Operation Bushel - the last air drop

An RAF C-130 C.1 Hercules releasing four one-tonne pallets of grain sacks from its ramp at extremely low level on the drop zone at Gundo Meskel in Ethiopia on 10 December 1985.

My depiction of XV215, based at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire but operating from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa during the detachment, was commissioned by one of the crew. The famine in Ethiopia - partly the result of drought and partly of civil war - was highlighted by the media and led to an international relief effort and the Band Aid concerts in Christmas 1984. Operation Bushel lasted altogether from November 1984 to December '85.