Spit / Hurr / Lys 1947

Spit/Hurr 1947 - 1948 (2)

In August 1947 we were given an early Christmas present in the shape of an invitation to tour East Africa in September on a goodwill mission. We just could not believe our luck - a country untouched by war, no rationing, no security problems and a friendly hospitable population. There was also the prospect of some challenging cross-country flying over a variety of terrain. It was obvious that our route from Fayid to Wadi Halfa, Khartoum, Juba and Kisumu could not be flown on internals so we had to carry 90

-gallon overload tanks which gave us over three hours endurance. We visited Nairobi, Nakuru, Entebbe where we opened the new airfield (interesting to note that in Idi Amin's time another group flew down from Israel to close it!!) Mombasa, Tanga, Daar Es Salaam and Zanzibar where we met the Sultan. We had been told that both air and ground crews were to be issued with white overalls for the tour and were looking forward to getting those flashy pre-war flying overalls. What we got were naval stokers boiler suits - an overnight tailoring job at Fayid saw collars, shoulder straps, belts and map pockets added so at 5 yards they did not look to bad. In Zanzibar at the Residents reception at his beach house two elderly ladies were enthusing about our smart white overalls and one added “and they have all got white swimming trunks”. Fortunately she was short sighted as our ground crew were indulging in some skinny dipping further up the beach. We returned to Ein Shemer having enjoyed the most tremendous hospitality and friendship wherever we landed and confident that we had upheld the good name of the RAF.

The security situation continued to deteriorate as the end of the Mandate approached, and the British Forces started to pull back into the Haifa Enclave, which was to be the final port of embarkation. As soon as we pulled out the Arabs and the Jews tried to move in and take over, resulting in fighting.

We left Ein Shemer and went to Ramat David - taking the bar stocks with us! - and sent half of 208 and 32 (3) to Nicosia while the remainder of us stayed to cover the final stages of the withdrawal to Haifa. We had four aircraft on standby every afternoon but were only called out on one occasion when trouble broke out between the Jews in Tel Aviv and the Arabs in Jaffa. The brief was to pick the biggest building between the two and strafe it. It turned out to be the Bat Yam Brewery!! Apparently we stopped the fighting - and the beer production!!