Added on 23/03/2010During the Cultural Revolution (1964-onwards) The main function of the unit was Military Air Traffic radar control. The unit was manned almost totally by RAF personnel. Who were bussed in from RAF Kai Tak daily. The Unit at Tai Mo Shan stood 3000 feet above sea level, and was served by a single tracked road.
Memories of RAF Tai Mo Shan
RAF Tai Mo Shan in 1959Written by Richard Sharp
"I eventually arrived at 117 after having been sent to Little Sai Wan by mistake, in February 1959. Accomodation was at Kai Tak and we travelled daily by Garry up route Twist to get to work.
Putting up the Rubber Radome was an experience i will never forget,Flt Lt storey was in charge of the team who were to pull the Dome in its folded state up a very slippery slope with ropes(the lorry had failed twice),i was delegated to be lead. Half way up i went down, stupidly i turned round to pull facing the team, eventually of course i went down again much to the delight of all. Our team? leader took over with the same result. He made my day. It was gifted to China in a typhoon some years later.
Christmas 1959 on duty, cook(F-sake Ping)tells us we have no rations for dinner, CO contacted, he made sure we had rations eventually by coming up with them himself
I was part of the 7-aside team from Kai Tak who won the Hong Kong tournament, we beat the Hong Kong Police in the final thanks to a wonderful dummy by Paddy Carr(nephew of Jackie Kyle),we all thought the winger had the ball until we noticed Paddy right under the posts.
I also played water polo for Kai Tak, we did win a few games ,i do remember beating YMCA, appently i was called Long Arm Flying General in the local Chinese papers, i scored several goals from our end of the pool.
I was posted back to 117 in 1972-75. The transport had improved, we now had buses most of the time, route twist was hard on the brakes. Played for the Kai Tak rugby team again, we managed to win the League in 1974."
