New year celebrations over, the squadron prepared for the move back to Khormaksar and, on 15 January, the Hunters staged through Masirah while the remaining pilots and groundcrew flew direct to Aden in an RAF Britannia. Once back on home territory they found the Protectorates to be in an unusually passive state, the only operational sorties being flown on the 30th and 31st when a pair of aircraft provided top cover on each day for a helicopter carrying a political agent between Mukeiras and Hilyan. The rest of the time was taken up with reconnaissance training and air to ground rocket and cannon firing on the range.
In readiness for a detachment to Kenya in the middle of February, a formation display team was formed. Led by Sqn Ldr Jones, the other team members comprised Flt Lts Edmondston, Powell and Morrell and they practiced nearly every day. At the end of January, they were presenting themselves over the airfield at Khormaksar complete with continual changes of formation, the main feature of their display.
After six gruelling months of hard work, seven 8 Squadron Hunters, together with thirteen pilots, the E.O., and forty groundcrew departed for the rich green plains of East Africa, arriving at RAF Eastleigh, Kenya, on 18 February for a ten day detachment. The high point of the trip was a demonstration by the unit’s four-ship formation team for the Duke of Gloucester on 21st. While there, the opportunity was taken for a number of long-distance, low-level reconnaissance flights over Kenya and Tanganyika, and the training of 24 Brigade Forward Air Controllers.
During the month, the Squadron played host to visits by staff and Hunters from the Day Fighter Combat School (DFCS) at West Raynham and a detachment of 43 Squadron Hunters based on Cyprus, the former to observe training, servicing and associated problems, and the latter for training. On the 27th, following a report that a patrol of the FRA had sustained a fatality when fired-on near Ataq, 140 miles north-east of Aden, Flt Lt Hayr led a pair of aircraft (1 x FR.10 and 1 x FGA.9) on a flag wave over the area.
No operational sorties were flown in March as the tranquillity in the Protectorates continued. To keep the pilots concentration on their job, a recognition contest was held over three days from the 12th to the 14th. The course over which competitors flew comprised seven turning points, the objective being to produce photographs of each turning point and a written debrief on two targets. All sorties were flown in Hunter FR.10s and points were awarded for; time taken to plan, sortie time, time taken to debrief, the quality of the photographs and the quality of the debrief. No mention is made in the ORBs of the winner.
On 15 March, eight FGA9s flew up to Bahrain on detachment to relieve 208 Squadron, staging through Masirah en-route. Members of the Squadron remaining at Khormaksar continued with recce training, mutuals on the T.7s, showing new pilots around the Western Aden Protectorate and rehearsing for the Station Open Day at the end of the month.
To enhance public relations with the local inhabitants, an Open Day was held at Khormaksar on 30 March. The opening sequence was performed by three 8 Squadron Hunters breaking the sound barrier while bouncing the airfield, two aircraft diving down from the west as a third dived down from the east. Tragically, the aircraft being flown by Fg Off Blackgrove, an FGA.9, XE607, on loan from 208 Squadron, failed to pull out of its dive and he was killed when it crashed into the military barrack square on the far side of the runway. Many of the 60,000 people attending the show thought that the crash was part of the display!
Ten operational sorties were flown by the Squadron’s FR.10s from 2 to 5 April as top cover for Operation SWAT in the WAP. No live firing required.
On the 18th, a number of 100-gallon drop tanks were filled with water and sea die marker, and fitted to the outboard pylons of an FGA.9 for an assimilated napalm dropping trial on the Khormaksar range. The drops were performed at 50 and 80 feet and the effects filmed from the ground to assess their flight pattern. In readiness for long range recces into the Eastern Aden Protectorate (EAP), the four FR.10s were fitted with long-range 230 gallon underwing tanks and the first sorties were flown with this configuration on 20 April.
Much of early May, in both Aden and Bahrain, was taken up with the continuous requirement for training, there being no operational sorties. Relieved by 208 Squadron, the Bahrain detachment came to an end on the 18th and 8 Squadron flew back to Khormaksar.
Between 25 May and 1 June, twenty sorties were flown in support of Operation Desperado which was mounted by two battalions of the Federal National Army (FNA) supported by the Queens Own Irish Hussars, and intended as a show of strength to restore peace among the tribes of the Illahi. Two FACs were attached to the force, one from 45 Commando and the second, Fg Off Stott from 8 Squadron. In carrying out the operation, 2 Battalion of the FNA advanced Nisab, down the Wadi Dura, thence to Wadi Rehab, whereas the 1st Battalion travelled from Mukeiras, up the Wadi Hatib and across the mountains Husan Sufra, also in the Wadi Rehab. All was quiet by the 30th, when both Battalions returned to their bases.
