Cyprus (1952)

[mossie]

We've had a bit of a canter into history in Blah Blah, so I started reminiscing over lunch, (partially liquid ;D)

I had put in an earlier thread that I considered my first 4 years in the RAF to be my university. Well, a few months after joining my first squadron in Egypt we went to Nicosia in Cyprus for our annual 3 week stint at the Armament Practice School. This was to enable our pilots to learn to shoot straight in the unlikely event that I, as a fancy radar operator, was able to direct my pilot into the right place where he might have a chance to shoot down the target we had been allocated.

To this end the time was spent shooting at towed targets in this fashion


I should stress that at this time we were flying the Mosquito and firing at sleeve targets towed by Beaufighters, this illustrates the later flag target, but the principle is the same.

Here is a target towing Beaufighter


So us poor navigators had nothing to do, unless we flew with our pilots and made ourselves ill coping with all the rough turns and dives while the pilot vainly chased the target.

However, we had been cooped up in the Suez Canal Zone with no female company, poor food, shortage of beer, swing the lamp etc., etc. So we could escape into a dizzy world to this 19 year old, of night clubs et al. One such establishment we frequented was owned by a man who also had a restaurant out on the north coast near Kyrenia. One day a group of us hired a car and drove out there, visiting Kyrenia on the way with its Crusader castle dominating the harbour





On the way we had driven through a typical village]



And passed over the Kyrenia range of mountains which form a spine along the north of Cyprus



I have previously referred readers to this account

www.britains-smallwars.com/Canal/fighternav.html

of my first 4 years service, and an account of our little stroll along the southern foothills of this range is described there

Another vitally necessary trip was to buy booze in the capital city, Nicosia. Here is the bottom of the main Ledra Street, the principal shopping street.



It was here that I bought my first camera, shots from the first film I ever took illustrate this little bit of nostalgia.

[bixaorellana]

Here's to the bored 19-year-old who though taking pictures might be a nice hobby! I've gone through this thread twice & am really struck by what a great sense you have for composition. And these were your first shots, too!

That was quite a trek for you all to get to the razzle-dazzle of Nicosia.

Mossie, on the practice runs shooting at the towed target, was that live ammunition? That target looks dangerously close to the plane towing it.

Also (dare I ask this?) ~~ what is "swinging the lantern"?

[mossie]

Yes Bixa, live ammo, but practice "ball" ammo. Shaped like the real thing so the ballistics were the same but a solid round. It had to make a hole in the target, and would make a very nasty hole in you if you got the wrong side of it. Think the slug like a handgun fires but 20mm diameter not 9mm.

We flew 6 aircraft out there, bent 2 by various means, and flew 4 back, as in this pic.



The gash, (translation = spare) crews had to come back in the transport aircraft with the groundcrew.

"Swing the light" means you can boast as long as the light is swinging

[lugg]

Really great read Mossie and as Bixa said it is quite remarkable that these were your first ever photos, just so good.

I visited Kyrenia not so long ago and have some photos of the castle in pic 6 if you would like to see them I will post elsewhere. I hink I may have some of Kyrenia itself too.

[Deleted]

Even though I am a bit younger, I remember the challenge of taking photographs in olden times -- and the expense of film and development, which makes these photos all the more precious.

It amuses me to think about new generations who take pictures of everything with their telephones or tablets or any other kind of electronic device. I would love them to attempt changing a roll of film in the dark and manage to take pictures by the old rules.

I certainly would not want to go back to the old days, but considering how fast technology now changes, I think it would be very useful for bridging the generations to have at least one new class in school that would cover all of the things that a lot of us have been through, from dial telephones, pre mobile phone times, pre answering machine times, fax machines, rolls of film, no microwave ovens, black & white TV when sports programmes had to say who was the 'dark' colour and who was the 'light' colour so that you could tell the teams apart, nights of test patterns, a grand total of 2 or 3 televisions stations to watch, etc. I think that if young people were properly introduced to our 'hardships' they would be a lot more indulgent with us.

[bjd]

Mossie, I too admire your beginning camera work. I especially like the shot of the street in Nicosia.

[htmb]

Mossie, this is exceptional. I, too, am in awe of the history surrounded your first photos. Wonderful pictures, too.

[questa]

Mossie, you are a "Natural"...someone who can pick up a camera and produce pictures of such excellence. Like the musician who can play any instrument after a few minutes 'getting the feel'. I like the dog photo, it is so laid back..."War?...What war?"
Have you any more?




1st prize for greed, vandalism, damage to historical records and sheer bloody-mindedness goes to pig-bucket.

[lagatta]

Indeed; any way to access the beautiful historic photos without the vandalism?

[kerouac2]

I rarely look at this site on my phone, so I was surprised to see that the photos are not defaced on it.

[mossie]

You are lucky, on my computer the photofucket message is plastered right across the middle of each.

And, I must not be praised my head is far too large already.

[lugg]

Yes I've just looked on my tablet and the photos are not vandalised when viewing on that , but they are on my desk top.

[htmb]

Wonder if it’s an issue with browsers and/or cookies placed on devices.

[onlyMark]

I can see the photo properly on my Lenovo pad with a Chrome browser, but not on mt computer with Chrome, nor Firefox or Microsoft Edge.
Nor can I again right click on any of the images in this thread on any of the browsers or the pad.

[mossie]

Questa was praising my photos and said "have you any more". I did a thread in Ports of Call titled 'My old aeroplanes' and another titled 'My RAF career' which contain a lot of my photos from those days, all of course contaminated by photobucket. I am glad some of you can see them without that muck plastered all over them.

[fumobici]

I see them deliberately defaced on both my PC and my iPhone. If someone broke into the Photobucket corporate HQ and went on a killing spree in the executive suites, I would sympathize rather than judge.

[kerouac2]

My non-defaced phone viewing is on a Huawei, so perhaps it is a Chinese plot.

[whatagain]

I have a Samsung and the pics are great.
Is the first plane a Vampire ?

Must say the pics are fantastic, too bad for your head.

Mosquitoes and Beaufighters were my favorite planes when i was a kid.

[mossie]

Yes Whatagain, the first one is a Vampire, or Kiddycar, as some unkind people called them. The big twins were a very noisy uncomfortable way to travel.