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Middle East Database
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Westland Lysanders were the first ‘modern’ aircraft to be flown by the Royal Egyptian Air Force (REAF), having been ordered for No. 1 Sqn in 1938. This formed part of an emergency expansion program urged upon the Egyptians during a panic period between the Munich Crisis and the outbreak of the Second World War. Not that the Egyptian government was reluctant to expand its armed forces – far from it. But those who actually ran the REAF, Egyptians and British advisors alike, knew that the tiny, understaffed and inexperienced Egyptian Air Force was hardly in a position to absorb much new hardware.
In November 1938, the British Advisory Mission reported that No. 1 (General Purpose) Sqn was eagerly awaiting its Lysanders, 18 new Mk Is having been purchased to replace the unit’s Avro 626s and Hawker ‘Egyptian’ Audaxes. They would be given serial numbers Y500 to Y517 and, together with an ex-RAF Mk I (British serial number R2650) and an ex-RAF MK III (R9000) handed over during the war, would soldier on through military and political crises until 1950.
No. 1 Sqn’s pilots trained on their new aircraft at Almaza, the REAF’s main airfield on the eastern outskirts of Cairo, alongside No. 208 Sqn, RAF. According to British Advisory Mission records, the Egyptians were taught first and then helped instruct their British colleagues who were in turn the first RAF unit in the Middle East to receive Lysanders. One of these RAF pilots subsequently returned to Egypt as part of the Advisory Mission. These were sunny and hopeful days for the Egyptian pilots of No. 1 Sqn which was now re-designated as an Army Co-operation unit. In January, they proudly posed with their gleaming silver-doped Lysanders alongside Brig Ali Islam Bey, the director of the REAF. But whereas Flt. Lt. (acting Sqn. Ldr.) Salih Mahmud Salih would soon be described as an outstanding officer, white-haired old Ali Islam was regarded by the British as ‘pleasant but totally ineffective’. Like most Egyptian pilots of that time, Salih Mahmud Salih had trained at the RAF’s No. 4 FTS at Abu Sueir in 1935. After being injured in a crash on July 6, 1937, he was attached to No. 45 Sqn RAF and received his wings in December 1937 with a total of 830 flying hours. After commanding No. 1 Sqn throughout most of the Second World War, Salih Mahmud Salih became the REAF’s Senior Army Liaison Officer, in which capacity he played a leading role at al-Arish airbase during the Palestine War of 1948.
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| One of the No. 1 (AC) Sqn’s Westland Lysander Mk Is, in its silver-doped finish, over the Nile in Cairo, probably photographed just before or during the early months of the Second World War. (Photo, EAF, via Dr. David Nicolle). |
A two-Flight division
By May 1939, No. 1 Sqn’s 18 Lysanders were divided into two Flights, each with five aircraft plus four in reserve. As the war clouds gathered, however, they suffered problems with a shortage of spares since RAF units took priority. The Lysander’s normal tire pressures were also too hard for desert conditions, almost leading to aircraft overturning on landing. Nevertheless, No. 1 Sqn conducted successful joint exercises with the British Army in the Suez Canal Zone and with the Egyptian Army’s Armored Cavalry Regiment at Bahariyah Oasis in the Western Desert, showing itself to be the most efficient squadron in the REAF. In June the British Advisory Mission remarked, with apparent surprise, that the young Egyptian officers had coped in a ‘totally admirable’ way despite their lack of administrative experience. Nevertheless, there were already tensions between highly nationalistic younger REAF officers and their patronizing British advisors, particularly when, in May 1939, the popular, but bumbling Ali Islam was replaced as director of the REAF by a stern disciplinarian, Brig. Hasan Pasha Abd al-Wahab. The British saw him as a great improvement, but many in the REAF regarded their new leader as ‘King Faruq’s spy’ and little more than a Palace nominee.
To everyone’s surprise, the outbreak of the Second World War had very little impact on Egypt. Here, the Phony War was even more phony than in France. The REAF’s three operational squadrons went to their war stations, though they still had only two fully-equipped airfields, at Almaza and at Suez. The other airfields were little more than cleared strips of desert. In fact, No. 1 Sqn’s main duty during the first months of war was familiarization with these little patches of desert.
