The new year began with a sorry picture of aircraft unserviceability and little productive flying took place in the first ten days. An all out effort produced three serviceable Mark 10s and with these, eighty-four hours were flown in the following fortnight. The better serviceability of the T.7s enable the number of training hours to easily exceed their eighty-hour target. Flt Lt Morris was dispatched to Nairobi to collect the defective Mark 10 following repairs and Flt Lt Peter Lewis was detached to HMS Centaur to give instruction on recce techniques over the Aden Protectorate to Sea Vixen crews.
On the operational front, in addition to eleven coastal recces, five sorties were flown using FR.10s XF441 and XF460 to provide escort and RT links for the captured United Arab Republic IL-14 (Crate) transport aircraft which was to fly from Lodar to Khormaksar. As there was no ground link between Lodar and Aden continuous cover was provided during the times that a take off was expected but it was twice delayed due to unserviceability of the Crate. The flight eventually took place on 14 January. During the last week, four recces sorties were flown on Operation ‘Nutcracker’ in the Radfan area which involved taking photographs for the Federal Army and providing reports and photographs for Hunter strikes.
February began much the same as had January, only one FR.10 being available throughout the month. Even so, the flight nearly achieved its target of eighty flying hours on its single-seaters whereas over eighty-five hours was attained on the trainers, largely due to the hours flown in the T.7 loaned to 43 Squadron while on detachment to Bahrain. On the personnel front, Flt Lt Johnny Morris departed for leave prior to his posting out and both Flt Lts Pyrah and Timms became operational, the former taking over as flight commander from Johnny Morris.
Despite a lack of available aircraft considerable use was made of the Flight to provide pre- and post-strike photographs of targets in the Dhala and Radfan areas. Apart from close-ups of the actual targets, high level obliques were taken in order to help in target location and identification where map inaccuracies often made accurate briefing difficult. Of the eleven operational sorties flown, seven were of this type, three were coastal recces and one was an air to ground strike in the Radfan area, flown in FGA.9, XK139, of 208 Squadron by Peter Lewis. Over the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd, the Flight undertook the wing standby duty but was not called upon to fly operationally.
With life beginning to hot up in March the fortunes of the flight greatly improved with higher serviceability rates on its aircraft. Fg Off Johnnie Baines was posted in as a replacement for Johnny Morris and he settled down quickly to his operational conversion. Training stepped up a notch and even some air-to-air cine sorties were flown. These tended to show that the pilots were a little rusty in academic photography through a gun sight but highly accurate in combat; the kill rate allowed notably by tight-fisted PAIs was 75%..
Operations for the month were both varied and interesting ranging from a flagwave and photo recce by Pete Lewis (XF441), a post strike recce again by Pete (XE589) in the Rajaf and Dana areas, to a search, location and photographic recce of two Russian destroyers by Pete (XF441 x 2) and Graham Timms (XF441). The highlight of the month though was the attack on Fort Harib on the 28th in which Pete Lewis flew the pre- and post-strike recces in XE614. Everything went well, the excellent photographs revealing AAA defences that were hitherto unknown and severe damage to the fort.
With the help of sixteen hours ferrying time, the return of XF436 from refurbishment in the UK, the Mark 10 target of 60 flying hours for April was easily exceeded and permission granted to go on to 80 hours. Likewise the T.7 target was easily surpassed, proving the advantage of placing all the trainers in the care of 1417 Flight. Whether the same utilisation could be achieved once centralised servicing came into force on 1 June, however, was a concern. Another new pilot, Flt Lt George Cole, arrived on the 21st after a ground tour and following a refresher and an FR course at Chivenor. In spite of the high number of flying hours, only five operational sorties were flown; three requiring the taking of photographs in the Radfan area for planning purposes and two on ship recces.
April was a well balanced training month with concentration on Fg Off Baines’s operational training. Air to ground firing took place on the Khormaksar range with all pilots flying at least three ‘shoots’ plus one night flying sortie.
All that training was to prove its worth as from the beginning of May, 43 and 208 Squadrons (8 Squadron being on its rotational detachment to Bahrain) entered a period of intense operational activity supporting ground troops in the Radfan area in what was to become ‘The Radfan War’. While marking its first complete year as an independent unit, 1417 Flight’s FR.10s were about to experience their most active month of service, a total of over 100 flying hours being flown by the four aircraft (XE614, XF436, XF441 and XF460), 58 of them operational flights in the Radfan area. Full credit was given to the groundcrews who worked tirelessly for very long hours to keep enough aircraft serviceable for the standby requirements. The pressure eased a little towards the end of the month when Johnnie Baines completed his operational training and became a fully fledged member of the Flight.
Wide use was made of the Flight’s photographic facility and little of its visual powers during the campaign. Oblique line overlaps were made of the main areas of operation for pin pointing targets and for strike briefings. Pre- and post-strike photos were taken of most targets engaged by the Wing and five sorties were combined recces and strikes, the FR.10s firing their HE at specific targets. Three of these were flown by Wg Cdr Jennings on the 13th, 15th (both in XF436) and 16th (XF441) and a fourth by Roger Pyrah on the 26th (XF441).
The MFPS photo team attached to the Wing were worked very hard producing many hundreds of prints and processing films. In spite of mass production methods, the standard of work was very high and was always produced in very quick time.
