Perim Island

Guarding the DWS Relay Station on Perim, 1964

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British and Italian Somaliland combined in 1960 to form a new independent country, Somalia. The BBC had a relay station for its World Service at Berbera but due to the political situation in Somalia post-independence it had to be closed down. The new site chosen was Perim, little knowing that in 1967 the British would be withdrawing from Aden and the facility would have to be moved again (to Masirah). The site was set up and operated by the Diplomatic Wireless Service (DWS) to relay the BBC’s World Service but that was assuredly not all that was being broadcast. Why else site the station on Perim rather than in Aden itself? Especially as Perim had no facilities or infrastructure whatsoever and for water relied on an antiquated condenser which, if it broke down, would necessite all water being brought from Aden. 

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I was serving in Aden at the time in the resident infantry battalion, 1st Battalion the East Anglian Regiment (1 E ANGLIAN). Our perspective was that Perim was established to broadcast to neighbouring countries in their native languages. There was never any suggestion that it might also be a listening post – that was being done in Cyprus. No programmes were ever produced on Perim but we assumed pre-recorded material in Arabic as well as relayed programmes from the BBC were being transmitted.

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I was lucky enough to spend a fortnight on Perim in July 1964; lucky not just because of the opportunity of visiting a remote outstation of former Empire but also because it meant getting away from the stiffling heat of Aden in high summer. Perim was still very hot, but it was a bearable heat. Mine was the third detachment to be sent to guard the new installation, still being developed although the wireless masts were up and as far as I remember the transmitters were in use, but possibly not yet on full power. (I believe the relay of the BBC World Service on full power did not begin until around April 1965). The Army had been called in following an abortive attempt to blow up a mast or he main generator in April that year. 

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I was sent to Perim as at the time I had no fixed job in the Battalion; I was Signals Officer designate, but also one of a handful of  Forward Air Controllers who that April had been hastily trained to be able to communicate with the RAF’s Hawker Hunters ‘up country’ in the Radfan. My going to Perim was also very fortuitous as it gave me plenty of opportunity to learn Morse code: by September I needed to be up to 8 words per minute, the passing-in standard at the Infantry’s School of Signals, then still at Hythe. This is an appropriate moment to mention our communications to Aden. I am sure that the DWS must have had their own link to Aden, but we were well out of range of military VHF sets in use and had to rely on HF (High Frequency) radios. Although Aden was only around 90 miles away voice communication was impossible for much of each 24 hour period due to atmospheric interference, so the signallers had to be able to use TG (more or less a language of morse letters of the alphabet joined together in twos and threes). Sometimes getting through using TG was impossible.

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Our camp had been established a month previous to my arrival on relatively high ground quite near the masts  but some way from the permanent camp being established by the DWS which was down at sea level. Our accommodation was 160 pound tents, some of which can be seen in the first photograph, occupied on a scale of up to six men per tent, with others for the signals equipment, stores etc. But the hub of the camp was the splendid structure erected by one of my predecessors as OC Perim, presumably with the assistance of our Assault Pioneer Platoon. The materials came from the crates and pallets that had brought equipment from Berbera and had then been discarded. The second photograph shows the structure, with the Battalion’s flag showing one of the advantages of Perim – there was usually a breeze which made the heat bearable. The third photograph shows what the men outside the structure were doing: the daily cleaning and checking of hurricane (and Tilley) lamps so essential for lighting. Working dress was invariably ‘bare buff’. Water was always in short supply and ironing facilities were non-existent.

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The main purpose of the ‘structure’ was as a dining-hall and a place to sit when not otherwise involved in guards and other duties. The fourth black and white photograph shows a meal in progress with all the furnishings made from the discarded crates. There were ‘windows’ on two sides, actually fly screens that also served to allow fresh air to flow through. It was a happy existence, even knowing that a few hundred yards away others were living in air-conditioned bungalows, with electric lighting and proper facilities. Some of the bungalows can be seen in the first colour photograph. At either side in the background one can make out two of the Seven Sisters on the African side of the strait. Looking at Google Earth one can clearly see that there were at least 16 of these accommodation bungalows, although in 1964 I cannot recall there yet being anything like that number already built.

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The Perim detachment was carried to and from Aden in the twice-weekly Aden Airways ‘scheduled’ flight from Khormaksar, which had been established when the DWS came to Perim early in 1964. Here are a black-and-white and a colour photograph of the same flight (I must have had two cameras!). The most important cargo was always the fresh rations, with two or three DWS long-wheelbase Landrovers meeting each flight. The DWS seemed to have quite a quantity of these, whilst we relied on one trusted short-wheelbase vehicle (a small portion of which is visible in the bottom right-hand corner of the b/w photograph. Looking at the soldiers with their arms and equipment, they must have been either arriving or leaving. Notice also a number of civilians, all of whom must have been DWS personnel, either having landed or about to depart or some saying farewell to those leaving.

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The military tented camp was always intended to be temporary. In early 1965, now Signals officer, I returned to Perim for a few hours with my commanding officer to find the detachment in an air-conditioned bungalow that had been built much nearer the sea, just to the North of the hub of the DWS complex. We flew to Perim in a Beaver of the Army Air Corps. So that the landrover could be at, or at least on the way to, the airstrip to pick up whoever was arriving it was standard procedure that an aircraft would make a circuit of the island before landing.