TOPCLIFFE musings.

[langleybaston]

Do you have any memories of Topcliffe please? I was forecasting there c.1967.
Mainstay of our business was the Varsity squadron. Their boss, I believe, was SLdr Tommy Tucker, complete with scarlet lined greatcoat and assertive manner. Two pilots were Poles, known to us as Flt Lt ****slinger and MPilot Smackyerarse .......... close approximations to their real names. The Varsities provided good variety for us, and I believe supported V Force dets to Maccrihanish. Whence came boxes of kippers for Met. on a pre-order basis.

In my memory it is always winter there, snow, greatcoats, gloves, and a skiddy drive from Thirsk.

Two of us lived in Thirsk, the other was F-ing George. Our boss was Jack Houseman, twice torpedoed in the war, with a twitch to go with it. Ken Winspear made up the team of forecasters. Jack and Ken both went on to great things as their merit was acknowledged.

We saw a lot of the JPs from Leeming, and I never knew why ........... not far for a land-away was it?

When I was posted to Guetersloh the Varsities indulged me in both directions whilst getting sorted, including sitting up front, so they clearly forgave me for duff forecasts!

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Halfway round finals in a Chipmunk for my first go at landing a taildragger, the old AEF pilot points to a tiny field just below and announces:
"I put a Wellington down there in 1941."

Upset the concentration somewhat.


Turned out his final engine had failed short finals. They all walked away.

[Dougie M]

Langley
Topcliffe was the school for budding AEOs and AEOps (Siggies then)
The little trail of varsities would bimble off daily on a four hour cross country with the students blasting the airwaves with morse and voice transmissions. (WT and RT sorties) I always wondered if this radiation would affect any family prospect but fortunately it was a myth. I was a junior nav on a holding posting at Topclife and though I was the only nav on board the varsity, the staff pilots and pilot assistants knew their way all round the routes better than I did. The weather in the Vale of York was always pants at that time of year so some exciting approaches were made on recovery.
Apart from some memorable evening sorties into Thirsk I have no lasting fondness for Topcliffe.

[Minnie Burner]

LB

JPs? probably first solos (nice and quiet); Linton used Dishy sometimes for the same reason. (circa 1970 anyway)

[FantomZorbin]

LB
I did my first solo on a JP there in 1965 just after a Bassett spun off the runway!
I used to take my girlfriend* to The Shoulder of Mutton for turkey rolls!!


* Long since promoted to The Management.

[Janda]

I was there 71/72 as a young 18 year old AEOp student. Loved it so much I deliberately extended my stay by 12 weeks!!! This was my first experience of living away from home and I will always have fond memories of the place. At the time there were quite a number of great pubs including The Bog and Bird (Moor and Pheasant), The Lamb and the course pub the Shoulder of Mutton. Ah memories.

[langleybaston]

Thanks to all .... filling in a few gaps for me.
One thing I remember was the night the duty observer was arrested by the RAF police dog and his newly arrived corporal. The observer was never asked to show ID on entry as he had been at Topcliffe man and beast. He fell asleep in the office wearing an old coat, right in the window. and failed to produce an ID. Hadn't carried it for ages.
Fortunately the other coppers knew Old Lol.
He was still whingeing when I arrived at 0500 for the early shift.

[0500 !!! Nobody starts a shift these days at 0500! We must have been mad to fall for it].

Bloody cold winters which lasted 6 months.

[Rossian]

.....walking from the Annex to the Officers' Mess for breakfast one foggy foggy morning I broke a twig from one of the flowering cherry trees. It was covered in ice and inside there were six distinct sooty rings.

After a few non-flying days the staish decided that there would be a max push which he would lead. As a stude AEO it was my turn in the right hand seat and MPlt Dixie Dale was captain. As we lined up we could see the square root of bugger-all, he looked over and said "This is bloody silly" as we roared off on an instrument take-off. I think we ended up at Kinloss for the night.

The fact that I loved it there was partly due to the fact that we were treated like adults (unlike the u/t pilots up the road at Leeming)and a lovely young lady at Ripon teachers training college. Really happy days they were.

The Ancient Mariner

[langleybaston]

And the freezing fogs of those days, with the A1 not fully dual carriageway. Car nav. was aided by the mileometer ["turn right after 4.3 miles ...."]. Wind the windows down to listen for traffic before turning right.

