A showbiz posting to Aden

The Commanding Officer of the RAF Recruitment office I entered in 1962 wasn’t sure I would survive square-bashing. Having been to drama school and spent the past two years trudging around the audition circuit, I was a bit of a ‘lovey’.

I began training as a Wireless Operator at Compton Bassett during that ice-cold winter, but never gave up acting. I joined the Compton Players and on my next posting to Bomber Command at RAF High Wycombe I joined the town’s Operatic Society, playing the lead role in Annie Get Your Gun.

I then applied for an overseas posting, and had thoughts of Singapore, Cyprus or Germany. They gave me Aden. “Gee, thanks!” I remember thinking, but within a few weeks of arriving I had joined a combined services jazz quintet doing the circuits of Officers’ Messes and clubs in Khormaksar, Little Aden and Steamer Point.

I was often picked up by a jeep and driven to perform 15-minute cabaret acts at other service clubs before returning to finish off at the Officers’ Mess. I was given late passes as I often didn’t get back until gone midnight. I’d never worked so hard – but I loved every minute of it.

Soon I met a local jazz quartet who were the resident band at The Rock Hotel, and I performed a weekly cabaret spot with them. Then, out of the blue, I was called in to see my CO and asked if I would like to produce a show to take up the Radfan Mountains to entertain the troops.

They didn’t have to ask me twice, and I was taken off all duties while I gathered some very talented service personnel, including six brave lasses I coached as a chorus line, into a cabaret act along with the Del Turner Quintet.

A month later we were all flown up to the desert. What an experience. Our makeshift stage was draped with parachutes on blocks and the lads all sat in the ‘auditorium’ on benches stripped to the waist in the heat. It was a sight to behold! Because we were all service personnel, they made us feel like stars, and greeted us all with extreme enthusiasm as they cheered on the chorus girls and laughed at the silly sketches the lads had written.

Sally with the Del Turner Quintet, 1964 © Sally Welzel

I organised another show a month later, then we were asked to visit the sick bay and again were made to feel like stars as we were introduced to the injured lads.

Sadly for us, around this time the Ministry of Defence decided to start flying out professional shows, so our time in showbiz was up. But the lads later told us that our shows were the best – because we were ‘one of them’.

During my time in the RAF, I served across the UK, in Aden, and even went to Kenya with an RAF hockey team for a competition, visiting the Great Rift Valley with its stunning views and wildlife. Despite this, all these years later my most treasured memory is still of stepping onto the stage and entertaining the troops in those hot desert mountains.

Sally Welzel (née Nash) is a member of the Association’s WRAF Branch. She served in the RAF from 1962 to 1968 and received the Radfan clasp to her General Service Medal for her work in Aden. She recently surprised Aden veterans by singing at their reunion dinner – almost 60 years after her showbiz concert in the mountains

Showbiz: Sally Welzel today