THE NIGHT THE NAAFI BLEW UP

Few and short were the prayers we said
And we spoke not a word of sorrow;
But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead
And we bitterly thought of the morrow - CHARLES WOLFE

By
David Carter

THE STYLUS tore through the grooves of the record, its screech amplified by the loudspeakers of the jukebox, but it was downed by the screams of the injured in the RAF NAAFI canteen, its timber frame shattered and its corrugated metal roof holed in several places by the blast of a time bomb. The airmen had been listening to the Everly Brothers' All I Have To Do Is Dream. At the Astra cinema down the road, the early Saturday evening screening of Ice Cold in Alex had just ended and the audience was leaving, hoping to emulate the movie's final scene, where John Mills, Anthony Quayle and Sylvia Simms drink a chilled lager. It was 21.03 on 8 November and the NAAFI on the Caywood domestic site was packed.

Senior Aircraftsman Peter Turnbull of the RAF Regiment, serving with No. 26 LAA Squadron, had just finished his beer, with a friend, an aircraft fitter. They had been sitting on the sofa in which the bomb was hidden. The fitter had gone to start his shift and Turnbull was returning to his tent to write a letter home to the girl who would become his wife.

'I had left the canteen by the side door and had walked about 15 to 20 yards, when - KAAARRANG - and I found myself flat on my face and my ears singing,' says Turnbull. 'I picked myself up and remember hearing shouts and yells from men running from all directions towards the canteen. They passed me and I turned and saw smoke and dust pouring out of gaping holes in the metalwork. There were rows of large nails sticking up in neat rows. In my 29 years of military service that was the closest I came to meeting the Grim Reaper.'

The NAAFI building (center) at RAF Nicosia.

The exterior the next day of the RAF NAAFI after the bomb blast.

Turnbull, still dazed, staggered to the NAAFI's cookhouse. 'The duty cook was scared out of his wits and pointed to a hole in the wall. A shard of metal had passed through two sheets of corrugated iron. The bomb must have been placed by one of the four Greek Cypriots who worked in the place, acting on EOKA's instructions. That evening they had tried to keep out of sight and we had complained about their slow service. The lads were fed up with them not clearing empty glasses and not serving the hot sandwiches we ordered. We knew they disliked us, taking their lead from the manager who hated our regular search duties at the entrance to the camp and at Ayios Dhometios, where he lived. I admit, we caused him a lot of inconvenience, but we had a job to do.'

Turnbull's supposition is credible as the NAAFI premises were always searched prior to opening and again at closing time to ensure no surprise packages had been left by EOKA to cause problems.

Interior of the NAAFI after the explosion.

LIVING TODAY in Chatham, Kent, John Thorpe was in the premises when the explosion took place. He was sitting with friends directly opposite the sofa where the bomb had been hidden. 'Those sitting on it absorbed the explosion, saving other fatalities,' he reckons. 'The two chaps who died were facing away from us. Parts of their bodies splattered the walls. It was a gruesome sight. Flies started to converge on them. In those days, I smoked. Didn't we all? I had been to the cinema, where we weren't allowed to smoke and came to the NAAFI where we could. What I saw was a high price to pay for a beer and a fag.'

The bomb had killed two airmen and severely wounded seven others. The dead were SAC Charles Bray, 23, and LAC Albert Sargent, 22. Bray, a National Serviceman, had been stationed at RAF Habbaniya in Iraq and was in transit to be demobbed in the UK. In the chaos that followed, the late Flight Sergeant 'Tubby' Grimshaw went to the aid of the injured. For his effort to save lives, he received the BEM for his bravery.

'While not in the NAAFI at the time, I was one of the RAF Regiment personnel who stood guard inside the place after the explosion,' Clive Hickson adds. 'I was with No 2 Field Squadron. Our main duty was to protect the airfield and I was on guard at the time. We immediately went to the NAAFI to assist in cordoning off the area and to search for any further bombs. Afterwards I was taken to another building near the perimeter, where 1 guarded the Cypriot NAAFI employees who had been incarcerated there. This was partly to detain them and partly for their safety, because they had been beaten by enraged servicemen who had seen their comrades blown to pieces.

