Anecdotes and Memories

Allan Bucknall (1958-1960)
I was the Map Librarian during my tour and was responsible for the organisation and running of the Library.(My trade was Clerk Organisation) My memories of personnel are vague, but Sqn. Ldr. A.E. Temple was the C.O also Flt. Lt. Hutson was directly in charge of us. I worked mainly with the PI's. At the time I was the talk of Episkopi, because my dog Woppet who had recently had 7 pups, bit the C.O. of the camp on his weekly inspection of the tent lines, needless to say he went mad. The CO ordered the dog & pups to be destroyed (I saved the pups by giving them to the Sudaneese). The tent to be completely fumigated etc. I was also charged with improper possession of a NAFFI glass (Did you ever hear of anything so ridiculous) the orderly sergeant told us to f... off and finish our drinks outside in the bondu, but this was not good enough for the police. Anyway I had only a month to do so I was let off by Sqn Ldr Temple who also found it ridiculous. Oh happy days.

Stu Usher
I arrived on "Devonshire" in July 1959 and stayed in the tent lines until moving up to the block above JARIC.

I worked initially on multis with Al Sharpe, Paddy Judge and various others and ultimately followed you into PR* with Dave Jones. Indeed Dave and I became good friends and he eventually took our wedding photos in 1963 when we were both serving at No.1 AIDU at Northolt. (Quite a contrast from our earlier job at Episkopi I can tell you! God how I hated that particular job, and it just seemed to go on forever until I escaped to Singapore in 1964!)

I loved every minute of time in the PR section - well, what photog wouldn't? Needless to say I knew Chris Coles very well, and met up with him a couple of times at MOD after we both got back to the UK. Sadly, he died not so many years later. He was a pleasure to work with as you will surely know.

Al Sharpe and I became quite good mates too. He bought a Fiat 600, and he was a bit naughty really as he drove it for some time before he ultimately became qualified, but as far as I can recall, he never came unstuck!

Johnny Shepherd and Chippy Carpenter also had some time in PR.

*JB note. This refers to the MEAF Public Information Office, to which three JARIC photographers were seconded to take photographs for public relations purposes. When I was one of the chosen three, 1959-60, the other two were Alan Birch and David Jones. Chris Coles was the civilian Public Information Officer who organised our activities.

Don Maddocks
MIDDLE EAST MEMORIES

From April 1955 until April 1956 I worked in P1&P2 Section in SHQ at RAF Kasfareet, which was part of 107MU, a vast maintenance unit on the Bitter Lakes, Egypt. The Maintenance Unit was the main supply depot for MEAF Command, and also which received aircraft from other Commands for maintenance, before despatch to various units in MEAF. P1&P2 section's principle function was to support the Commanding Officer and Station Adjutant, in records for officers on the station, and to process courts of enquiry and courts martial. In 1956 President Nasser abrogated the Canal Zone Treaty and all Military troops and airforce personnel were to be posted out of the Canal Zone. I was amongst the last to leave Kasfareet after packing and marking all the documents for which the section was responsible. Then my posting arrived - JARIC (ME) RAF Episkopi Cyprus. None of my pals in SHQ had heard of the unit, so it was going to be a brand new start for SAC Don Maddocks.

