Kibrit Air Base (formerly Kabrit Air Base) is an operational

Egyptian Air Force The Egyptian Air Force (EAF) ( ar, القوات الجوية المصرية, El Qūwāt El Gawīyä El Maṣrīya), is the aviation branch of the Egyptian Armed Forces that is responsible for all airborne defence missions and operates all milit ...

( ar, القوات الجوية المصرية, ') helicopter base located in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, approximately 20 miles north of

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boun ...

; 125 km east of

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. An SA-342 Gazelle unit is based here. The name of the station came from a nearby village, and in Egyptian means "sulphur كبريت". ''Kabrit'' now is the name of a

pilot station Pilot Station ( esu, Tuutalgaq) is a city in Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 568 at the 2010 census, up from 550 in 2000. Geography Pilot Station is located at (61.936050, -162.883403), on the northern bank of t ...

for Suez canal navigation on the same location.

History

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the facility was known as

RAF Station The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

Kabrit, (Landing Ground 213) and was a major

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

facility which was used during the Western Desert Campaign. In 1941, it was where the

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling and in 1950, it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terro ...

(SAS) was formed. Beginning in 1943,

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Ninth Air Force The Ninth Air Force (Air Forces Central) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. It is the Air Force Service Component of United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), a joint De ...

units arrived to supplement the RAF against the Germans in the Western Desert. After the war, Kabrit remained a RAF station, hosting transport squadrons, five circa 1946. This continued until the breakdown in relations between the British and Egyptian governments in 1956, when the decision was taken to pull out British forces from the Suez Canal Zone. The airfield was taken over by the Egyptian Air Force and renamed "Kibrit", becoming one of its main airfields. During the 1956 Suez Crisis, it was an airfield for 20 Squadron EAF, equipped with twelve Soviet-built Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 aircraft. During the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, the station was attacked by the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...

, and many of its Soviet-built

MiG-17 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 w ...

aircraft were destroyed on the ramp by the IAF's

Dassault Mystère IV The Dassault MD.454 Mystère IV is a 1950s French fighter-bomber aircraft, the first transonic aircraft to enter service with the French Air Force. It was used in large-scale combat in the Israeli Air Force during the 1967 Six Day War. Design ...

s. In the 1973 Yom Kippur War with Israel, the airfield was captured by Israeli ground forces that crossed the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

along with Kasfreet and Shalufa Airfields, however it was not used by the Israeli Air Force. Kibrit remains an Egyptian Air Force base. Currently, the airfield houses an SA-342 Gazelle unit. Its main runways are having their asphalt removed, but the hangars are still being used for housing the helicopters.

Operational units and aircraft

References

* Jefford, C.G. ''RAF Squadrons, a Comprehensive Record of the Movement and Equipment of all RAF Squadrons and their Antecedents since 1912''. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK: Airlife Publishing, 2001. . * Maurer, Maurer. ''Air Force Combat Units of World War II''. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. . *
Royal Air Force Airfield Creation for the Western Desert Campaign
{{authority control Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Egypt World War II airfields in Egypt Defunct airports in Egypt

History

Operational units and aircraft

See also

References