'I was told that one of them had been severely beaten in the kidneys and he groaned piteously all night long. He was evidently in great pain.'

'He was the NAAFI's cleaner and it was assumed he was the one most likely to have planted the device, but I don't think he did,' agrees SAC Turnbull.

Hickson continues: 'Nobody, not even British medical personnel came near the building to render even rudimentary first aid to these people. I was, I must admit, ashamed at being able to do nothing and knowing that our medical officers were ignoring their Hippocratic oath. These Cypriots were probably as much victims of the murderers as were our boys.'

LAC John Crouch arrived that night at 751 Signals Unit at Cape Greco. He was fresh out from England.

'Where have you come from?' asked the camp's only RAF policeman at the gate.

'Transit, Nicosia,' replied the newcomer.

'Christ, you're lucky. EOKA's bombed the NAAFI. We hear some people have been killed.'

'Welcome to the Island, I thought,' Crouch said.

Sack the lot

The Times headline on 11 November 1958.

WHEN SIR Hubert Patch, the Chief of the Royal Air Force in Cyprus, heard the news, he immediately demanded Sir Hugh Foot dismiss all Greek Cypriot NAAFI employees. At first the Governor demurred. Hundreds would be put out of work, he said, but next morning, 4,000 Greek Cypriot employees were dismissed and banned from entering any camp, barracks or NAAFI establishment. Grivas was hurting his own people almost as much as the British community.

Greek Cypriot NAAFI employees leave after being told they were sacked.

Alan Gilfillan of the RAF Police served at Akrotiri. 'On the morning of the dismissal order, I was sent down to a point about 200 yards outside the camp's entrance and main guardroom on the Limassol road,' he remembers. 'My unpleasant task was to stop the busloads of Greek Cypriot workers and tell them their services were no longer required. Many of them were women. They worked for officers and senior NCOs as maids and had grown close to their families. All of us expected a riot and were ready for it, but none ensued. Instead there were floods of tears from the females and much wailing from the males. EOKA had not done them a favor.

'Once they knew their fate, they were ordered to reverse their buses and return from whence they came. To ensure they did, we were accompanied by a couple of locally recruited RAF Auxiliary policemen, who were used to checking the workers' ID cards every morning and were known to those on the buses. One of the auxiliaries was a Turk, the other Greek. Both were armed with Greener guns.

'The Greener, not noted for its reliability, fired a large brass cartridge, equivalent to those used in 12-bore shotguns. Each was filled with double-0 buckshot that could cause a lot of damage. 'Fortunately I never saw one used in anger. To load the weapon, a lever below the stock had to be pulled down and a single cartridge fed into a slot at the top. From that moment, the weapon had to be treated with great care to avoid an accident, as its safety catch was not very secure. When we were on duty with the auxiliaries, we made certain they kept their "one" cartridge always in their pockets, not loaded in their guns.

'Back in camp, the Greek auxiliary policeman was also told his fate. He, too, had to join the ranks of the unemployed.'

'To this day I cannot understand how Greek-Cypriots were ever allowed to work on the camps given the situation,' wonders former SAC Graham Robinson, an Air Movements Clerk at RAF Nicosia. 'Greek Cypriots seemed to be grasping and untrustworthy whereas the Turkish Cypriots were far more honest. My opinion hasn't changed. After the NAAFI bombing, there was a rush to the armory with the intention of taking revenge in Nicosia. Everyone was incensed by the cowardly actions of the EOKA terrorists. If we'd been allowed out, there would have been a massacre.'

British soldiers guarded servicemen's wives when they shopped.

EOKA's cold reply

AFTER THE sackings, EOKA struck back at two unfortunate British NAAFI officers, while they were inspecting their butchery's cold store in Famagusta. Just as they were leaving at the end of their working day, a gang of terrorists pushed them back inside, padlocked the door, switched off the lights and left.

For the men inside, clothed in open neck shirts and light slacks, their chance of survival in a temperature of minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit was none, if they waited until morning for staff to open up. The prisoners looked around and saw a large meat cleaver. With it, they took turns to cut a hole 18 inches square to allow them to shout until someone heard and rescued them. 'Had that cleaver not been there,' said one of the men, 'the stocks of meat would have been increased overnight by about 300 lbs.'