But we had many many observations from many many RAF bases, staffed by professional observers. These were supplemented by AA and local council basic-trained observers which meant that [although the forecasts were a bit iffy] the actuals were plentiful so updates were always available to the decision takers. Even the aircrew sometimes passed us a cloudbase on take off, helping to calibrate our Mk I eyeballs.

[Get me some traffic]

Early 1980s, Teesside Airport, hoping for Vale of York fog to clear. Ringing around usual suspects (Leeming, Topcliffe, Linton, Fenton etc) for a sign of improvement. Asked someone at Topcliffe for a cloud base and got the famous reply "hang on while we dig a hole to find out!!!"

[Janda]

After reading some of these comments I am beginning to wonder if I actually was stationed at Topcliffe. I do not remember the weather being that bad. In the 3 months of my flying phase we did not cancel once. I also played rugby twice a week once for the station and on Saturday for Ripon and cannot remember to many bad weather matches. Still I sometimes have trouble remembering what I was talki!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:confused::confused::confused::confused:

[FantomZorbin]

Janda
Ah, the Lamb at Rainton a pub with an 'eccentric' landlord ... he handcuffed a stude to a beer pump! I believe he was ex RN.

[Janda]

One of the pubs had a dog that loved to eat a whole tube of Polo's. The landlord made more money out of selling them than from the beer! I think it was the same pub where they did a smashing pie and mushy peas. I once burnt my thumb when the peas spilled onto my hand.:ooh:

[5aday]

The Shoulder is now a fancy restaurant called the Lobster Pot, and the station looks much the same apart from a few new buildings and a wire fence excluding the airfield from the domestic site as it still used as a satellite airfield.
We had a reunion not that long ago which seemed to go quite well. The Army Sergeant Chef did a superb five course menu and I left a couple of cases of Champagne glasses in the Sgt's mess cellar in case we ever do it again. If we did then I think the Finningley chaps should be included as their base is no longer in existence.
I think I enjoyed my time there though I found the Varsity quite crude, the STR18 HF radio belonged in the museum and I only remember one instructor called Morson (M/AEOp) who seemed to frighten some of the students. He took the fire axe to my colleague (student) but didn't like being bullied himself. From there I went directly to Ballykelly and joined 204sqn with no OCU at all. Imagine how I felt in the Shack if the Varsity was crude.
The freedom at weekends of clowning about on my Triumph motorcycle on the main runway was brilliant and I mastered standing on the saddle, a trick I did once on the long straight road back from a lunchtime session at the Shoulder. The car I passed was one of the hierarchy on the AE school.
Happy days? I think so looking back. I spent most of my free time in Harrogate which was where I got the nickname 5aday. I don't like veggies all that much either.

ps I was one of the two students who parachuted into Topcliffe - we both ended up in Catterick (Hospital I hasten to add) with broken legs. Six months later( at Headley Court) .......
That's another long story.

[BEagle]

Aaarghh! Wretched place - home of 'Bulldog Standards Squadron' (aptly titled BS sqn!) and RNEFTS in the early 1990s.

We had to trek oop Nawrth once a year to have our UAS bad habits corrected and to listen to the poor sods doing their A2 groundschool sessions. Normal BSS sentence was about a week, then back to the UAS to carry on as before.

One snag was that there was never any accommodation on base for visitors. Normally, there were only the options of the kindergarten at Linton, or suffering the strange ways of the pongos at Dishforth. At Linton it was the annex, with barely enough space to do any preparation for the following day's fun and frolics; according to a chum who took the Dishforth option they were all expected to dine together and spend the evening discussing foxhunting or polo together...

Ah yes, the A2. No-one on our squadron had passed for over 2 years and even then it had taken them several goes. Mutterings about 'turning errors of gyros' and weirdly obsessed met theory - WTF do I need to understand about global circulation to explain why we're not going flying, Bloggs? I refused point blank to do my A2 until a proper syllabus existed, rather than the "I know more questions than you know answers" bolleaux of most of the BSS gang. But after getting back from Gulf War 1, I learned that a syllabus was indeed about to be issued. Oh good....