One of the most isolated was at Bahariyah Oasis, where one Flight of Lysanders co-operated with Egyptian Army units. The original airfield proved too soft for Lysanders, even with reduced tire pressure, so two new landing strips had been cleared since September. The main role of the Lysanders at Bahariyah was to reconnoiter the desert 150 miles to the west, watching over a desert ‘pass’ leading to the oasis of Siwa which, in turn, lay close to the frontier with Italian-occupied Libya. This ‘pass’ between the impenetrable Qattara Depression and the equally impossible Great Sand Sea was potentially important, offering an alternative invasion route into the heart of Egypt for raiding forces if not for entire armies. Fear of the Italian Auto-Saharan deep desert forces remained until 1942, though these never proved to be as dangerous as initially thought. As a result, throughout the Second World War the Egyptian Army defended the vast Western Desert south of the Qattara Depression, while the main battles of the North African Campaign were fought along a narrow coastal strip to the north. The only other Allied units operating in this inhospitable terrain were the famous Long Range Desert Group and the Free French, who were moving up from south of the Sahara. For the Egyptians it would be a lonely war, with very little action, but years of tedious patrolling. In this, the REAF’s Lysanders supported the men who held isolated outposts for months on end with never a sight of the enemy.
Apart from Egyptian Frontier Forces, which always remained in the desert, the main Egyptian garrison at Bahariyah was temporarily withdrawn to Cairo for retraining at the end of October, along with its supporting Flight of Lysanders. No. 1 Sqn’s other Flight remained at Suez. From here it had patrolled the Gulf of Suez since the outbreak of war, while also doing Army co-operation work in the Canal Zone. At first, there were two flights each day, since fear of enemy U-boats had almost caused a panic among British planners.
No. 1 Sqn lost no aircraft to enemy action or to accidents, but a great deal had been learned and the Egyptians proved their worth in British eyes. The lack of enemy action also enabled the Egyptians to restructure their units in the Western Desert. Consequently, in December 1939, the Army’s South-West Force returned to the Bahariyah and Siwa Oases as an autonomous formation, including light tanks and again supported by one Flight of No. 1 Sqn’s Lysanders. Nevertheless, the Egyptians still lacked experience, all their squadrons being commanded by junior officers – one even by a Flying Officer. No. 1 Sqn was considered the best, but even this needed a resident British instructor.
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| This camouflaged Lysander wears a modified version of the Egyptian national markings, in which the green and white central disc with its crescent and three stars has been reversed. This is the aircraft shown in the color illustration on the previous page. (Dr. David Nicolle) |
Reconnaissance in the Gulf
The Lysanders of No. 1 Sqn, which had carried out reconnaissance of the Gulf of Suez as far south as al-Tur, were temporarily replaced by the RAF in January and it seems to have been this Flight of nine aircraft which, in February 1940, accompanied two Ansons from No. 3 (Comm) Sqn to the Sudan. The latter carried the Egyptian Prime Minister and Minster of Defence. For a while the Lysanders were based at Khartoum, flying liaison and communications missions as far south as Juba, near the Ugandan frontier. No British personnel were involved in this operation which went without a hitch, except that one Lysander had to make an emergency landing at Khartoum with engine trouble.
When Italy entered the Second World War, in June 1940, the conflict became real for Egypt. Unfortunately, one of the first British actions was to insist on the dismissal of the nationalistic Prime Minister, Ali Maher, which further upset his supporters in the REAF. Some of these young Air Force officers later became well known as part of President Nasser’s Revolutionary Command Council in 1952. In the meantime, however, the REAF got on with its wartime tasks. Some of No. 1 Sqn’s Lysanders seem to have been at Mersa Matruh, close to the Libyan borders, when the Italians declared war but were soon brought back to Cairo.
Mersa Matruh actually formed the northern terminal of an air-observation line, manned by the Egyptian Army, which ran south to Siwa Oasis and watched for Italian aircraft incursions. This air-observation line would remain vital for the British RAF throughout the campaign in Egypt, moving backwards and forwards according to the fortunes of battle. In 1940, its administrative center was at Siwa and it seems to have been at this time that Flt. Lt. Gazerine of the REAF led four antiquated Audax biplanes to Siwa. But they were far too exposed and were withdrawn after only four days. The airstrip at Siwa was, in fact, impossible to defend as it lay on high ground 13 miles beyond the oasis, where sand was too soft for aircraft landings.
One Flight of six Lysanders from No. 1 Sqn was now sent to co-operate with a new Egyptian Army Mobile Force operating in the Western Desert under Lt. Col. Prince Ismail Daud, a cousin of King Faruq – though habitually at daggers drawn with the king. This was initially based at Qasaba, 20 miles south-east of Mersa Matruh, from where it could support the garrison at Siwa. Like other Egyptian positions in the desert, Mersa Matruh, Qasaba and Siwa were frequently bombed by the Italians while there were several clashes between Egyptian and Italian patrols. Egyptian troops shot down several Italian aircraft, capturing one crew. The Lysanders of No. 1 Sqn, though they continued to fly reconnaissance patrols and communications flights in the area, never had cause to fire their guns in anger. They were operating to the south of the main battlefield where air activity, Allied or Axis, was very limited and the main dangers were posed by the desert itself.
