THE ORIGINS OF JAPIC (ME)

The Photographic Development Unit, codename MI4, was formed on 19 January 1940, with the interpretation section being named Photographic Development Unit - Interpretation and Intelligence (PDUI) on 12 June 1940. On 11 July 1940 the whole unit became the Photographic Interpretation Unit, and on 7 January 1941 was again renamed, this time the Central Interpretation Unit

After the war, in August 1947, the name was changed once more, to the Joint Air Photographic Intelligence Centre, and the codename MI4 was discontinued. On 17 December 1953 the unit's name was changed again, to the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (UK). In 1956 the various JARIC(UK) units, based in Medmenham, Wyton and Nuneham Park, all moved to purpose-built premises at RAF Brampton. More detail is available here.

The origins of JAPIC(ME) are less clear. It was certainly present at RAF Deversoir in the Suez Canal Zone in the early 1950s, and presumably its name was changed from JAPIC to JARIC at the end of 1953 or soon thereafter, in line with the change from JAPIC to JARIC (UK). Steve Benkel's account would seem to indicate some time in early 1954. Later the unit moved to both RAF Abu Sueir and to RAF Ismailia before finally leaving Egypt to set up operations at RAF Episkopi, Cyprus.

If anyone can add any more detail to JAPIC/JARIC(ME)'s presence in the Canal Zone I'd be very grateful. Photos of JAPIC(ME)

Those who were there and with whom I am in contact

Gavin Allard Deversoir and Eastleigh

Steve Benkel
January 1954 - late 1955. See account below.

Leon 'Brad' Bradford ?- November 1954
Brad died 1 August 2012

Paul Goldsmith

Stephen Lemon October 1955 - February 1956
My first overseas posting, after leaving Wellesbourne Mountford, was to 13 Squadron in Abu Sueir, Suez, in the October of 1955. Prior to the
Suez crisis, the Squadron and 3 MFPU were moved to RAF Akrotiri in the February of 1956. With the imminent crisis in the Suez, I and several
other BPs were posted to Episkopi. The MFPU trailers came over with us from Abu Sueir, and our teams worked on them at JARIC (ME) at Episkopi, as we were Au fait with their setups and operating procedures, including the generators. We processed all the Suez crisis aerial photography, both for the ME and UK, and were on shifts throughout the crisis.

Richard Ongley

Reg Paley 1953

Norman Phillips
Oct 1953 - June 1955

Geoff Shillam May 1951 - May 1954
Enlisted RAF May 1947 for 8 years No. 3503513
Cardington, Wilmslow (square bashing)
Melksham for Electrical Fitter I & 2 came out as LAC
Colerne, nr Bath Made Corporal
Cyprus detachment for TNTS course
Posted to Odiham from May 1954 to May 1955 (Demob)

I was at PPS for that time, Cpl. i/c electrics, with Sid Prince as my a/c – he was projectionist at the Astra and I joined him a second projectionist and then later as manager of the Astra (in spare time). Sid and I had a bunk under the projection room to give a lot of attention to the Astra, which explains why I didn’t have too much time to socialise.

My good buddy there was Dusty Miller (photographer) – came from Maidenhead and was responsible for getting me a pen-friend who became my wife when I was repatriated, Dusty was my best man. Also Bobby Drew also photographer from Chesterfield. Of course I knew well Cpl ‘Phil’ Philips and others less well.

I picked another cushy number in servicing all the 16 mm film projectors in the Canal Zone – had use of a Standard Vanguard to travel, and an armed guard.

Peter Tolson
I was at Deversoir for a short time in 1952, then posted to Kabrit to join the 13 Squadron JAPIC detachment. This was great as we were in SNC’os lines (2 in our own room), and were something of a mystery to the rest of the camp. We would spend the mornings swimming and when the sorties returned we would return to the Blue Train and process & print (and sweat) the films. Then take them round the lake up to Deversoir, a chance to get out of camp usually riding escort to the Vanguard Estate carrying the prints and films.

Chris Withers Jan 1953 - July 1955

Others who were there
Thanks to Brad Bradford for the list

Dowie Scotland

"Nipper" Calvert Surrey

Norman Phillips Newcastle

Alun Davies Llanelli

Geoff Lightfoot Runcorn

Bert Harper

"Taff" Lewis Wales

Jim Hazen

"Nobby" Hall

Sgt "Bob" Hope

Jim Redman

"Ginger" Southern London

Willoughby London

Merryman Plymouth

Baber Notts

Don McCullin. Don is now a world famous war photographer and covered many
conflicts for the Observer N.Paper and has his own site. He was photographer for
JAPIC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_McCullin

Prior Yorks

Sinclair

Coxall

Tom Seaton Lincs

Mayhew

Millward

Harry Greenough

John Paterson Darlington

Hewison

Ray Jones Neath

Ron Fouracre

Goddard

Flt/Lt Metcalfe I/C PPS

Steve Benkel's account of his time at JAPIC (ME) and the move to Cyprus

In January 1954 we touched down at Fayid in the Suez Canal Zone. My first impression of Egypt was not good, having left England on a cold winters morning we were expecting it to be warm but when they opened the cabin door it was just like a furnace door being opened, and this was in the middle of the night! O.K. that was to be expected but I had not expected the all pervading wreak of diesel oil which I think was ever present for the rest of my time in Egypt.

