Greek and Turkish Air Order Of Battle, Cyprus 1974

The Greek-backed 15th of July 1974 coup on Cyprus was followed five days later by a Turkish invasion of the island. These events brought NATO allies Greece and Turkey to the brink of war.

This video describes the air order of battle on all sides of the conflict.

I recognise that the Cyprus conflict and subsequent division of the country is a deeply emotive issue. This video does not seek to take sides, merely to state facts about the relative states of the air arms on both sides. Please keep comments civil and related to the topic.

Sources:

"Ripped Apart Volume 1. The Cyprus Crisis 1963-64" is a relatively new book by Tom Cooper, Dimistris Vassilopoulos and Dave Watson. It is information rich but unfortunately not the best edited volume. On balance I think it is worth buying for those specifically interested in the aviation-related background, but bear in mind the quality issues

A succinct but relatively interesting view of the history of the Hellenic Air Force can be found in this blog: https://stefanosskarmintzos.wordpress...

This Greek language website indexes all of the aircraft that have ever served with the HAF: https://bluewhitewings.com/

"A Short Guide To Aircraft Of The Turkish Aircraft" by Ole Nikolajsen is quite a useful guide to the history of that air force. It would be fair to say that Turkish military history is slightly less well covered in English language than the Greek