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Written on 25 August 2011
There are a number of references to RAF Idris, Libya, in this website. However several people have asked me for more information -
The site of RAF Idris was a few miles due south of Tripoli and is now Tripoli International Airport. The first time I went to Idris was in 1954 when I was a transit passenger with RAF Transport Command en route to Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Later in the 1950s I was an air signaller on 38 Squadron (Shackletons) Malta and, since the pilots often didn't bother to tell us where we were in those days, I was not exactly sure where the airfield was other than at the northern end of the Sahara Desert!
In fact, RAF Idris was originally an Italian Air Force airfield during World War 2 then captured by the British who renamed it RAF Castel Benito. In 1952 it was again renamed, this time as RAF Idris in honour of the then King of Libya. In the 1950s RAF Idris was mainly an RAF staging post for flights between UK and the Middle and Far East. It was also used for military aircraft operating on the nearby bombing ranges – and also for duty-
The Americans also had an interest in Libya. Wheelus AFB in the 1950s was located several miles due east of Tripoli on another former Italian AF airfield, built in 1923 and called Mellaha. When I was based in Malta in the late 1950s the US Base Exchange at Wheelus (or it might then have been a PX not a BX) was an truly excellent duty-
After the USAF left Wheelus in 1970, it became a Libyan People's Air Force installation and was renamed Okba Ben Nafi Air Base, which name does not trip off the tongue quite so easily. Today, the former Wheelus AFB is known as Mitiga International Airport.
More stories about my time in Malta on my RAF Years website here