert so there was a bit of a celebration.

Early next morning I reported to the departure lounge and waiting there was Busty James a lad that I had actually arrived at Mauripur with way back in December 54 which was quite a coincidence. We boarded the Comet, took off, and circled Aden and I'm sure that Shamshan was looking up and saying, You'll be back.* (Aden Legend).

The Comet flew at 500 miles an hour at 40,000 ft and our route was via Entebbe, in Uganda, for lunch, night stop at Kano, in Nigeria, where we caught up a Britavia Hermes trooper that had left the day before us, Next day it was lunch at Idri's in Libya. The final bit of the flight was over France when I saw vapour trails approaching us, which turned out to be six French Air Force fighters that peeled off three aside and escorted us for a time and it was quite impressive.

We landed at Lyneham on a dark, cold, and damp afternoon and the next hurdle was HM Customs; I declared my camera, which was quite an expensive one in the UK due to the luxury tax that was in existence in those days. I'd got a year-old receipt for it but the customs officer seemed to think it was pre-dated and took me into a back room and we sat facing each other, he quizzing mewhether the receipt was genuine or not and me sticking to my guns that it was. Eventually it was his tea break so he gave up, if he'd have known I'd got a couple of wrist watches wrapped up in socks, nylons and a host of other things in my case he would have had a field day.

After my disembarkation leave was over I was posted to Lyneham where I spent my last six months working with an HM Customs officer .We would be searching unaccompanied baggage coming in from the Middle and Far East for spirits, cigarettes, porn and other undeclared goodies.

*Aden Legend. Shamshan was a rocky mountain in the centre of Aden and legend had it that if you didn't climb it on your first visit you would return to the stinking dump. Of course I didn't climb it ;so I  returned three times during my time in the RAF and I also returned eight years later as a civilian on my way to Australia on the P & O Liner Orcades.

John Holloway