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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0063.PDF
11 January 1951 41 east, we were catching up with time, and by 0545 hr the distant horizon had become slightly grey. Gradually, the wing became dimly outlined against ghostly cloud forms. There were tiny bumps as the Hastings ploughed its way through the cloud layer. Another hour and we were over the brown sun-baked hills of the north African littoral, which was being fought for so hardly some seven years ago. What a battlefield! The only signs of vegetation are the little bits of scrub growing in the dry beds of the wadis. At 0730 a landing was made at El Adem, 18 miles south of Tobruk. The touch-down was a trifle heavy and the front half-door flew open, knocking inward one of the emergency exits as it slammed forward against the fuselage. While the aircraft was being refuelled for the long leg to Habbaniya the passengers were accommodated in the com- fortable transit-camp lounge and plied with tea. It had been the intention to take-off again at 0925, but when everyone was on board it was discovered that one of the engine starters would not function. Fortunately the local engineer officer was able to find a replacement in store and only two hours were lost while it was fitted. During the wait the passengers consumed yet another meal of fried eggs on fried bread^-the standard transit meal. A member of the crew said that he once checked up on the number of fried eggs he had on a round trip from Lyneham to Singapore and back. The total arrived at was 52! By 1340 hr (after having put watches forward another hour) we were again airborne and climbing to 7,500ft over broken cloud for the start of a 5 hr 50 min run. Our course for a long while was over the coastline and, looking downward, one could see quite clearly to the sea bed through a considerable depth of water; the seaweed growths showed in strong contrast with the bareness of the neighbouring land. This bare face of the Western Desert is unrelieved until the Nile delta is passed over and the thickly clustered villages of square, flat- topped houses, surrounded by green cultivation, provide a pleasant rest for the eyes. Irrigation canals, which take the place of the old-time Nile flooding, are often tree-lined; and, from above, the long shadows thrown by the low afternoon sun oddly recalled the poplar-lined roads of France. As the Hastings progressed over Egypt I could not help recollecting the first occasion on which I was in the air over the same area. This was 34 years ago, on a Maurice Farman Longhorn, flying from Abbassia—then a tented camp—where the first twin-engined Handley Page 0/400 landed, in 1918, after flying from England. The crossing of the delta took the Hastings only 20 minutes and soon we were over Sinai: a desert of powdery flat sand which gave way eventually to utterly barren hills. As the daylight began to fade,\ at 1640 hr, the Gulf of Aqaba appeared below and the Hastings^Ojirned north to pick up the pipeline. The detojur to the south is necessitated by the disinclination of the Jews to allow us to overfly --Palestine. The low setting sun made the valleys appear as if filled with a terra- cotta mist,.-giving"the whole landscape the appearance of a Wellsian fantasy Darkness after sunset lasted but a short while and soon the.
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