Kit bag full of my forces paraphernalia and a small suitcase containing private stuff, prezzies for family, and mementoes gathered over the twelve months spent in the sand and Sphynxes of Egypt, were heaved aboard a "garry" (Forces interpretation from the arabic for a horse drawn vehicle) en-route for a shortish flight from Ismailia to Akrotiri. Eventually I arrived at the main gates of RAF Episkopi and asked the RAF Police for JARIC. "Oh that place?" was the reply, however in due course an RAF Standard Vanguard came to collect me and my belongings, and via a number of tortuous roads seemingly built into the hillside, we eventually turned up at another pair of gates.....JARIC (ME)!!
Having shown my F1250 and my posting notice, I was escorted to the Orderly room of my new unit. The Unit Adjutant, Warrant Officer Shepherd did little other than giving me a cursory look over, and then directing me to my new accommodation - a four man tent, just above the ablutions, with views down to the cliffs. The other guys two corporals, and another SAC were from other units in RAF Episkopi, and who were always curious about the function of JARIC, however I had already been primed by the Adjutant that I was not allowed to talk about anything connected to the Unit. I was with JARIC from April 1956 until the following October, and it was a very happy time, mainly due to the friendly attitude of the guys I worked with. Each day we started early and finished early (similar to the Canal Zone), then it was midday meal, then either go for a swim, or sleep. Late afternoon, we had "Tiffin", which was a name given to tea time and which had roots in the language of the old Empire. It always consisted of "Chai" (tea) and bread and jam. Although the mess had fly screens on the doors and the windows, these screens did not prevent flies descending in their hordes onto the mess tables. This mass invasion was made so attractive to the creatures by the state of the tables, invariably covered in bits of bread, semi rancid butter, and jam. The group of guys, who were my constant companions, and I only partook of the tea which we carried back to the tent lines.Then one of us would go out of the camp and join the queue at the Cypriot food van, to buy Spam and pickle rolls to enjoy with the mug of tea. That was the highlight of many of our days!! To relieve some of the monotony, I organized a couple of coach trips to other parts of the Island, one to Kyrenia and the other I think was to the Troodos mountains. These trips were allowed as long as a number of the guys were armed, as a defence against any Eoka attack, who were active at that time.

Later in the year, UK forces in Cyprus and French military were involved in the Suez crisis, and we had to share our tents with French marines and French airforce personnel. Four men in our tent, was just about tolerable, however to have another four guys, sleeping on the floor, made life interesting to say the least. The early risers got the first use of the ablutions and the Brits made sure that they were up and about whilst the French guys were still wiping the sleep from their eyes. Any of you guys, who were Jaric men, in the later years no doubt had civilised toilets, showers and wash basins whereas we had toilets : wooden planks over a pit - wash basins: a zinc trough with cold water running through - showers: cold running water in a corrugated iron hut. I guess our French friends thought these conditions were standard throughout the UK armed forces, and we did nothing to dispel these thoughts so as to imply we were hard and tough individuals!!

As the Suez campaign continued, I was advised by the Adjutant that it was highly likely that my demob date in the October would be delayed. I knew that these conditions did not apply to national service guys like me, but was unable to convince the Adjutant of this. This was hard to take, and I set about conducting subterfuge with the aid of one of my old Kasfareet friends, who was now a sergeant in Personnel Movements at Nicosia. With about a week to go before I was due out of the mob, my pal sent a message to JARIC querying why SAC Maddocks's repatriation was not being processed. Within the hour, I was ordered to set about clearance for repat and demob!!! On 26th October 1956, I was cleared through RAF Innsworth, Gloucester, a week late but very relieved.

Christmas 1956, and I sent a food parcel to my old pals in JARIC to supplement their Spam rolls. I had a letter back from them to thank me, telling me that the parcel had been relegated to a corner of the Episkopi post office awaiting collection, due to the awful smell of cheese (strong Cheddar) emanating from it......The parcel was collected nevertheless, and the contents were consumed with relish.

Steve Benkel (2707006 C.S.S.Benkel S.A.C /Tracer P.I.)

I started my National Service after a two year deferment. It enabled me to finish my training as a commercial artist or as we like to be known now a Graphic designer. In September 1953 I arrived at Cardington for induction and then moved on to Wilmslow in Cheshire for initial training. After eight weeks of square bashing in rather cold conditions, the prospect of a further two years on a wet and windy airfield somewhere in the U.K.didn't appeal so I thought it would be a good idea to volunteer for an overseas posting.