Patrols for the Mobile Force
The Lysanders and Prince Daud’s Mobile Force continued to patrol this region after the Italians were driven from Egypt, but the fact that they remained outside direct British command continued to worry British Military HQ in Cairo. In September 1940, the British got their wish and Egyptian units in this area were integrated into the Western Desert Army. It was probably at this time that Egyptian Lysanders were given British identification codes. A somewhat mysterious photograph which has appeared in several publications shows a Lysander in desert camouflage, with roundels which look like reversed Egyptian markings, while the code GF-L is faintly visible on the fuselage. The code GF was given to the RAF’s No. 56 OTU between 1943 and 1945 and it now seems that it had previously been allocated to the REAF’s No. 1 Sqn Lysanders under British command in the Western Desert.
In late 1940, No. 1 Sqn’s first flight of Lysanders was based at al-Daba and at Siwa, co-operating with Egyptian units and the British 8th Army. This Flight seems to have been personally commanded by Salih Mahmud Salih, while the squadron’s British advisor, Sqn. Ldr. V. A. Pope, moved from place to place helping wherever he could. Among other tasks the Lysanders are said to have located aircraft which force landed in the deep desert, reportedly including an Italian Savoia-Marchetti bomber which came down virtually intact. By now the Lysanders themselves were suffering wear and tear, only 16 being operational in September 1940. At one point, only six were considered serviceable, despite the fact that Egypt’s civilian airline had been drafted in to help service both Egyptian and British aircraft. It was probably around this time that two ex-RAF Lysanders were transferred to the REAF, and by December No. 1 Sqn again had 15 Lysanders in flying condition.
Meanwhile, the second Flight of Lysanders carried on with its dawn and dusk shipping protection patrols over the Gulf of Suez. Longer range patrols were flown by Avro Ansons from the REAF’s No. 3 Sqn, based at Suez, Almaza Cairo and at Hurghada, beyond the southern entrance to the Gulf of Suez. Though the Lysanders suffered no losses, two Ansons crashed, one while trying to land in fog at Almaza, when the crew was killed. The main concern of all these aircraft were eight Italian submarines in the Red Sea, and since the British had none in the area any submarines sighted were hostile. The four surviving Italian submarines were recalled to Europe in February 1941 and Italian air attacks on Allied convoys in the Red Sea ended on November 4, 1941. Nevertheless, Italian bombers operating from Libya continued to attack Suez and drop mines, some into the Canal, until the 8th Army conquered Libya, but even after that an aerial threat continued in the form of German bombers operating from Greece.
Brig. Abd al-Wahab, Director of the REAF, supposedly camouflaged the activities of the Lysanders and Ansons at Suez by describing their flights as training, though, in reality, the Egyptian government must have been turning a blind eye to something they did not officially sanction. Nevertheless, Abd al-Wahab’s resignation in 1940 was not caused by this ‘deception’ but by a personality clash with the Egyptian Army’s Chief of Staff. Fortunately, from the British point of view, he was replaced by an equally energetic disciplinarian, Brig. Ali Muafi. Meanwhile, No. 1 Sqn’s Lysanders at Suez continued with their existing tasks while also doing target-towing for Egyptian anti-aircraft units and the British Royal Navy.
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| One of the REAF’s first delivery of Lysanders, still in its original silver-doped finish, pictured later in the war. Apparently, only the Flight of Lysanders involved in front-line operations were repainted in desert camouflage. (Photo, EAF, via Dr. David Nicolle). |
Operations in 1941
The following year, 1941, saw little change for the REAF. The desert south-west of Cairo continued to be defended by Egyptian units and REAF Lysanders continued to support Egyptian and British forces in the Western Desert. Rommel’s arrival was followed by a German-Italian counterattack which resulted in the northern end of the vital air-observation line being withdrawn to Burg al-Arab in May 1941. The Siwa garrison was increased by June 1941, but then the British decided that they needed total control over all units in the area and so insisted that Siwa be taken over by British troops early in August. Most Egyptian troops were then brought back to Bahariyah Oasis though their HQ remained at al-Daba.
