The island of Muharraq at that stage was connected to the main island of Bahrain by a single narrow causeway - almost two lanes wide – now there are three large motorway Causeways with bridges. The whole station including the RAF Hospital (where Lizzie nursed as a civilian sister for nearly 2 years), but only the senior wheels, hospital staff and singlies lived there. We married folk lived in hirings in Manama, Bahrain's only town then. During the 6 day Arab-Israeli War, there were riots – incited by the
Egyptian teachers, and everyone living “down town” were confined to their flats unless military MT could be provided to get them to the station – and – guess what! The squadron was on detachment for the whole of the period! The wives, as so often in service life, had to cope on their own.
THE SQUADRON
This shows the
squadron at the beginning of '67 [9]; 208 was a fully operational front line squadron and remained so until the disbandment in September 1971. Although the emphasis shifted somewhat towards the end, the commitments remained the same. Assigned to CENTO, but with other significant local commitments, the support and re-inforcement of Aden and the 2 Hunter squadrons at Khormaksar was, overall, the top priority. As you can see we were all of one company, air and groundcrew working together, largely self-sufficient, on an expeditionary footing and able to deploy at short notice away from our home base. We had our own Army Ground Liaison Team to enable and direct close support operations, a key commitment in that theatre.
Here you
see the groundcrew at work [10, 11 & 12] – note the engine fitter down the intake inspecting the front end of the Hunter's Avon engine. The temperatures, high humidity and ever present sand made their lives and tasks , demanding, sweaty and very wearying.
