Abu Sultan Air Base

Deversoir was a Royal Air Force (RAF) military airfield built in the 1930s. It was built part of the defences of the Suez Canal, being constructed at the northwest shore of the Great Bitter Lake. During the Second World War, it was used as a military airfield by the RAF and the United States Army Air Forces during the North African campaign against Axis forces.

The airfield received United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on 12 February 1945 as he flew from the Yalta Conference to rejoin the USS Quincy, which was anchored in the Great Bitter Lake and would host the President's meetings with King Farouk of Egypt, King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia before transporting him back to the United States.^[2]

 

Deversoir was used by the RAF after the war until March 1955 when it was handed over to the Egyptian Air Force.^[3] Modern hardened aircraft shelters were built on wartime-era dispersal pads, and recent runway markings are evident in aerial photography. The airbase is being used to accommodate a helicopter unit flying Aérospatiale SA-342L Gazelle, armed helicopters.

RAF Deversoir was operative as No. 324 Fighter Wing from 24 August 1948 when it was the home of three squadrons^[4] of de Havilland Vampire aircraft plus three Gloster Meteors, one to each squadron. The squadrons were numbers 213 and 249. Some time near the end of WW2 the station had been used to house Italian prisoners of war and this was evidenced by a painting done by one of them which was present in 1950 – 1952 in one of the cookhouse dining room for other ranks.

During the mid-1950s Canal Zone patrols were carried out by RAF jets from the station. A rotation of standby aircraft from the station's Vampire squadrons was put in place, with RAF jets frequently scrambled to intercept Egyptian air force aircraft. This included Meteors and Constellations.

Relations between the United Kingdom and Egypt continued to deteriorate in the wake of the 1952 revolution.

213 (Fighter) Squadron, the last RAF flying squadron based there, disbanded at Deversoir on 30 September 1954,^[5] with the pilots and ground crew dispersed to other RAF stations outside Egypt.

Royal Air Force^[6]

• No. 33 Air Stores Park (4 – 17 Jul 1942, 2 Sep – 15 Oct 1943)
• No. 63 Repair & Salvage Unit (7 Jul – Aug 1943)
• No. 26 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit (6 Mar 1945 – 1 Jan 1946)
• HQ, No. 324 Wing (28 Aug 1948 – Feb 1951)
• No. 6 Squadron RAF^[7]
  • 1 September 1948 until 7 January 1950 with the Hawker Tempest F.6 & Vampire FB.5
  • 9 February until 1 June 1950 with the Vampire FB.5
  • 29 June until 22 November 1950
  • 21 December 1950 until 5 April 1951
  • 22 May 1951 until 18 June 1951
• No. 8 Squadron RAF^[7]
  • 14 August until 23 September 1953 with the Vampire FB.9
  • 1 October 1953 until 23 November 1953
• No. 32 Squadron RAF^[8]
  • 27 January 1952 until 15 September 1954 with the Vampire FB.9
• No. 73 Squadron RAF^[9]
  • 17 July 1953 until 20 July 1953 with the Vampire FB.9
• No. 213 Squadron RAF^[5]
  • 21 October 1948 until 12 August 1953 with the Tempest F.6, Vampire FB.5 & FB.9
  • 29 October 1953 until 30 September 1954 with the Vampire FB.9
• No. 249 Squadron RAF^[10]
  • 29 March 1949 until 28 June 1949 with the Tempest F.6 & Vampire FB.5
  • 8 August 1949 and 24 June 1950
  • 10 August 1950 until 1 April 1951 – det at RAF Negombo
  • 27 April 1951 until 14 July 1951
  • 24 October 1951 until 16 April 1952
  • 9 May 1952 until 8 June 1954
• No. 256 Squadron RAF^[11]
  • 16 December 1945 until 13 July 1946 with the de Havilland Mosquito XIX & XVI
• No. 417 Squadron RAF^[12]
  • 18 July 1942 and 5 September 1942 with the Supermarine Spitfire VB
• No. 680 Squadron RAF^[13]
  • 25 February 1945 and 9 July 1946 with the Spitfire XI, Mosquito XVI & XXXIV, Martin Baltimore V & Fairchild Argus

United States Army Air Forces (Ninth Air Force)^[6]

• 57th Bombardment Wing 5 June-28 August 1943
• 12th Bombardment Group, 31 July–October 1942, North American B-25 Mitchell
• 316th Troop Carrier Group, 23 November–December 1942. Douglas C-47 Skytrain
• 19th Photographic Mapping Squadron, 30 January 1944 – 31 January 1945 (B-24/F-7 Liberator)

The base is home to both 30 and 56 Squadrons which fly the Aérospatiale SA-342L Gazelle.^[1]

• List of former Royal Air Force stations
• List of North African airfields during World War II

  This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Jefford, C. G. (1988). RAF Squadrons. A comprehensive record of the movement and equipment of all RAF squadrons and their antecedents since 1912. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing. ISBN 1-85310-053-6.
• Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.
• Sturtivant, Ray; Hamlin, John (2007). Royal Air Force flying training and support units since 1912. Tonbridge, UK: Air-Britain (Historians). ISBN 978-0851-3036-59.

• Royal Air Force Airfield Creation for the Western Desert Campaign