Strains were now beginning to show. Even in 1941, Sqn. Ldr. Hussain Zulficar of No. 3 Sqn had unsuccessfully tried to fly the sacked General Aziz al-Masri out of the country to Vichy-controlled Syria. Some said this was part of a double-agent mission instigated by British Intelligence, but al-Masri was nevertheless tried and British confidence in the REAF was eroded. Several REAF officers felt uncomfortable supporting the British war effort and a British Intelligence report of May 1942 was shocked to note that they included some of the brightest and best officers. Nevertheless, No. 1 Sqn does not seem to have been involved – perhaps because it had a clearer and more active role in the war. British Intelligence realized, however, that these supposed subversives were best described as ‘pro-King Faruq’ rather than pro-Axis.
When the Italians took Siwa from its British garrison without a fight in July 1942, the Egyptians were appalled, particularly as their own men had successfully defended the oasis until the British took over. Then rumors – correct as it happened – began to circulate that the British were close to panic and were planning a scorched earth policy if Rommel broke through at Alamein. Major industries, capital projects such as dams, communications facilities and the media were all to be destroyed if the British lost Egypt. Many young men who would later form part of Col. Nasser’s Free Officer Movement started to discuss what to do in view of this expected Axis victory. Among them was REAF pilot Abd al-Latif Bughdadi who, in 1953, described the feelings of the group: ‘When the Germans were close to Egypt, I, Ahmad Suudi, Hassan Izzat, Muhammad Wagih Abaza – all of us in the Air Force – and First Lt. Anwar Sadat, thought it our duty to do something against the British. We formed a secret organization in the Air Force to disrupt and impede the British withdrawal from the Western Desert by sabotaging their lines of communication and supply… We solicited subscriptions and contributions from other officers and sympathetic civilians to buy tools and explosives… Eventually, Suudi escaped and was killed. Sadat and Izzat were arrested and cashiered.’
Combat with the Luftwaffe
In fact, Ahmad Suudi was shot down by Luftwaffe ace Lt. Stahlschmidt on July 7, 1942, while trying to fly to German lines in a Gloster Gladiator. The following day, another REAF Gladiator pilot, Muhammad Ridwan Salim, did reach German lines. The only really effective bit of sabotage the group carried out was when Army officer Magdi Hasanain hijacked some Free French lorries loaded with grenades, explosives and detonators. These were passed to Hassan Izzat of the REAF who got them back to Cairo where they were hidden for use in anti-British actions in the Canal Zone after the War.
No. 1 Sqn seems to have been unaffected by this anti-British activity. Nevertheless it, like the rest of the REAF, was grounded when the Egyptian government insisted that all Egyptian aircraft have their magnetos removed. Brig. Muafi accepted full responsibility for the REAF’s disgrace and resigned, to be replaced by Brig. Husni Tahir Pasha. Officers suspected of involvement where court-martialled or transferred to the infantry, but once this purge was complete the magnetos were returned and REAF squadrons got back to operations.
The Ageing Process
In December 1942, No. 1 Sqn had 14 Lysanders left, and though they were suffering from fabric deterioration due to prolonged exposure to the sun, their crews trained in formation flying and aerial photography. These 14 aircraft soldiered on until 1945, while the men considered their battered mounts to be hopelessly out of date. In reality they were fit only for searchlight co-operation and target towing. The REAF as a whole pulled itself back together very quickly under the fearsome discipline of Brig. Husni Tahir, but morale remained low until a clear role and more modern equipment could be found.
In 1943, the two previous Commanders of the REAF, Ali Muafi and Abd al-Wahab were given the Order of Commander of the British Empire by a grateful Britain. But the Egyptian government refused to allow any other REAF personnel to accept British decorations, even after the war had ended, so bitter did King Faruq feel about the way he had been treated. Instead, No. 1 Sqn continued to do the best it could with what it had. By January 1944, it had received several hand-me-down Hurricane Mk Is from No. 17 Sqn (renamed from the disgraced No. 6 Sqn) which had, in turn, received these ex-RAF machines back in October 1941. Having been declared no longer airworthy, the Hurricanes were rebuilt by REAF engineers so that in January 1944 they and No. 1 Sqn’s remaining Lysanders took part in a convoy protection training exercise, Operation Tussle, with their old comrades, No. 208 Sqn RAF, based at Heliopolis. A month later, No. 1 Sqn was said to have 11 Lysanders left to carry on with its traditional Army Co-operation and aerial survey, while in March two Lysanders were sent to Upper Egypt for that most traditional of REAF tasks; chasing drug smugglers.
