I then moved on to low levels, pairs strikes, medium level combat etc. Our normal operating area was southern Qatar at medium level down to the south east, staying out of Saudi Arabian airspace and then out over the desert to the east, down south as far as what was known as the Liwa Hollows; the dunes on the Saudi border with what is now the Arab Emirates, south of Abu Dhabi. There was at least one RN frigate in the area and we supported them flying practice interceptions at high level under their radar control, used them as targets for anti-
Every so often we would deploy to Sharjah to practise weapon delivery on Rashid Range at Jebajib, located about 40 miles south west of Sharjah down a rudimentary beach track. It was less than a mile from where the famous Palm Jebel Ali Hotel has since been built in Dubai. Back then, Dubai was a small town with, I seem to remember, just one small hotel and a shopping arcade. This was quite different to Muharraq, a very basic airfield built originally for civil traffic. The airport and the Rest House were built in the form of a fort (Al Mahatta Fort built by the Sheik in 1932) to protect travellers en route to India with Imperial Airways and latterly BOAC against the possibility of attacks from the Bedouin.
We were accommodated in aluminum huts and the only point for gathering outside work was in a couple of sandy quadrangles outside the huts and the Officers’ Mess. Clearly there was no TV or radio, so most of our evenings there seemed to consist of drinking cold beer and singing a variety of squadron songs – not least because the boss aspired to be an opera singer. There was an outside cinema on base where the NAAFI showed the occasional film in the evenings. Otherwise, we would gather a gaggle of motorbikes and head into Dubai for a drink in the one hotel there or very occasionally, hire a dhow for some fishing in Dubai creek. The Squadron was befriended by a locally employed Englishman who had a bungalow with a pool which he allowed us to use – I think he was glad of some company, albeit occasionally a bit boisterous!
On the range we practiced air to ground gunnery with the Hunter’s 4 x 30mm Aden canons, 68mm SNEB rocket attacks and 3º dive bombing with 4lb bombs simulating the dropping of 100 gal tanks of napalm from the outboard pylons. The targets were usually 15ft square hessian screens for strafe and a circle of oil drums for rocketry and bombing. The pilots took turns to act as Range Safety Officers (RSO), setting off to drive the one and a half to 2 hours to the range in Landrovers. It was just a sand road that had frequent very deep potholes that could (and did often) stop and contain a vehicle! On one occasion, one of our number was delayed reaching the range, and arrived just in time to clear a circling formation to join for strafe without carrying out the normal range safety checks.
Luckily the first live pass missed the target and the group of local Arabs who had been sheltering in the shade behind the hessian targets managed to affect a rapid, if undignified, hasty retreat!
Muharraq Memories 2 -
