Unit History: RAF Nicosia

RAF Nicosia
Royal Air Force Station Nicosia, commonly known as RAF Nicosia, was a Royal Air Force airbase in Cyprus. It was nicknames as "NIC". It supported both civil and military aviation on the island. It was established in 1930 and was disestablished in the year 1966. The chief role of this station is to forward operating base. It was formerly operated by Royal Air Force but now it is operated by United Nations.

Memories of RAF Nicosia

(Memories written by members of Forces Reunited)

RAF Nicosia in 1962

Written by Jet Morgan

The year I left lyneham to work at a real job ---what bliss .Nicosia , where you did what you were trained for ,mending aircraft at 1st & 2nd Line , and also all the gear that you took off the a/c for repair at 2nd line , seeing the whole job through . Very satisfying ,we even tamed some of the ex Lyneham blokes . OK,so delete that .

RAF NICOSIA in 1960

Written by Ray Burslem

TSF(transit servicing flt.) Anybody remember the shift pattern? Anything from Brits and Comets to Pembroke and AOP9 and assorted types in between. Crash duty on Hunter,and bringing in a Turkish civvy Viscount from the end of the runway with no power or hydraulics in the middle of the night.A trip down to Akrotiri by Hasting for the British Gulf War. No Yanks then ! Twelve hour shifts, I was on nights with little chance to sleep during the day.In 1962 I went to Akrotiri to finish my tour at SITF on transits plus our resident 4 Canberra T4'S used for LABS training.
Crashes soon reduced our fleet. I saw the first Lightnings arrive for an exercise. A VICTOR crashed on take off no survivors. I was one of the ground crew to see it off. Bill Fraser and Keith Lang were with me at both camps.'Perce'Blakeney served at Akrotiri for his tour. Me and Bill both went to Syerston 1963.

RAF Nicosia in 1974

Written by Edward Seeby

I worked as atelephonist at Nicosia and had just finished a night shift, had breakfast and gone for some shut eye. I was just dozing off when an almighty explosion woke me out of dreamland, the invasion was on us. I remember sitting on the balcony of the singles block with some of the other lads drinking charlie and arguing whether a plane was Turk or British, it turned out to be Turk as it turned and did a bobmbing run at a building that was about 2 miles from the camp. I can't remember the exact date but RAF Nicosia evacuated in Convoy to the Army base at Dhekalia.
The Journey took what seemed like hours and I was in the rear 3 tonner with another lad and as we stopped somewhere along the route we had run out of cigs and a friendly MP threw a pack. I don't know his name but who ever he was, I am very grateful to him. On returning to Nicosia sometime later, we had a hell of a lot of clearing up to do and Cyprus had changed forever.

RAF Nicosia Cyprus in 1957

Written by Dave Oswick

Hi anyone remember (scouse) Oswick worked in station workshops (Grd Equip).afew friends I remember- Stan Birks Staffs, Bryan Martin Cornwall, James Smith Ipswich Suffolk.Malcolm Amos London. Roger Shaw High Wycombe Bucks. James Beckett Glasgow.

RAF Nicosia (Turkish Invasion) in 1974

Written by Edward Seeby

When the Turks invaded I had just finished a night shift on the telephone exchange and was getting ready for some shut eye. The noise of explosions put paid to that and looking up you could the sky filled with parachutes. From this point, this posting was to change from working and then soaking up the sun to working all hours even helping to cook the meals in the Airmens Mess.
The most memorable part was the evacuation of RAF Nicosia in convoy to Dehkalia which if I remember right took about 4 hours with long periods stopped due to the fighting. After arriving at Dehkalia there was not a lot to do except sit around waiting for the compo stew which we had for some time, until someone told us that we could get a meal at the Army cookhouse, you never seen Airmen move so fast.
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