Call for volunteers

FORTY SIX canteens, 17 shops, three clubs, two leave centers and several bakeries came to a standstill with the shortage of staff. 'It caused chaos,' writes Harry Miller, the author of Service To The Services. 'Garrison and British NAAFI wives helped to maintain vital services. Headquarters issued an SOS for 500 volunteers.'

A NAAFI boss Mr. H P T Prideaux said: 'Either men or women can carry out most of the jobs, but the troops would rather see a pretty girl about the place than a man. They are an important factor in maintaining morale. A soldier prefers a girl to serve him his cup of tea.'

NAAFI offered the volunteers six-month contracts. The danger of the work was recognized and this would be adequately reflected in a bonus added to the normal rate of pay. Full board and lodging would be provided free as would working clothes and passage. A male canteen attendant would receive a minimum of 8 pounds 10 shillings a week, with a separation allowance of 2 pounds 10 shillings if he were married. The minimum for girls at 18 years would be 7 pounds 15 shillings. Both these figures included a bonus of 3 pounds. And the wages would be tax-free.

One of the difficulties was accommodation because this step was totally unexpected, Prideaux conceded, but he promised that no one, particularly young girls, would be sent out to Cyprus unless satisfactory arrangements could be made for their quarters and safety. He hoped that they would be able to fly out the first replacements within the next five days.

Women volunteers for Cyprus line up outside NAAFI HQ in London for employment interviews. They began gathering at 05.00.

Within 24 hours, 17,000 - mostly young women - had applied Officials were flabbergasted by the stampede to fill the posts. Telephone operators dealt with 600 calls an hour, while clerks ripped open hundreds of postal applications. They came from all parts of the country. 'Whatever the applicants' backgrounds, they were all filled with patriotism, a desire for adventure and a longing for the sun,' reported The Times. A NAAFI official said: 'The girls who have been coming in today have been of all types and classes, with quite a lot of well educated girls who are willing to take jobs at a much lower figure than they are getting now.'

'There were plenty of young women in fur coats on a cold afternoon, and some of them looked as though they had stepped out of the pages of Vogue. And there were others who could be said without any lack of chivalry comfortably to exceed the upper age limit of 45. There were women with excellent jobs in banking, Fleet Street, and the professions, and at least one Bachelor of Arts, all willing to do any job that was offered,' The Times told readers. 'It's very British,' said senior NAAFI official Aidie Fraser.

'There's a job to be done, and they want to have a crack at it. And nobody's fussy about what they do.'

Winnie's cook

SIR WINSTON Churchill's Austrian cook was one of the volunteers who wanted to serve tea and buns to the troops. At his Chartwell home in Kent, Mrs. Josephine Schwarz, 42, said she wanted to repay the debt she felt she owed the United Kingdom. 'England gave me a home when I was homeless, starving,' she said. 'Now at last I can be with the English on the same side. I want to join the struggle. I want to go to Cyprus to look after the boys out there. I've not told Sir Winston or Lady Churchill yet. It will be a shock for them, I know.'

The Barry & District News reported enthusiastically that one of those chosen was 'Miss Hilary John, the 19-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H John of Evelyn Street, Barry Dock... She leaves London Airport on Friday morning for Cyprus, where as a shorthand typist, she will be one of the volunteers for the new all-British NAAFI staff.'

Harry Miller says: 'The Passport Office and medical officers worked extra hours to speed 300 on their flight to the war zone. They also had to be fitted out with brand new uniforms. The airlift was the most costly single item in a total extra cost to NAAFI of £200,000.'

After her acceptance to work in Cyprus, a Miss Rowlands tries on her new NAAFI uniform.

Major-General Sir Randle Feilden, NAAFI's Managing Director of NAAFI, announced in London: 'We have enough volunteers to meet our requirements for any foreseeable task in Cyprus. Even so, our original target of 500 may have to be increased. I would like to thank the, public for the magnificent response to our appeal. The promptitude with which 17,000 men, women and girls have offered themselves for a task which they recognize will be no picnic is a token of the country's overwhelming support for and confidence in our troops in Cyprus.'