In early June a member of the Hunaidi tribe killed a Mohamedi in the Yemen in such a way as to make it appear that a Shamsi had committed the crime. Operational Landsweer was instigated in which the political officer of the area (Upper Aulakki), Mr W. Herber-Percy, paid a visit to the leader of the Rebeezi tribe, of which the Shamsi-Hunaidi were sub-tribes, at Madina in Wadi Hatib. 8 Squadron flew two flag waves and two photo-recce sorties in support of the operation. The meeting was successful and the tribes were able to resolve their differences.
On 25 June 1962, just two days after a squadron all-ranks party, Fg Off Webbon was killed when his FGA.9, XE600, crashed on the Khormaksar range during a practice live firing. The accident occurred after Fg Off Webbon had been told to return to base by the Range Safety Officer (RSO) for two flight safety height violations. He asked for and received permission to do a safety height run and proceeded to fly the aircraft close to the RSO’s hut at a height of 5 feet, with undercarriage and flaps fully extended, and at a speed of about 150 knots. When he was level with the hut, he opened the throttle and climbed steeply away. At about 50 feet the aircraft stalled and crashed, killing the pilot. A Board of Enquiry concluded that he was trying to make things uncomfortable for the RSO by stirring up the sand and that: “Such flagrant indiscipline usually has some history: it did”. (thanks to Alan Lowe for the full account of this accident)
With no operational flying called for in July, the Squadron concentrated the early part of the month on low level recces, firing on the range and a weapons competition. Eight FGA.9s and a T.7 were flown up to Bahrain via Sharjah on the 14th to relieve 208 squadron on the Persian Gulf standby detachment, with 13 officers and 50 groundcrew in support. The sorties at Bahrain consisted mainly of training exercises with various Army and Navy units, mainly over an island called Yas, some 170 miles away, as this was the only area that local states would allow for such activities. Other training sorties consisted of cine-weave, cine-tailchase and cine-rocket firing exercises. Down at Khormaksar, the FR.10s continued carried out a series of long-range recce sorties to the Wadi Hadramaut in the EAP.
Fg Off Owen Truelove joined the Squadron on 25 July as replacement engineering officer for Flt Lt Mike Murden who was about to become tour-ex. Lt Tim Notley, RN, also joined the Squadron but on an exchange posting from RNAS Lossiemouth as a replacement for Flt Lt Hayr who returned tour-ex to the UK and a posting with 19 squadron at Leconfield.
The Bahrain detachment kept the Royal Navy busy in September when four FGA.9s performed a simulated attack on HMS Loch Fyne. The ship’s captain commented, “The attacks were copybook, that was the best gunnery practice we’ve had this commission”. The 8 Squadron Bahrain detachment concluded on the 25 September when Hunter aircraft and personnel of 43 Squadron flew in from Cyprus to relieve it, its aircraft returning to Khormaksar via an overnight stop at Masirah.
After a number of Yemeni Republic IL-IIs carried out attacks on villages in the Wadi Beihan in the WAP on 22 October, a dawn-till-dusk routine was instigated in which both Khormaksar-based Hunter squadrons participated, operational responsibilities being shared between the two. One squadron took over the duty at midday and passed it back to the other 24 hours later, on an alternating basis. Eight days later, pilots reported seeing explosions inside Yemen and an aircraft was spotted 15 miles across the Yemen border, but the border was not violated and no action was taken.
Continuous patrolling of the border became standard routine for Hunter squadrons during late October, one more role to add to their increasingly active policing duties. The first patrol, code named Operation Beihan, was flown by Flt Lts Robin Morrell and Ernie Powell on 22 October after a hurried briefing by Wg Cdr Neville. Number 8 Squadron alone flew 108 patrol sorties between the 22nd and 31st, bringing the total operational flying hours for the month to 434.
Although the border patrols continued through November, their number reduced from the 11th, the requirement having changed to one pair of Hunters at 60-minutes readiness, another at 90-minutes and one routine patrol per day, following the installation of a Victor Conway radar system at Nuqub. The commitment continued to be shared with 208 Squadron. After the imposition of the border patrols, there were no further border infringements.
For the three days beginning 21 November, a weapons trial was performed with the objective of finding the optimum range drum setting that would be suitable for firing R/Ps with 230-gallon drop tanks fitted.
Squadron records noted “that the Beihan commitment placed considerable strain on the groundcrews but it was not impairing efficiency or morale”. A total of 109 operational sorties were flown in November comprising 330 hours flying time.
With the available mapping of the Aden Protectorates in general being acknowledged as inadequate to say the least, it was with some relish that the arrival of new half-million topographical maps were received. Their accuracy led to some fine exhilarating results on cross-country recces; masterpieces in timing and pinpointing.
Into December and the border patrols continued, although at a reduced rate of two pairs per day with the occasional scramble to keep everyone on their toes. The policy was obviously working as no more incursions occurred. The standby continued over the Christmas period making the festive season less festive than ever. On the 28th of the month, 8 Squadron departed for its two-monthly detachment to Bahrain. The trip began with high morale and without incident, except for a bowser failure during transit at Masirah when only five gallons-a-minute could be delivered when a total of 6,800 was required. Needless to say the turnround times were a little on the slow side!