Thus it was that the following year, after one routine BSS week in the spring, I found myself swotting up all manner of stuff before setting off North for the joys of the A2. I'd just passed ATPL air law 1&2 for my R/BCPL/FI ticket, so had already had a bit of a head start, which helped a lot. Fortunately I'd also managed to get a room at Leeming, so was at least living with reasonably grown-up folks for the 2 weeks of Topcliffe hell. You had to be 'recommended' to take the assessment at CFS, which I scraped through after a misery had sat stone-faced in the LHS playing Bloggs for my final trip, the loathed 'Descending 2'. Groundschool hadn't been too bad though - but memories of explaining the theory of a machmeter over lunch to some staff chap who was swotting for his A1 and couldn't understand the notes struck me as being of real relevance for a Bulldog QFI....:rolleyes: In fact I'd worked out that there was a line missing from the notes; when I explained, the poor bugger told me that he'd been up all night trying to fathom it out! About the worst part of the groundschool was sodding Met - some of the old buggers seemed to love to ramble on about obscure concepts such as 'thermal winds' and were really miffed when the sensible syllabus had slashed most of the crap we were supposed to learn.

Never was I so glad to see Topcliffe disappearing in the rear view mirror as I set off for Sunny Scampton!

Oh and the A2 test? Cancelled on Day 1 due to Wx (the reason for which I was obliged to explain....:uhoh:), but I breezed it the following day (it helped that the PoW-ess was visiting Lincoln Showground, so our flying was a bit restricted :ok: ) and actually enjoyed the groundschool bit with the CFS chap who was very amiable.

Topcliffe might have had some odd weather, but so did Scampton. The duty liar for my A2 trip guessed cloud tops at FL40 - but we didn't come out until about FL70. Primary exercise was 'Stalling 2' - after the clearing turns, my jovial 'student' announced "Can't wait to see your aeros, 'sir'!". "I think you just did", I replied. But the gloomy weather had one advantage - the secondary exercise was IF with 'Bloggs' flying a 'radar to visual'. As we reached the instrument pattern from the West, I spotted the met radar tower at the old Ingham aerodrome, so knew exactly where we were (our aeroplane didn't have VOR/DME fitted...). But rather than taking control, waiting for the A15 and then turning 90° to follow it to right base, I wisely elected to let 'Bloggs' carry on, knowing that this would waste a fair bit more time, leaving less for whatever tortuous villainy he had in mind!

It seems that the weather-guessing knowledge of your days at Topcliffe must have been rather better than the bloke at Scampton that day, langleybaston! After I finished the A2 session, the clag descended and I didn't escape it until Lincoln. In June!

Topcliffe - I have to say it wasn't much liked by those doing pre-A2 work-up at BSS!

[4Greens]

I seem to remember a landing on the A1 instead of Dishworth or was it Topcliffe?

[5aday]

I forgot - Merlin - the landlady at the Shoulder was no where to be seen on our reunion visit. Quite an amazing lady as a landlady. So many late lock ins even during the week. I recall there were 32 malts on the top shelf and in my time I think only one student managed to get all the way along the shelf. I think he was a Trainee Flight Engineer. I recall I got about half way but I was mixing them with a couple local beers as well.
A couple of times the instructors at Topcliffe just drew the blinds down and left our group to try and recover. And - we were back at the Shoulder at lunchtime again. Merlin really had a magic spell over our small group.

[Topcliffe Kid]

No memories due to having been born there in '56! My dad was a Siggie on Neptunes at the time. Have yet to persuade him to come onto here.. Always raises an eyebrow when I say I was born on an airfield.

[Genstabler]

I flew into Topcliffe from Catterick on 16 January 1970 as a young Army Sioux pilot to form 660 Aviation Squadron AAC. 2 Flt AAC with Beavers was already there. It was the start of the happiest time of my military career. We were made very welcome. The flying around North Yorkshire was great and the weather made it more interesting for our bread and butter low level activities. The RAF professional aviation environment was a good place for us to operate from. The O Mess was a wonderfully relaxed and comfortable home after the formal rules and restrictions of an infantry battalion mess. Most of the living in RAF aircrew were middle aged bean stealers but they were a very congenial bunch. Best of all there were wimmin, and families could came into the bar in the evening when we would roll back the carpet and dance. I think the barman was called Freddie!

Our favourite places for romantic eating out were The Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe Hotel (sole nantua and chunk of Aberdeen Angus) and The Old Deanery in Ripon, both still in action.

In the end I married one of the lovely young air traffickers in Topcliffe Church with the reception in the Mess. Now I am retired we live not a million miles from Topcliffe on the edge of the North York Moors, God's own country.

RAF Topcliffe has a very special place in my affections.

[AQAfive]

My route to Topcliffe was via an apprenticeship at Cosford. During the airfield phase I looked at the STR 18 on the newly arrived Shackletons with awe and amazement as HF training was done on the Collins 618T (How sad is that remembering numbers!!!). The instructor said, "I shouldn't worry yourself with that lad, you'll never see that again". Little did he or I know that within 18 months I would be struggling to tune those wretched 3 MHz frequencies on the Scottish route. And as for the 'one armed paper hanger' perhaps another time.

