Photo of the week
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This midweeks photos.
And a couple of shots of Bell P-39F-1-BE Airacobra's 41-7179/41-7341 taken at Ladd Field, Alaska.
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This weekends photo.
Morane Saulnier MS-406s of GC I-7 are lined up on the Rayack runway Lebanon.
Rayak Air Base was constructed and used by the Germans in World War I. After its liberation by the allies, Armee d'l'air personnel trained Lebanese Air Force technicians in aircraft maintenance. On 1 August 1945, Lebanon took command of its armed forces, including Rayak Air Base.
During the French Mandate of Lebanon, Rayak Air Base was considered to be the "jewel" of the Air bases and the centre of attraction of all other military units, not only in Lebanon but also in mandated Syria and all the Near East. The base had many entertainment facilities, luxuries, flowering gardens, and central heating, which at that time were not found in military sites elsewhere in the region. In a memoir, author Roald Dahl recounts an event in the Syria-Lebanon campaign of 1941 when British forces defeated forces of Vichy France in the area. He, as part of a formation of Royal Air Force Hawker Hurricane fighters, attacked the Rayak airfield, which was being used by Vichy pilots. He says that as he and his fellow Hurricane pilots swept in:
. . . low over the field at midday we saw to our astonishment a bunch of girls in brightly coloured cotton dresses standing out by the planes with glasses in their hands having drinks with the French pilots, and I remember seeing bottles of wine standing on the wing of one of the planes as we went swooshing over. It was a Sunday morning and the Frenchmen were evidently entertaining their girlfriends and showing off their aircraft to them, which was a very French thing to do in the middle of a war at a front-line aerodrome. Every one of us held our fire on that first pass over the flying field and it was wonderfully comical to see the girls all dropping their wine glasses and galloping in their high heels for the door of the nearest building. We went round again, but this time we were no longer a surprise and they were ready for us with their ground defences, and I am afraid that our chivalry resulted in damage to several of our Hurricanes, including my own. But we destroyed five of their planes on the ground.
After defeat of the Vichy forces, Rayak was used by Allied air forces, including 451 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force.
The French Air Force evacuated the base in 1949, and it was abandoned for a long time, which contributed to turning it into a miserable condition, especially after being looted by its own guards. The army command later decided to rebuild the air base, a reconstruction that took two months and which included the construction of new buildings and infrastructure.
