This photo was taken at Nizwa, where our detachment, having originally come from 1 RASLS in Cyprus, was camping with the 15/19th Hussars. We arrived there in early May 1958 after a stint in Aden. Capt. Mills and Roy Isherwood were in charge. We were working on aerial photography control for the 1:100,000 mapping of the Oman.
And it was here that we received our baptism of fire! We were travelling to Ibri along a track about 5 miles from Nizwa when the Bedford truck, which was carrying all our equipment, struck a mine. Mike Layland was riding shotgun, with his head through the cab roof, when it happened. I was in the leading Landrover with Capt. Mills and we had passed right over the mine. The track was in a wadi bed and only wide enough for one vehicle. One of the front wheels on the truck had been completely blown off, and while we were standing around looking at the damage, we came under rifle fire from the hills above. We never got a sight of whoever was firing at us, the whole hillside was a mass of large boulders providing lots of cover. We had radios so were able to make contact with the Hussars, but we could not move the vehicles and were pinned down for about three hours until Ferret armoured cars from the camp turned up and sprayed the hillside with machine gun fire.
I think Mick Graham had returned to the UK by the time this incident happened. Mike Layland left soon afterwards to return to Cyprus.
Later on, in mid June, I was badly injured in a mine explosion at Ibri, and after about three weeks in Bahrain hospitals I was invalided back to UK.
I did not get back to work until early 1959 when I was posted to Fernhurst to work on Operation Emily. ('Thor' missile sites).