Although such equipment was past its prime and difficult to maintain, the quality of No. 1 Sqn’s personnel was considered excellent by the British Advisory Mission. By August 1944, all senior officers and all except three pilots had been through courses at RAF’s No. 74 OUT. Efficiency and a willingness to co-operate with the RAF had improved markedly with the acquisition of ‘modern’ Hawker Hurricanes. News that a batch of pilot trainees had entered the reopened REAF Flying Training School, the first since 1939, also boosted morale. However, the most exciting thing to happen was when two of No. 1 Sqn’s antiquated Lysanders got lost on a flight to Bahariyah Oasis. They landed in the desert 30 miles away, but a combined RAF and USAAF search failed to find them. Six days later, the crews returned to Cairo, unhurt, on camels borrowed from local Bedouin. Their aircraft were undamaged and were soon salvaged. In January 1945, No. 1 Sqn was redesignated as a fighter-reconnaissance unit, re-equipped with Hurricane IICs loaned by the RAF. Two Lysanders were retained as squadron hacks, while the rest went into store. Meanwhile, the British considered the REAF’s new Director, Brig. Muhammad Mitwalli Pasha, who took over in 1945, to be less effective than his predecessors.
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| Brig. Ali Islam Bey, commander of the REAF (right), with Flt. Lt. Salih Mahmud Salih (left) and his observer, in front of one of the first Lysanders to be delivered to the REAF in January 1939. Flt. Lt. Salih led No. 1 Sqn, with the acting rank of Sqn. Ldr. (Photo, EAF, via Dr. David Nicolle). |
Conflict of another kind
The war had left Egypt’s shores months earlier, but other clouds were looming, both in Egypt’s increasingly tense relationship with Britain, and over the frontier in Palestine. For this reason, the REAF hung onto whatever aircraft it could. Although nine Lysanders were sent for scrap between October 1946 and January 1947, four others were overhauled and returned to the Miscellaneous List in June 1946. Some while later, these were attached to the new Royal Flight, which itself formed part of No. 3 (Comm) Sqn. Meanwhile, their original owner, No. 1 Sqn, had regained its original status as the REAF’s elite unit, being re-equipped with secondhand Spitfire LF.IXs as a fighter-reconnaissance squadron by the end of 1947.
Shortly before the Palestine War broke out in 1948, two of the REAF’s surviving Lysanders were re-equipped for aerial photography. According to Jabr Ali Jabr, writing about the 1948 war: ‘Very few Egyptian aircraft were equipped for photography and the only ones available for this purpose were two antiquated Lysanders. One of them was usually unserviceable. At the same time, there was also a serious lack of officers trained to interpret and comment upon aerial photographs. The same went for analyzing and using the information from such pictures.’
As a result, the two Lysanders were thrown into the early part of the Palestine War. One of these, or perhaps the third surviving Lysander, was soon involved in an extraordinary aerial combat with an Israeli Avia C210 (Czech-built Messerschmitt Bf 109) on June 9, 1948. Air Commodore Muhammad Abd al-Munaim Miqaati, one of Egypt’s first three military pilots, and now Deputy Director General of the REAF, was due to fly from al-Arish to Cairo-Almaza, but had been expecting trouble. This would, in fact, be fhte first day of the so-called Ten Day War, which followed the collapse of the first UN Truce. As Miqaati recalled: ‘It was Condition Red. I had been advised to keep the radio on, but I was still nervous as I set across the Mediterranean. Fortunately my gunner – I don’t remember his name – was a keen-sighted man and he spotted an Israeli Messerschmitt as it maneuvered into position to attack. Of course, my Lysander was a very old kind of airplane, but I’d flown these for a long time. Still, we were at a big disadvantage and you’d expect such a contest could only end one way… The pilot of the Israeli aircraft came up behind us. I told my gunner to fire just as the Messerschmitt came into range and I went down to about 100 feet. Then the gunner fired and I throttled right back. You know the Lysander can drop like a stone to land in a field, like they did when the RAF took spies in and out of France. The Israeli must have been concentrating on keeping me in his sights because he dropped his nose to follow. He overshot and went right in, almost level with me. I honestly felt sick in my stomach and, I don’t know why, I saluted him. Then we flew straight back to Cairo.’
The Israeli pilot was Bob Vickman, and his loss remained unexplained for the Israelis until Miqaati’s account was published. According to an unofficial report obtained by the British Air Attaché in Cairo in October 1948, No. 3 Sqn no longer had any Lysanders, but one was still listed as serviceable at Almaza in January 1950. Air Commodore Miqaati said that a Lysander was among many different types kept there in the early 1950s, intended for an air museum which was never built because of the 1952 Revolution. Most of these historic aircraft were destroyed by British bombing during the 1956 Suez War. One way or another, Egypt’s Lysanders went out with a bang rather than a whimper, and they were surely the last to see combat.
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