On this same day a demolition expert, Squadron Leader Ellery, had arrived at Nursencik, and had arranged for explosives to be dropped on the summit the following day. He and a party of team members would be lifted as high as possible by helicopter; from there they would climb to the wreck and demolish it systematically. Ellery had no previous mountaineering experience.

On the clear day of May 2nd one of the helicopter pilots had seen what he took to be a superior route up the northern side of the mountain, and Ellery, bottomer, Whelan and Flight-Sergeant Appleby were lifted to 10,500 feet on this north-east ridge. But after two hours of hard climbing it was obvious that they were not going to reach the summit. They decided to retreat. Unfortunately they were now on the wrong side of the mountain and it took them two days to reach base camp again.

Meanwhile Robertson, foreseeing the possibility that this party might not reach the summit, had decided that six other members of the team should form an alternative demolition party. The helicopter succeeded in dropping these men at 12,000 feet on a ridge to the north - but not that used by Ellery's party. The aircraft could carry only one passenger at this dropping altitude, so each time it had to return to base to pick up the next man. Another difficulty in these aerial drops lay in achieving as much height as possible while there was still sufficient air pressure for the aircraft to hover without stalling. On this particular morning it was trying to hover, with Murphy waiting to jump, when the pilot decided that it was too tricky to hold his position there, and that he would go down to a lower altitude. He told his co-pilot to warn Murphy that it was too dangerous - but he had already jumped. They were considerably farther from the ground than is customary and it was with some relief that they saw him get to his feet and wave.

The experience was too risky to repeat. The other five men were dropped a thousand feet lower, but the helicopter unloaded their gear to Murphy at the higher level.

The six men went straight through to the summit and set up Camp 3, using the tents contained in the canisters dropped by the Hastings two days previously. The explosives didn't arrive until the following day when the Hastings came through a hole in the clouds and dropped three containers. This set up a record at the time for the highest drop by parachute. It was carried out by the same squadron which had played such a large part in the operation since the beginning: 70 Squadron from Nicosia. The drop was dead accurate and nothing was lost.

While the other four collected papers from the wreckage, Murphy and Hercod - who had no previous knowledge of explosives - carried out the demolition work from the printed instructions. On one occasion a fuse didn't work and Hercod went back and substituted another. For this action he earned commendation from the Queen but only indignation from Robertson, whose camera he was using for the record; he inadvertently left it on top of the charge.

There had been some cloud about all day, and by evening it was obvious that the weather was worsening. Hercod and Murphy were exhausted by the strain of their unaccustomed duties and it was decided that, although the job was finished, they would remain on the top throughout that night.

They started down the following morning. As they were contouring the slopes of the west summit towards the S.S.W. ridge, they ran into heavy snow and cloud. They were forced to shelter in snow-holes until it improved. Since they had been expected back the previous night, everyone in base camp was on the look-out, so when they sent up flares from 10,000 feet, these were seen immediately and a helicopter took off to bring then down.

They arrived at Nicosia the following evening, stepping from the Hastings to face batteries of television cameras and Press reporters, and after the official congratulations they were granted ten days' leave. Continue to page 6