I can't say I enjoyed the place, too much pressure, but I certainly enjoyed the subsequent job.

The weather? Foggy drives from Leeds with passenger giving me distance to curb, (she must have done well, she is still making me my tea). No flying for two weeks as the Vale of York fog bank refused to move. And yes cold in the winter.

Our Poles were Sqn Ldr Ignatowski, his nav was Flt Lt Bruno, (may have been a Sqn Ldr I can't remember). Whenever they disagreed they did it in Polish. Learning the job was bad enough, but when you didn't understand the teacher - tricky.

The reunion made the place seem much smaller than I remembered, but life is like that.

[5aday]

Genstabler,
Was Beaver driver Tim Daly one of your numbers and can you recall an Air Corps fixer called Mel Appleyard ?

AQAfive - yes indeed - it did look so much smaller. Perhaps it was those horrible runs they subjected us to.
(quite a few emails to repeat the event - any takers ?)
Dave M

[Genstabler]

His name is familiar and I seem to remember Tim Daly was a WO2 2 Beaver pilot in 2 Flt. We had a Cpl Appleyard REME tech in 660.

[camlobe]

Only visited once in the late '80's to fix a Shack. B&B in the local one-pub village. The landlady was memorable for the best breakfast in living memory, and for "the front door will be locked at 2300 sharp!". Yes, mum.
The airfield was Army with JEFTS Bulldogs based in one hangar. We doubled the RAF temporary presence for one week while we dragged out an engine change. An interesting time with a story attached, but maybe another day.

Camlobe

[Rallyepilot]

I attended RAF Topcliffe as a, AEOp student on No 21 Air Electronics and Air Engineers Course during 1969/70. Our Flight Commander was a chap called Flt Lt Peter Fownes - a great instructor and sound human being. Everyone on the Course thought he was the best thing since sliced bread.

Being an Ex Air Radar Fitter and a qualified private pilot I found the ground school technical and airmanship subjects a doddle. However, mastering the art of Morse communications was, for me, a real challenge. However, perseverance paid off and I was considered competent at 16 words-per-minute and allowed to progress on to the flying phase.

The Varsity was, I suppose, and ideal training aircraft - not too fast and not too complicated. On each trip we would normally fly 2 AEOp students, one to work the STR-18 HF and the other to act (and I mean act) as the pilot's assistant. Positions would be swapped around from flight to flight. We flew a number of different routes. Some focussed on maritime operations and the other focussed on route flying.

Maritime routes took us out over the North Sea where the HF operator would worked hard sending fictitious messages thought up by the AEO instructor and receive base weather broadcasts. As I remember it the Pilot Assistant who sat in the co-pilot's seat had very little to do other that make a few V/UHF calls, answer some technical questions though up by the pilot and pass out the rations and tea.

The flight plan for the overland was: Topcliffe, Whitby, Aberdeen, Bonar Bridge, Leuchars and back to Topcliffe. at FL80 - about 4 hours total. This route required a bit more V/UHF work by the Pilot Assistant but the same manic level of work by the HF trainee.

The HF station at Topcliffe was, as I remember it, manned by a somewhat geriatric team of instructors including one that suffered from arthritis in his hands. You can imagine the shock when, having settled down for my first HF trip in the Varsity and opened watch with the ground station, I received what can only be described as the strangest Morse I had ever heard; a sort of slow-slow-quick-quick-slow rhythm that scrambled my brain. Somehow I managed to stumble through the HF flying phase and before long I graduated with my Course and was sent off to join 42 Sqn at St Mawgan. The training I received at Tocliffe stood me in good stead and I was happy using Morse regularly in the Nimrod MR1 and occasionally in the Vulcan B2.

Unlike others that have submitted to this forum, my memories of Topcliffe are great. The sun never seemed to set, the beer and roast beef sandwiches at the Shoulder of Mutton were fantastic and the friends I made on the Course followed through into my time on Maritime and the V Force. If there has to be a downside, it was the Wendy House sized married quarter that my wife and I were allocated at nearby RAF Dishforth. My daughter couldn't have a cat as there was no room to swing it!

If the instigator of this thread wants a potted history of RAF Topcliffe from the time it came into existence until 1969, I can forward one to him.

