UNITED NATIONS MIDDLE EAST
88 FLYPAST March 2018
SEA, SALT AND
SAND DUNES
Robert S Grant talked to George
Mayer about the perils of fl ying
with the United Nations
A
s the massive door clunked
against the Canadair North
Star’s fuselage, hordes of
houseflies swarmed inside. Flt Lt
George E Mayer peered through
the haze at El Arish Airport,
northeast of Cairo. The 23-year-
old Canadian pilot wondered
what he had volunteered himself
into after a three-year duty tour
on Douglas DC-3s and Beech 18
Expeditors. The phrase ‘need a
change’ would haunt him for the
next 12 months.
The United Nations had formed
its Emergency Force (UNEF)
in November 1956 after Israel’s
drive to seize the Suez Canal and
de-limit Egypt’s nationalisation of
the waterway. Political mandates
prompted withdrawal of Israeli
forces, as well as their British and
French allies.
The Royal Canadian Air Force
(RCAF) jumped in to provide a
land and air contingent – 115 Air
Transport Unit (ATU) – tasked
with patrols and logistics along
an Armistice Demarcation Line
from the Mediterranean Sea to the
southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula.
Ignoring the pain of arms swollen
by inoculations, Mayer decided he
would do his part and adapt from
sub-zero Canada to blister-bursting
temperatures of the “seemingly
endless sameness”. So, he was
standing on the ramp at El Arish, or‘Heer’ as the locals called the airport.
It was June 14, 1963 and he laced up
his first pair of desert boots.
Mayer, who joined the RCAF in
1959, underwent conversion to
de Havilland Canada Otters and
Caribous prior to embarking on a
six-day 12,000-mile (19,311km)
journey to the tempestuous Middle
East. The single-engined Otters he
manipulated above bombed villages
and burned out surface vehicles
cruised at 95 knots.
At least seven of these famed
‘bushplanes’ served at El Arish. The
first four arrived in Port Said, Egypt,
after leaving Halifax, Nova Scotia, in
the carrier HMCS Magnificent. Thebalance came by air; a single aircraft
could be accommodated within the
cargo compartment of an RCAF
Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar
freighter.
Mayer had converted to the
Caribou at Trenton, Ontario.
Like its predecessor, the Otter,
the Caribou had exceptional short
take-off and landing characteristics.
The remarkable twin demonstrated
a 540ft (164m) take-off roll and
525ft landing run with a 28,000lb
(12,700kg) gross weight. The cabin
suited airline-like schedules with
room for up to 32 seated troops,
while a rear door eased handling of
awkward freight.Above
This International Red
Cross fi eld hospital on the
Rub al Khali east of Saudi
Arabia’s Najran treated
Yemeni Loyalists. G MAYERRight
The Otter’s tightly-cowled
Pratt & Whitney R-1340
was diffi cult to access and
technicians also had to
cope with heat, insects
and sandstorms. RCAF VIA
MAYER/GORDON JENKINSOpposite right
Anti-personnel bombs
dropped during the 1956
Arab-Israeli confl ict were
still common at airstrips
such as Egypt’s Sharm
el-Sheikh in the 1960s.
G MAYER