Early in January 1954, we were sent to a transit camp at Lytham St. Annes and very shortly afterwards we found ourselves at Stanstead (at that time a very primitive airfield). The aircraft waiting for us was an Avro York in the livery of Skyways Airlines. The plane had a civilian crew and we soon took off on the first leg of the flight to Egypt. Eventually we landed in Malta and were disembarked only to be told that there was a problem with one of the engines and they were searching for a replacement. We kicked our heels for some time but eventually the York's crew reappeared fully decked out in R.A.F. uniforms. One of the pilots looked amazing for he sported a full set beard. I think he would have felt more comfortable in a naval uniform.

Stage 2 of the flight was without any further incident and 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.C's and eventually S.A.C;s. 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. 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 voyage, we slept on deck because it was too hot and noisy below decks, we arrived in Cyprus. I think it was Limassol, but I can't remember. We drove to Episkopi where we greeted 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!

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.

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.

My stay in Episkopi was a short one. I was due to be demobbed in September, but there seemed to be a distinct lack of transport available. However, our luck changed when a rather laid-back Australian pilot, on his way from the firing range in Woomera with equipment for the U.K., decide to buzz the G.O.C's residence in his Hastings transport aircraft. He was grounded pending an enquiry into his upsetting the G.O.C's peace and probably his Gin and Tonic! Anyway his delay allowed us to hitch a ride back to the U.K. We stopped at El Adem on the way home and then finally we landed at Lynham in Wiltshire. From there we were transported to R.A.F. Innsworth where we were demobbed. I have a lasting impression of how fresh the air was and how green the countryside looked.

My experience with the R.A.F. was not quite over, In 1956 I was called up for "Z" Reserve training and spent two weeks at Nuneham Park, near Oxford. This was a complete waste of time for all parties. The staff there didn't want to be bothered with us. We were told to find some paper and walk around looking busy or find a quiet corner to hide in. What a complete waste of time and M.O.D. money!

I have recalled the names of some of the officers who might have been at Episkopi in your time.
The C.O. Sq/Lr Henderson, F/Lt's Adamson, Adcock, Mathieson and Winton and Lt.Jarvis (Army)

Robert Stratton

Looking at the list of personnel there are a few names I remember. Gordon Hunnable being one. On guard one night he told me his girlfriend had a friend whose friend wanted a penpal. He talked me into writing to her. I was a five year regular and after leaving in Jan 1960 whilst then stationed at Brampton, I married the penpal in March 1960. Gordon was my best man. Likewise I was bestman at his wedding. In civvi life Gordon joined the police force being stationed at Billiricay Essex. The last I heard of him he finished his police career as the coroners officer at Billiricay court. Sqn Ldr Richardson I remember very well. I liked him very much as a CO and had great respect for him. Because of him I still have a right hand and wrist. We were levelling a mobile processing trailer with a number of others when all of a sudden he yelled at me and grabbed my arm pulling it away from the adjusting jack. The trailer collapsed from the jack. Sgt Harris I remember from an incident when we were on night shift processing the first batch of aerial films taken during the suez crisis. I was number one on the cpu when during the night there was a bang on my door and Sgt Harris shouted, " Stratton are you awake?".I replied yes and he responded telling me my number two wasn't and the film was off track getting all torn. I had to see the CO the following morning who told me it was a court martial offence to destroy operational film. He gave me a choice. A court martial or his punishment. I chose his which was a week of extra duty. I do not remember who my number two was or his punishment.

I flew to Cyprus in March 1956 in the ill fated Hermes. We took off from Stansted after a long delay because of engine trouble. We stopped on route at Rome and Malta to refuel and arrived at Nicosia about 6am. That evening while being in the NAAFI someone shouted that there was a fire on the airfield.It was the Hermes we arrived on. Apparrently it had engine trouble again. All the tourex personnel had been sent back to transit when a number of bombs had gone off on the aircraft. In that incident it was like an omen because of the engine trouble. Had the Hermes taken off on time, it would have blown up over the Med. The tourex personnel's lifes were saved but the lost all their belongings.

The story of this bombing and a picture of the wrecked aircraft can be found here, third picture down.

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