Anniversary of Turkish invasion of Cyprus

[Rwy in Sight]

''
Yesterday, was the anniversary of the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. I understand a lot of the members here were around at the time and maybe stationed in Cyprus. Any comments or stories from those days?

[ian16th]

''
Yesterday, was the anniversary of the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. I understand a lot of the members here were around at the time and maybe stationed in Cyprus. Any comments or stories from those days?

I was Ord Cpl at Akrotiri on Saturday 21 December 1963. Which is the day the locals started shooting at each other!

Here is what Wiki says about it.

[Woody]

PaWoody was on National Service at Akrotiri, during the Suez Crisis and the EOKA campaign, his personal highlight was leaving his 303 in a bar and having to go back half an hour later to ask the bar owner for it back

[Sisemen]

I was at Brize as a Cpl in the General Office. The word went out that they needed volunteers to cope with the admin side of those repatriated. I remember working a full day shift issuing rail warrants as the various aircraft arrived carrying dependents and civilians that had been lifted off the beaches.

Manpower was a bit short so I stayed on for the night shift as well. About 0100 a VC10 came in and disgorged a load of pax and we set to work; departing Swindon for all points. I was feeling pretty chinstrapped by that stage. Then this woman appeared dressed in a thin cotton dress, suitable for Cyprus but not for the UK on a chilly pre-dawn arrival. She had a young girl in tow, 3 or 4, dressed similarly and clutching a teddy. The adrenalin kicked in and I sparked backed into full life as I completed their warrants and handed them over to the next desk (clothing I think).

[om15]

I was stationed at Akrotiri and living in a hiring in Limassol during this period, there were a few days of gunfire and fighting in Limassol, mainly down in the Turkish area at the west end of the docks, quite substantial lose of life amongst the Turks.
My landlord was a Greek Cypriot called George, when it all kicked off he called me round and asked me to help him service a corroded old sten gun that he had kept under the floor boards from the EOKA days, I took one look at the rusty bullets and gave him a can of WD40, had a beer with him and wished him well. I bumped into him a few months later and was glad that he hadn't injured himself.

I was seconded to Dhekelia at Kingsfield strip where 70 sqn C130s evacuated refugees from the northern part of the island.

My daughter and her husband have a holiday home in Paphos, sometimes this period crops up in conversation and it is obvious that the huge lose of life and uprooting of people is history now and mostly forgotten, my memories are mainly the piss ups.

[Pontius Navigator]

I had left a year previous but spotted my barman Ahmed Aziz in the Limsassol football stadium which was being used as an internment camp. Don't know what happened to him or the other Turks. I know the Turks took over Greek homes in the north. I knew Andreas Cariolu who had to flee south. Don't know what happened to his boats in the Kyrennia harbour.

Unlike in the north, I was amazed how, 30 years later, the Greeks had simply left many Turkish homes near Limassol, including the mosque, unoccupied.

[k3k3]

I was in training at Cosford, our course were all crammed in the back of pantechnicons full of married quarters camouflage furniture and sent to Bridgnorth, there we cleaned up the empty quarters and took the furniture in, the next day the evacuated families started to arrive.

[ian16th]

During the 1963-4 troubles, at one point, families within 12 months of tour-ex were sent home.

I was outside of that window.

Later, when things calmed down a little, I invoked my right to spend the last 6 months of my engagement at the posting of my choice. This put us within the previous 12 month window, but nobody said anything.

One can win sometimes.

[tcinbg]

Wasn't Brize runway closed at the time for resurfacing and all flights had to use Fairford. I worked in Brize ops at the time and we rushed over to Fairford to set up a temporary ops room. If I remember correctly.

[4mastacker]

The work to re-surface Brize's runway had been ongoing for some time before the invasion. Our day started at 05.30 at the section at Brize ready for the coach over to Fairford for a 07.00 start. By the time we got back to Brize after our shift it was usually gone 20.00 and the food in the mess was certainly not freshly prepared.

It was during that detachment to Fairford that the great fuel spill happened when the cross-base pipeline sheared whilst t'other shift was doing a fuel transfer between tanks. Lots of fuel spilt and lots of questions asked in The House.

[Rwy in Sight]

The work to re-surface Brize's runway had been ongoing for some time before the invasion. Our day started at 05.30 at the section at Brize ready for the coach over to Fairford for a 07.00 start. By the time we got back to Brize after our shift it was usually gone 20.00 and the food in the mess was certainly not freshly prepared.

Why you didn't eat at Fairford?

[4mastacker]

The work to re-surface Brize's runway had been ongoing for some time before the invasion. Our day started at 05.30 at the section at Brize ready for the coach over to Fairford for a 07.00 start. By the time we got back to Brize after our shift it was usually gone 20.00 and the food in the mess was certainly not freshly prepared.

Why you didn't eat at Fairford?

If I remember correctly, at the time Fairford had very limited catering - any late meals were provided via the cardboard horror-box - and at Brize our return was always between meal times. We worked a 12 hour shift pattern which wasn't a problem when we were working at Brize, but chuck in the travelling to and from Fairford in a rickety old bus meant for a long day. Waiting until 22.00 for a meal and then going straight to bed afterwards in order to be ready for the next day's early start just didn't appeal.