[Basil]

APO on the Topcliffe Student Aircrew Holding Unit for a month in '66. Pretty much a waste of time except that I first saw the agreeable face of discipline there.
Situation: GF in 3 Tuns with, of course, Bas also in residence. On last morning, carry luggage to car, drop GF at railway station and roll up for another exciting day at SAHU.

Just before lunch the Flt Lt O/C SAHU says "APO Basil, did you spend last night in the 3 Tuns?"
Bas: "Yes Sir."
O/C SAHU: "With a woman?"
Bas: Thinks to say "No, Sir, with a man!" but rejects humour in place of simple affirmative.
O/C SAHU: "Well, the Stn Cdr wants to see you at 1330!"
Bas: (F*ck!) "Yes, Sir."

Spend lunch pressing, ironing and polishing and present to Stn Cdr's Sec.
Sec: "APO Basil to see you, Sir."
Stn Cdr: "Send him in."
Bas: (Snapping up smart salute) "APO Basil reporting as ordered, Sir."
Stn Cdr: "At ease, Basil." (Bas now notes that instead of Gp Capt, an aged (54.9 yo) Wg Cdr is in the seat)
Stn Cdr: "The Stn Cdr is off to a meeting and I'm standing in for him. Now, did you spend last night in the 3 Tuns with your GF?"
Bas: Yes, Sir."
Stn Cdr: "Jolly good show!" "If I was your age that's exactly what I'd do!"
Bas: Thinks: 'Bally heck! A nice senior officer who isn't giving me a bollocking!"
Stn Cdr: The thing is; this bloody hotel proprietor 'phoned the guardroom and says that you double occupied a room which was booked as a single and wants an extra 10/6d. Could you go around there and give him his money and next time don't park your car where he can see the station pass."
Bas: (Much relieved) Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir."

Celebrated that GF's birthday with a family dinner in London last night and I believe she's cooking duck ce soir :ok:

[NRU74]

I was there for c 16 months 62/63 and the weather for most of the time seemed fairly normal for N Yorks - apart from the early '63 snow.
It was the only time in my 20+ years in the RAF that virtually the whole complement of troops, NCOs and Officers had to dig the snow and ice off the runway with shovels. We spent all Saturday morning for about four or five hours doing this before we retired to the mess. The CO (? Gp Capt Ruston ?)directed that a free barrel should be put on for us in the Saddle Room Bar (?) of the OM

[langleybaston]

Ralleyepilot: thank you, PM on its way.

[Rossian]

......OC GST* when I was there was the legendary Sqn Ldr Dave Dattner.

He used to summon the AEO and AEOp students to the main briefing room on the occasional Saturday morning and deliver his standard generalised bollocking thus:
" I'm getting fed up of being phoned by various mothers around the county complaining about their daughters being "compromised" by you lot. DO stop littering the countryside with bastards. Now those to whom that applies know who they are; the rest of you are doing fine. Now bugger off."

Most of the studes who came in contact with him would have followed him over the edge of a cliff. He was that powerful a personality.

The Ancient Mariner
* General Service Training
I'll leave the tales of some of his other eccentricities to others.

[dmussen]

I soloed in a JP3 from Topcliffe. I think it was in 71 or 72. I can remember I was on no. 56 course at Leeming. Loved those pubs.
Can anyone recall the name of the pub at the top of the incline on the road to Whitby ? It was on the left before one got to Filingdales.

[diginagain]

Can anyone recall the name of the pub at the top of the incline on the road to Whitby ? It was on the left before one got to Filingdales. If travelling North from Pickering, just after the Hole of Horcum, it would have been the Saltersgate Inn.

Not looking its best. (http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=28083)

[Warmtoast]

TOPCLIFFE musings

I never visited the place. Nearest I got to it was when I was at 242 OCU at Dishforth. However, going back a few years, in the early 1950's I was at Biggin Hill and took this photo of a Topcliffe-based Neptune MR1 at the 1954 Royal Observer Corps "Recognition Day" held at Biggin.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/Biggin%20Hill%20Early%201950s/RAFNeptune.jpg


Neptune MR1 WX547 was from the Fighter Command Vanguard Flight (1453 Flight) based at Topcliffe.

Vanguard Flight Neptunes carried out some of the initial Airborne Early Warning Radar trials over the North Sea, but according to Google they were not a success (see quote below).


