By Friday morning most of the chasps had settled in and were getting used to their accommodation and had discovered which light worked and which did not; some experienced the doubtful blessing of the 'long-drop' type sanitation and it was rapidly learned that for all cases except emergencies the Mess provided civilised necessities.

On Saturday in cooler weather the day started at seven which for Nicosia was quite normal. The 208th however were expected to work as soon as possible in the 'Battle Flight' role and so by 5:30 Ian Semple and Don Dewhurst were on standby; in connection with this they claimed a record of a bed to standby time of only eight minutes.

Sterling work had been done by the Advance Party and Jack Gregg in having things organised and first thing on Saturday Jack yielded the fruits of his efforts and distributed to everyone a thick wad of empty forms, including the eternal triplicate, to be filled in. And so red-tape and the pen pushers got a grip on us within one day of our arrival. Dez and Graham arrived from El Adem in the Vampire with Group Captain Edwards in the Meteor. Apart from Steve busily explaining away losses at Tangmere and Nobby Clark who remained in England for compassionate reasons the Squadron was complete.

To advertise the presence of 208-and-Hunters in Nicosia a small champers-a-head party developed in the Mess in the evening from which a small fire started - the Fire Brigade turned up with thanks for the practice given them.

Apart from the form on 'Battle Flight' the Squadron took Sunday off for some rest and relaxation. The day was a windy and showery one and during a gust of wind when a large cu-nim was crossing the airfield the roof of one of the standby huts was removed and a number of stones shot down the intake of one of the aircraft. First to weaken, after only forty-eight hours were Kel and Tim who felt 'the need' and to the great amazement of most and envy of all spent the weekend with feminine company.

Monday March 24th - Sunday March 30th

The week started off with 'Sir' outlining future policy in a small talk on the way things would go if all the plans worked out by the Big Four ('Sir' and the Flight Commanders) were successful; the initial settling in had been accomplished and general tidying up and concentration on the flying effort were the main considerations. Roy King followed the talk by giving a short lecture on radar ranging and what to do. Later in the day several pairs got airborne to practice his words of wisdom and put almost every radar set unserviceable.

Ch 2 - Nicosia/Akrotiri 02

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