Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 15, 2023 13:49:35 GMT 12
I found this article about New Zealand pilots involvement in the 1956 Suez Canal crisis. I wonder if any other Kiwis were involved in the air war there?
N.Z. OFFICERS IN EGYPT
AIR OPERATIONS AT PORT SAID
(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) NICOSIA, Nov. 11.
The officer who took over the captured El Gamil airfield west of Port Said after the British and French landings in Egypt last week was a New Zealander with two D.S.O.’s, two D.F.C.’s and and a World War II bag of 20 enemy aircraft to his credit. He was Group-Captain W. V. Craw-ford-Compton.
The task of taking over a newly-captured airfield was not a new one for him. He commanded one of the first Spitfire wings to go into operation from a Normandy base a few days after the D-Day invasion in June. 1944.
Another New Zealander, Flight-Lieutenant J. H. Hamilton, a son of Mr E. M Hamilton, Epsom, Auckland, was one of the helicopter pilots who landed the Royal Marine Commandos in the Port Said area, after taking off from the aircraft-carrier Ocean, some miles off the Egyptian coast. He was a member of a helicopter unit in Britain, and was taking part in exercises with naval ships in the Mediterranean when the Egyptian situation developed, and the unit was sent aboard the Ocean to the Port Said area.
Flight Lieutenant Hamilton made eight trips each time taking three or four fully equipped Commandos. He landed them on De Lesseps square facing the waterfront.
This joint Army-R.A.F. helicopter unit to which he is attached is based on Port Said airfield and expects to return to England shortly. The unit is quartered in an Egyptian beach chalet, a quarter of a mile from the airfield proper. The pilots would have liked respite from the sun and Egypt’s myriad flies and had a swim, but the beach is not yet cleared of obstructions. Trip wires can be seen and there are odd objects which might or might not be mines showing in the sand.
PRESS, 13 NOVEMBER 1956
N.Z. OFFICERS IN EGYPT
AIR OPERATIONS AT PORT SAID
(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) NICOSIA, Nov. 11.
The officer who took over the captured El Gamil airfield west of Port Said after the British and French landings in Egypt last week was a New Zealander with two D.S.O.’s, two D.F.C.’s and and a World War II bag of 20 enemy aircraft to his credit. He was Group-Captain W. V. Craw-ford-Compton.
The task of taking over a newly-captured airfield was not a new one for him. He commanded one of the first Spitfire wings to go into operation from a Normandy base a few days after the D-Day invasion in June. 1944.
Another New Zealander, Flight-Lieutenant J. H. Hamilton, a son of Mr E. M Hamilton, Epsom, Auckland, was one of the helicopter pilots who landed the Royal Marine Commandos in the Port Said area, after taking off from the aircraft-carrier Ocean, some miles off the Egyptian coast. He was a member of a helicopter unit in Britain, and was taking part in exercises with naval ships in the Mediterranean when the Egyptian situation developed, and the unit was sent aboard the Ocean to the Port Said area.
Flight Lieutenant Hamilton made eight trips each time taking three or four fully equipped Commandos. He landed them on De Lesseps square facing the waterfront.
This joint Army-R.A.F. helicopter unit to which he is attached is based on Port Said airfield and expects to return to England shortly. The unit is quartered in an Egyptian beach chalet, a quarter of a mile from the airfield proper. The pilots would have liked respite from the sun and Egypt’s myriad flies and had a swim, but the beach is not yet cleared of obstructions. Trip wires can be seen and there are odd objects which might or might not be mines showing in the sand.
PRESS, 13 NOVEMBER 1956