By the 1950's, the Royal Navy and RAF had started the development of AEW systems. The Royal Navy ordered the development of an AEW Fairey Gannet, whilst using the AN/APS 20 radar equipped Douglas Skyraider from the US as a stopgap, and the RAF set up the "Vanguard Flight", also known as 1453 Flight, equipped with Lockheed P2V-5 Neptune's. They were not a success, and the flight was disbanded after 3 years. Therefore, the only operational AEW systems in use by the British armed forces up until 1970 were operated by the Royal Navy.

[Shaft109]

When I figure it out I'll post some pics of the artwork on our mess walls from the TANS and ANC courses unless there are any objections with regards to names etc which are still visible.

The Airfield has recently been resurfaced with new lighting, but the camp / hangars are effectively circa 1950's, and plenty of hard standings remain around the peri track.

Also I took a picture at East Kirkby (Just Jane's home) of Chris Panton at the Halifax OCU posing on a Hardstanding at Topcliffe.

[Clockwork Mouse]

http://i1367.photobucket.com/albums/r787/turnermh/Tower_zps62621bbf.jpg

Local control, the tower at Topcliffe 1971.

[roadsman]

My Father, MNav John Lennard was a staff navigator on Varsitys between 1968 and 1970. He returned in 1980 working on ops for the Royal Navy flying training flight. He departed in 1983 on retirement.

[Roadster280]

Q - having spent mucho time on exercise at both Topcliffe and Dishforth.

Why did the RAF retain the airfield when the camp was turned over to become Alanbrooke barracks, given that Dishforth is literally down the road, and was at that time just about entirely abandoned itself?

I am talking about the period before the AAC took over Dishforth Airfield. I remember going there just after the AAC had moved in, and there was a lot of building work going on. The C-Type hangars were in absolute **** order, apart from one, which was near pristine. This would have been mid-80s when I first went there.

[dmussen]

Thanks diginagain,
Funny, I loved that fire and the beer. The barmeals were good and hearty too.

Shame to see it as it is today.:ok:

[taxydual]

Roadster, I can only imagine that Dishforth was for JP ops and Topcliffe for Bulldog ops to avoid mixed types in the circuit.

You are correct re the one pristine hangar at Dishforth. All the hangars were scheduled for total refurb around 1983-ish. Only one was completed as the Company doing the refurbs went bust.

The thousands of gallons of metal primer paint stored in four shed went missing shortly afterwards. The number of farmers barns, sheds etc that underwent a miraculous metamorphosis to emerge a lurid lime green was amazing.

As for the photo of Toplcliffe VCR, that brought back many a memory of playing Uckers with Butch Weilding et al on black flag days.

[Tim00]

Here's a picture from 1948, when my dad was on the staff.

http://i1203.photobucket.com/albums/bb398/tims3/1948_Topcliffe.jpg (http://s1203.photobucket.com/user/tims3/media/1948_Topcliffe.jpg.html)

Don't suppose anyone recognises somebody?

[Basil]

I can only imagine that Dishforth was for JP ops and Topcliffe for Bulldog ops to avoid mixed types in the circuit.
I wish their Airships had figured that one out for Wyton in the early seventies when we had everything from Victors, Canberras and Comets to Chipmunks flown by studes in the bally circuit!

[haltonapp]

I was there October 70 to December 71 undergoing FE training, most of my memories are good ones! No one has mentioned the Busby Stoop, a fine pint of Theakstons, and his cheese and onion sandwiches were awesome, he grew his onions in square plastic boxes, the roots grew out of a hole in the bottom of the box, he fed them on his beer drips and they came out cube shaped, ideal shape for sandwiches!!

[Janda]

Apparently the Busby Stoop is now an Indian restaurant. I was there Mid 71 to end 72 and we were told that the BS was an airmans pub and to go elsewhere. As I didn't have a car for my first 6 months I just went where the lift went.

[haltonapp]

Well having been one I was not out of place!

[diginagain]

Shame to see it as it is today.Indeed it is. I used to pop-in when my father was the local Park Ranger.

[Tengah Type]

AQAfive

The two Polish officers you are thinking of were Sqn Ldr "Iggy" Ignatowski
(Pilot) and Sqn Ldr Bruno Szota (Nav). Both had problems understanding each other in their somewhat fractured English. They had similar problems
when they spoke Polish with very different accents. ( Think of two Englishmen speaking Geordie and Cornish!)

I was in a bar near to Wildenrath on, 45 Air Engineer Course Landaway, in August 73, when a friendly local came to join us for a chat. He asked us if we had been to Germany before - Iggy said he had - in 1943. The German asked what he had been doing. The reply " Making Car Parks!" Less friendly German left.