Ted, these are wonderful pictures.
A while back Flypast published an article of mine about the Javelin. The detachment to Ndola was mentioned; but, at the time, I couldn’t find any photos. Yours have filled the gap.
Below is the text of the part of the article which dealt with 29sqdn’s sojourn in Zambia. Please add to the story. I’m sure you have many memories! Peter Thorn unfortunately died last year.
“Because of its in flight refueling capability the FAW.9 was the version of the Javelin which saw extensive overseas service with the RAF. 29 Squadron detached to Cyprus in 1963 with the purpose of providing all weather cover in the Near East. From Akrotiri, in 1965, the squadron sent a detachment to Ndola in Zambia at the request of the Zambian president, Kenneth Kaunda. On November 11th, 1965, Ian Smith and his government in Southern Rhodesia signed the Unilateral Declaration of Independence. This event had many repercussions in the area, not least the fear in Zambia, on Rhodesia’s northern frontier, that they would be attacked by the Rhodesians. Kaunda wrote to the British Government requesting assistance in the form of troops and air protection in the event of an attack by the Rhodesian Air Force. In a letter to the US President Lyndon Johnson, Prime Minister Harold Wilson laid out his response to the request for air support:
“We decided to meet the second request by sending a squadron of Javelins to Ndola. The operation, which has been planned on a contingency basis for some time, will start today and should be completed by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. The Javelins will go into Ndola, the radar environment to Lusaka and men of the RAF regiment will go to both airfields and possibly to Livingstone as well to guard against sabotage etc. We shall thus be in occupation of all the main airfields in Zambia. We have made it a condition of acceding to this request that Zambia will invite no other foreign forces into the country without our agreement.”
Ten FAW.9(R)s departed Akrotiri on December 1st 1965 and flew non-stop to Nairobi and thence to Ndola. Approximately six weeks after arrival in Zambia the detachment was split with four Javelins going to the base at Lusaka. The aircraft were in Zambia for a total of 8 months; and their detachment was, in the main, an uneventful one.
The squadron was also asked to perform a low level pass down the main street of Ndola to let the people know that the RAF had arrived. The flight was duly carried out at 1000 feet. However, this was not considered low enough and the flypast had to be repeated at 300 feet. This caused some consternation among the locals; but the message was well a truly received. They were there and they meant business!
There were some unusual missions flown however! Peter Thorn:
“A week or so after our arrival a request came in asking if we could help to persuade a herd of elephants to be encouraged to turn about as they were getting very close to civilisation (the outskirts of Ndola). We obliged; head on at low level with reheat engaged, over several days. I really felt sorry for them. It must have been terrifying; but it did the trick.”
The pilots also put on a demonstration of Javelin Interception for president Kenneth Kaunda. Two Javelins piloted by Flt Lts Peter Thorn and Peter Frewer took off from Lusaka and nine minutes later intercepted a third aircraft which had taken off from Ndola. Kaunda watched the interception on a radar screen.
The sojourn in Zambia finished in July 1966 and the squadron returned home to Akrotiri, flying via Kenya and Aden. They left behind aircraft XH890 which had made a forced landing at Ndola and was considered to be beyond repair. This aircraft remained in a children’s park for some time before it became dangerous and was removed.”
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