The unit’s strength by this time had increased to six pilots; Flt Lts P. Lewis, R. Pyrah, J. Dymond, G. Timms, G. Cole and Fg Off Baines, who became operational at the end of May, whereas the other ranks had more than doubled, comprising; a Warrant Officer, two Sergeants, eleven Corporals and 22 airmen.
On 1 June, the Tactical Wing centralised servicing system came into force, the Flight losing all but one of its groundcrew. Although the break was sudden, it was achieved with minimal problems and the new system worked very satisfactorily from the Flight’s point of view. The Flight’s accommodation was also moved to that previously occupied by the pilots and administration of 43 Squadron.
Fg Off Baines, who was becoming a valuable member of the Flight, suffered an ankle injury in an unfortunate road accident, necessitating his return to the UK for treatment. As this was likely to take several months, it was not known if he would return to Aden when fit.
Of the 63 operational sorties flown this month, forty were armed recce in the Radfan area and no less than fifteen of these sorties included HE canon attacks by the FR.10s on buildings, sangars and livestock. The recces provided pre- and post-strike photos, area briefing photo coverage and visual reports of any movements. From 16 June onwards, seventeen first and last flight sorties were flown over the upper Yaffa district to find and photograph suspect camel supply caravans bound for the rebel forces. In the last week of the month, six flagwave sorties were flown in the Wadi Ruqub and Mudia areas where outbreaks of rebel activities were suspected.
With the easing of the operational load in July, all pilots were able to carry out more training sorties and the opportunity was taken to identify new recce targets for training exercises. Two days were also flown on air to ground firing on the range with satisfactory results. Of the 33 operational sorties flown, ten were armed recce sorties over the Radfan area on two of which, HE was fired at selected targets by Roger Pyrah (XF436 and XF441). A further seventeen recces were flown in the Beihan area searching for movement in the Wadi Ayn, and Upper Yaffa and Dhala areas, while two flag waves were flown in the Dathina area.
Twelve days before his departure on 12 July for the UK, Peter Lewis was promoted to Squadron Leader and his place as OC 1417 Flight assumed by Roger Pyrah. Peter’s replacement, Flt Lt Ralph Chambers, one of many Canadians who joined the RAF in the fifties, arrived from Chivenor on 1 July and had completed a large proportion of his operational training by the end of the month. The centralised servicing system continued to work well and the Flight was always well supplied with serviceable aircraft, although this was largely due to the Mark 10s being given higher priority over the Mark 9s.
A new system of planned flying and servicing for Tactical Wing was introduced in August where, for the first three weeks the Flight was given a daily allocation of three single sorties spaced throughout the day with fixed take off and landing times. The final week comprised air to ground firing with all Tactical Wing squadrons when the Flight was allocated four air to ground sorties per day. The system met with limited success and was placed under review at the end of the month. In spite of this, 23 operational sorties were flown of which six were flagwaves in the Mahfidh, Mudia and Mukeiras areas the remaining seventeen being recce sorties to various targets in the Protectorate. These produced photo coverage for intelligence briefings concerning dissident activities, pre- and post-strike and photos of a Russian freighter passing Aden.
Due to fewer operational flights, a satisfactory month’s training was achieved, although restrictions imposed by the planned flying system meant that few pairs could be flown. This was a particular disadvantage to the operational training of Flt Lt Chambers for which some chased and intercepted sorties were required.
Having completed its task of photographing every airstrip and fort in the whole Western Aden Protectorate, 1417 Flight embarked on another concentrated undertaking in September, that of photographing every town and wadi in the Western Aden Protectorate. At least three photographs of each location were filed with the Ground Liaison Officer (GLO) to constitute a considerable mass of useful intelligence. With the subsequent formation of an Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (ARIC) at Command HQ, all the unit’s photographic records would be handed over for filing at the proper level.
While carry out this assignment, the Flight was also able to fly 26 operational sorties tasked for it by HQ MEC, mainly photo coverage of the Dhala and Mudia areas there having been a notable increase in dissident activity in those areas. To make up for the temporary loss of Johnnie Baines, Flt Lt Bill Sheppard was posted in from 8 Squadron.
For reasons not outlined in the ORB, restrictions were imposed on the use of 230-gallon drop tanks (anyone know why?) in October limiting the Flight’s long range capability. The FR.10s were now configured with 4 x 100-gallon drop tanks except when on range exercises. Of the nineteen operational flights, fifteen were recces in the Radfan and Dhala areas, two were combined leaflet drops and recces by Jim Dymond (XF460 and XE599) and two were to find and photograph Russian merchant ships.
The operational training programmes for Flt Lts Chambers and Sheppard continued satisfactorily while other members of the Flight maintained a varied training programme part of which included two pass attacks, a first for most of the pilots.
As the number of operational sorties dropped to nine recces in November, the lowest for the year, a wide training programme was instigated which included air to ground firing, air to air cine weave and ranging and tracking, fighter versus fighter interceptions and formation flying. Before the month was out, Flt Lt Chambers became operational.
The slack period for operational sorties continued through December allowing the Flight to fly a full well balanced programme. The flying task of 100 hours was achieved on the last day of the month, despite the loss of days over Christmas. Flt Lt Sheppard had made rapid progress and became operational. The number of operational sorties was now down to seven, two recces, two flag waves, one leaflet drop and two ship recces. As they year drew to a close, a request was made for a small detachment, preferably with one of the squadrons, to broaden the experience of the pilots and keep them on their mettle.
The total operational achievement for 1417 Flight at the end of its first full calendar year was 314 sorties from which 693 films and 13,355 photographic prints were produced.