…... of Tom Sheppard; he has been devoting his banishment to work on the line and has been at work morning and afternoon and working in the sun got his legs nicely sunburnt. He was able to walk again by the end of the week.


On Thursday the Squadron Commander and Dez Melaniphy went with the C-in-C to Amman for a four day visit during which they met King Hussein.


The usual story of a little aviation preceding a lot of sun-bathing is true of Thursday although a slight alteration in routine was provided when the Battle Flight pair were scrambled after some Israeli Mysteres and two pairs were later involved in a DRW exercise with Valiants as targets.


On Friday the Craig Kingdom got a fillip by the arrival of GGS recorders and so cine ¼s started again, mixed in with low-level battle sorties whilst the aircraft serviceability lasted. As it is many moons since anyone did any cine Ian Craig worked out a programme of cine training destined to make it all so easy and natural.


Friday evening was very disappointing; a large number of promiscuous pilots went hopefully to the camp cinema to see a film starring Brigitte Bardot. The film did not live up to the expected standard and what there was of it - the film, not the expected standard - was fairly well camouflaged by the large heads of all those sitting in the front rows.


The Botterill tonsorial artistry became very evident by the end of the week when Bill Thoms, Steve and Tim Riddihough succumbed to being shorn to crew-cut type dimensions by Botterill-wielded scissors. Roy King, 'B' Flight Commander, is Very Much against such disfigurement and is quickly approaching a near dangerous blood-pressure with each new appearance of a cropped head.


Little was done on Saturday morning although there were two lectures on aircraft recce and the cine training programme and an attempt was made for  BFI talks which everyone loudly protested they did last week - by half-past eleven everyone was back in the Mess awaiting opening time.


The Station Sports was held on Saturday afternoon and the 208th were represented in the Flying Wing team by Moose David, Drac Fraser, Corporal Dorward and SACs McDonald and Diamond; not many of the chasps attended as spectators, the weather being hot and the beach handy.

Ch 2 - Nicosia/Akrotiri 12

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