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118coasts of Oman including Salalah, Dukm, Ras Al Hadd, Seeb and in the Musandam (Khasab) in the north. We were also protecting and proving air transport links across Arabia and the Far East and, of course, the Royal Air Force had staging and diplomatic telecommunications facilities on the island of Masirah from the 1930s until we pulled out in 1977. In the wake of the 1956 Suez debacle it was becoming more and more evident that British influence in the Middle East was weakening. Dissident groups were becoming increasingly strident and Oman, although a remote and largely unknown country, was not immune from these emerging troubles. Air Vice8Marshal Peter Dye%u2019s excellent recent exposition on the events of the Jebel Akhdar War for this Society (see Journal 48) illustrated very graphically the role that air power played in the suppression of various revolts against the Sultan. However, although most of the ground troops involved were under the command of British Officers seconded to the Sultan, all of the air assets used in support of the Sultan%u2019s Armed forces were from RAF units operating from Cyprus, Aden or Sharjah. As Peter pointed out, it was not until after the visit to Oman in 1958 by the Under8Secretary of State for War %u2013 Julian Amery %u2013 that agreements were made to address the possible wider consequences of tribal and externally inspired insurgencies. In the following year, during a visit to London by the then Sultan of Oman, it was agreed to provide the Sultans%u2019 Armed Forces with much greater fighting capacity including the establishment of an air element manned by pilots seconded from the RAF. *%u0017%u0006(%+8%u0006%u0018(8)%u0006 The Sultan of Muscat and Oman%u2019s Air Force (SMOAF) was created on 1 March 1959 under the command of Squadron Leader G Barry Atkinson; the initial fleets of Hunting Percival Provost T.52s and Scottish Aviation Pioneer CC 1s were delivered during that year. The pilots, who were all secondees from the RAF, were converted to the Provosts at Manby and eventually mustered at Bait al Falaj airfield near Muscat later that year having staged via Khormaksar. Unlikely as it sounds, the Provosts entered service in the COIN role with the Pioneers being used as artillery spotters and light transports. The Pioneers proved difficult to maintain and were later replaced by