So we had arrived in Egypt. A group of eight very new airmen who had obviously arrived too soon, there was no place for us on the JAPIC (M.E.) establishment, so the powers that be decided that we could spend the time usefully on an induction course. We were sent to an army camp called Namur where we were shown the workings of the Royal Engineers 42 Field Survey unit, they were the map makers and we spent the next three weeks having lectures, map reading exercises and photo interpretation exercises. The officer in charge was a very jolly gentleman named Sandy Cibern (I'm not sure of the spelling of his name), he was a Captain in the Gloucestershire Regiment who had just been transferred from Korea, no wonder he was jolly! During one of his lessons on photo interpretation we were introduced to stereo glasses, we all seemed to be doing quite well except for one individual who just couldn't get a stereo image. Sandy was very patient with him until the poor lad volunteered that he was blind in one eye and he wondered if that was the reason? Needless to say he was assigned to new duties and we never saw him again.

Eventually we were told that we could join our unit. We were bundled into the back of a three tonner with some other unfortunates and drove off into the desert stopping on the way to deposit individuals at various inhospitable locations. Then we arrived at our new Camp, R.A.F. Deversoir. We were introduced to our new billets in the tent lines and were split up into three men tents. Then we were taken to our new section. We had arrived at the JAPIC (M.E.) compound. We were confronted by a single storey building which formed the four sides of a square with an open garden area in the centre. It had a continuous covered veranda around the exterior walls and the veranda was enclosed with wire mesh fencing. The building sat in the centre of an enclosure which also had a high wire perimeter fence. At night the whole enclosure was illuminated with an array of powerful lamps.

We settled into a routine much as you describe and we new erks started our trade training as Tracer P.I's. When we passed our tests we were made up to L.A.Cs and eventually S.A.Cs. Because we were segregated from the rest of the camp, i.e. Guarding our own compound and not the rest of the camp and the supposed mystery of what went on inside JAPIC we became known as the "JAPIC Girls", this didn't bother us and we soon became a close knit unit made up of R.A.F. and Royal Engineer personnel. It was about this time the unit became JARIC (M.E.) and there were subtle changes in the type of work we undertook.

Photo by Chris Withers

We were moved from the tent lines into Nissen huts which were partly below ground level and stayed comparatively cool. I believe they were constructed by the Americans during WW2, when they flew bombers from Deversoir. Deversoir could be called civilised, mainly because of its location, it is situated at the northern end of The Great Bitter Lake where the canal cutting heads north, through Lake Timsah, the town of Ismalia and on to Port Said. the camp had its own flotilla of sailing dighies which were built by local craftsmen to a specification supplied by the club. There was also a very good social club run by a Scottish church, I can't remember which one. We also spent many afternoons on the banks of the canal watching the ships passing on their way to who knows where? We did see one French troopship passing on its way to Indo-China. The French troops were allowed on deck but while they were passing through the canal they were kept in great cages made of rope netting to ensure that wouldn't go A.W.O.L

Late in 1954, JARIC (M.E.) was relocated at R.A.F. Abu Sueir, the unit was allocated a very substantial brick building which came complete with flushing toilets, what luxury! The downside was that the building was considered secure enough not to need exterior guard patrols and a reduced guard occupied the building in non-working hours. This meant that we were now available for station guard duty, a twenty-four hour stretch, the only saving grace was that guard personnel list was much larger so the duties came around less frequently.

Our living quarters were a wooden hut left over from WW1, the spiders and bedbugs reigned supreme. Soon after moving in, we stripped the building bare sealed all the windows and doors and had the building fumigated. We tried to keep the crawlies, bedbugs and mosquitoes at bay with a combination of DDT,mosquito nets and standing the feet of the beds in cans half filled with oil. This seemed to discourage the little varmints.

In the adjoining shower block we had the luxury of a bathroom which had running hot water at certain times of day. this was very unusual but it might have been because the other end of the shower block was in the WAAF compound.

By mid-1955 we were preparing to pull out of the Canal Zone and there was a marked improvement in relations with the Egyptian authorities. It meant that we were free to visit nearby towns without armed escort. We visited Ismalia frequently and we also made several trips to Port Said and Port Fuad and were allowed one visit to Cairo, the Giza Pyramids and the Cairo Museum where we saw the treasures of King Tut long before they came to the U.K.