The girls arrive

The first group of NAAFI volunteers for Cyprus board their bus for Blackbushe after spending the night in a Wimbledon hostel.

ON 16 November, the first batch of 43 new NAAFI employees left Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire in a Viscount aircraft.

The NAAFI volunteers arrive at RAF Nicosia.

When they landed in Nicosia, the first to step out on the runway was 21-year-old Sally Anne Heath of Hillingdon. Rosemary Parrott, the nine-year-old daughter of an RAF officer, presented her with a bouquet of roses, before the volunteers left by road for Famagusta.

'I was one of the RAF Police on duty at Akrotiri the night when a batch of them arrived by bus from Nicosia and we had to check them into camp,' Gilfillan muses. 'As virile young men, mainly in our late teens, we had been eagerly looking forward to meeting the ladies.

'That feeling of anticipation vanished the moment we saw them. Most were older than my mum and those that weren't would scare a police dog. Whatever the reason, none was billeted at RAF Akrotiri. They were put up overnight at the WRAC camp and in the morning they were distributed round the Island's military establishments.'

'They were a very mixed bunch of women brought out from Blighty to run them,' adds Ruth White of 27 Independent Company, WRAC, at Episkopi. 'After the initial teething problems, several of them were found unsuitable.

A 'Rock Ape' - a member of the RAF Regiment - remarks: 'The girls who came, we thought, must have been after husbands. There were about 20 girls and ten million guys. Quite a queue for a date. 'Fraid I didn't wait for my turn to come around.'

The first arrivals were sent to the Golden Sands rest camp near Famagusta to start work immediately.

John Thorpe, based at RAF Nicosia, as an MT driver, 'The women's' billets were enclosed in barbed wire and I never found out if it was to keep them in, keep us out or protect them from the EOKA.' Clive Hickson continues: 'Their quarters were in a group of buildings, which were declared seriously "out-of-bounds" to all the men there, but the girls used to hang their undies out to dry on a washing line to in full view of the guys. One night, all undies were stolen. That was when the barbed wire was put up around the whole building. It became a miniature Fort Knox. Must have really pissed off the NAAFI girls.'

Lucy held that living was
A grand old thing to do
And lived it up each Friday night
Till nigh on half past two.

There was no drink she had not drunk;
No sin she had not tasted;
No make of car she had not smashed;
No soft drink but she laced it.

Now ministers of every faith
Had pledged themselves to save her
'Redeem!' they said. 'The wickedest,
Transform their bad behavior.'

They pestered her to give up liquor
'Do quench your thirst,' they said,
'With sparkling water from the tap.'
But Lucy shook her head.

'And men are dangerous,' they said,
'For such a girl as you.
Get yourself one good boy friend
And don 't branch out to two.'

'Don 't race about in fast sports cars
With men as fast beside.
'The paths of sin are primrose-lined
And comfortably wide.'

'Come wash off all your sins,' they urged.
'From black, be white instead.'
She poured a glass of cool, straight gin
And 'Bottoms up!' she said.

For three years more did Lucy live
A life of deep delight
Until the Good Lord showed his hand
And changed our Lucy quite.

The cry went up from all the Press
That girls should volunteer
To serve in Cyprus with the NAAFI -
The call of duty clear.

Now Lucy had a painful head,
She'd mixed her drinks that day.
'Hell, this place stinks!' she cried aloud,
'I'd like to go away!'

That very morning she signed up
To be a NAAFI girl
And found herself in Cyprus camps
Behind a counter till.

And here's the moral of the tale
I've struggled-to re-tell.
Scarce two weeks had Lucy worked
Till she was changed as well.

For where the ministers had failed,
With all their talk of Heaven,
The National Servicemen achieved
By examples of clean living.

- ANONYMOUS

Ten years later, an RAF serviceman returned to Cyprus for a second tour in 1968 and recalled seeing the sacked Nicosia canteen manager running a NAAFI beach outlet at Lady's Mile at RAF Akrotiri. 'He did not recognize me naturally, but there was no doubt in my mind it was him,' he said.

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