RAF Fayid

RAF Fayid
RAF Fayid
Coordinates	30°22′17″N 032°16′14″E / 30.37139°N 32.27056°E
Code	LG-211

RAF Fayid

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Location of RAF Fayid

RAF Fayid (LG-211) is a former military airfield in Egypt, approximately 23 km (14 mi) south of Ismailia (Al Isma`iliyah) and 116 km (72 mi) northeast of Cairo. It was formerly a major Royal Air Force airfield built before World War II, and later used by the Egyptian Air Force.

History[edit]

During World War II, it was used as a military airfield by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces during the North African Campaign against Axis forces.

Fayid was also the site of Camp Fayed, a significant internment camp of Italian Egyptians managed by the British authorities.^[1]

USAAF Ninth Air Force units which used the airfield were:

98th Bombardment Group, 11 November 1942 – 9 February 1943 B-24 Liberator
316th Troop Carrier Group, January–May 1943. C-47 Skytrain

After the immediate postwar rundown of RAF units in the Mediterranean, RAF Fayid became the home of No. 13 Squadron RAF flying Mosquitos. Later it was joined by No. 39 Squadron RAF, with night fighter Mosquitos, and No. 208 Squadron RAF with fighter-reconnaissance Spitfire XVIIIs.^[2] By 1952 it was the main transport staging post in the Canal Zone and also had five Valetta (MRT) Squadrons inc. 70, 78, 114 and 216. Along with the other RAF stations in Egypt, it was evacuated by April 1956.

Fayid was then used by the Egyptian Air Force until the 1980s and the EAF units and personnel moved to the new USAF built Fayid Air Base, located about 3 km south to accommodate the most recent sale of F-16 aircraft to Egypt by the U.S. Transatlantic Programs Center (TAC). The new Fayid Air Base now accommodates the 86th and 88th Tactical Fighter Squadrons of the 282nd Tactical Fighter Wing, flying F-16C/D Block 40s.^[3]

It was closed when the EAF moved out. Today, the airfield is abandoned with sand reclaiming the facility back to the desert.

Notes[edit]

^ Joe Carbone (February 2014). "My Italian Father's Internment in Egypt 1940 - 1944" (PDF). Cologny, Switzerland: AAHA Amicale Alexandrie Hier et Aujourd'hui.
^ Lee, Wings in the Sun, 11, 41
^ Dutch Aviation Society, Egyptian Air Force Archived 16 December 2003 at the Wayback Machine, accessed August 2009