During our posting to Egypt we had two leave passes to Cyprus. One trip was spent in Nicosia and on the beach at Famagusta. The second visit was more adventurous, four of us hired car and we discovered a great deal of the island including Nicosia, Famagusta, Limassol, Platres in the Troodos Mountains, Kyrenia and St. Hilarion Castle to mention just a few. These visits were long before the partition of the island and the existence of the green line. I doubt very much if I could ever repeat that trip.

Eventually it was time for us to leave Egypt. JARIC (M.E.) was on the move again. A convoy of 10 ton lorries arrived at the unit and loaded everything that moved. We drove to Port Said and embarked on a T.L.C. named the "Snowdon Smith", and sailed for Cyprus. After a very pleasant overnight voyage, during which we slept on deck because it was too hot and noisy below decks, we arrived in Famagusta. We drove to Episkopi where we greeted at the main gate by an S.P. in very casual dress, I seem to remember that he was sporting a tartan shirt and stood outside his guard hut which had a notice informing us that it was the Sheriffs Office!

Episkopi was very much in the early stages of construction, and it seems that JARIC were one of the very first units to arrive at the camp. We obviously had to guard the vehicles until they were unloaded but as far as we could see our only neighbours were a few goats and some Turkish construction workers who were very friendly and offered to share their bread, grapes and wine with us.

I think we were in tented accommodation within a wire enclosure. Our first impression was that we had landed in paradise when comparing it to Egypt and one of the first excursions, when we had some free time, was to take a path down to the beach.
Steve Benkel (2707006 C.S.S.Benkel S.A.C /Tracer P.I.)

And from Barney Bourne

Brian Bourne Canal Zone May-September 1955, Episkopi September 1955 - January 1957, 1958
Egypt for me was a strange place, I was a PR photographer with no planes to work on, it puzzled me for a while until I was introduced to HQ staff who strong armed me to take on an Arabic course, to this day I don't know how they found out about my so called language skills, I had been advised by a pal to keep it quiet unless I wanted to end up learning Russian and locked in a room listening to wireless traffic 3x 8 hour shifts day in day out. I must admit Arabic interested me a great deal so I went along with it. My schooling included Greek and Latin so I was well prepared for it.

Most of my time in Ismalia was spent all over the town picking up the dialect. No place was out of bounds and I got away with it by using my French passport as I had dual nationality; this also provided other extreme perks as I could enter the most hallowed of French establishments, like the French Club something no British troops could do, so life was pretty sweet. It got even better when I was sent to Alexandria to do an intensive language course at the university.

I thought it was too good to last and I was detached to Eastleigh in Kenya; I think by this time withdrawal from Egypt was on the cards. Eventually I was posted to Cyprus never going back to Egypt. I was now brushing up on my Greek and being introduced to Turkish. I didn't do any photo work other than my own prints because I had been trained for PR.

Suez took me on detachment to Akrotiri interpreting for the French ; their photo units put ours to shame; completely self contained with all the most up to date equipment. I did not like Akrotiri and was glad to get back to Episkopi.

My all time friend in Episkopi was a Turk, Irateen--you might have known him as he ran a lorry and taxi firm and owned the bar on the main road in Episkopi; many are the times he ferried lads back to the camp after a long night at his bar; do you remember those wonderful kebabs he used to cook ???? I still visit him, in the North now, of course, two or three times a year, when it is cooler, he just had his 97th birthday, recently we attended the funeral of Rauf Denktash, another life long mutual friend; they were friends from childhood born in Paphos. As an aside they were members of the Turkish resistance movement at the time of eoka.

Early in 57 I was posted to Akrotiri, 13 squadron they had finally realised I was PR photographer; I hated the place; it was so restrictive compared to Episkopi and besides that the living accommodation was riddled with bed bugs - the place was alive with them. I got into hot water when after all of our protestations went unheard and I got in touch with my MP. Solution we were re -housed in tents at the back of the pan -the best of results .One good thing came out of Akrotiri; I met my future wife in the hospital there.

Back in England I went to Air Ministry and then to Wyton 58 sqn and finally Brampton where I bought a dilapidated house near the Black Horse-that was to set me up quite by accident in property development, in which I still dabble.

LINKS

Get your Service Record for free!

http://rafinegyptandaden1950sduddings.co.uk/Egypt.aspx Many photos of RAF Abu Sueir and of Ismailia

www.suezcanalzone.com/ Words and photos by servicemen

http://britains-smallwars.com/Canal/index1.html#his More words and photos

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/20/newsid_3204000/3204331.stm Report of the events of 20 November 1951

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal History of the Canal

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.boon/John%20Boon%20Extra%20text2a.htm John Boon as a schoolboy in the Canal Zone 1950-53

https://picasaweb.google.com/jaricme/JohnBoonInEgyptAndCyprus195053# Photos in the Canal Zone and Cyprus 1950-53

http://www.suezveteransassociation.org.uk/

Photos of Deversoir

Photos of Ismailia

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