As a user, I recall the RBSUs at Lindholme and Coningsby (Tumby Bomb Plot) and also the facility in the Western Isles that we used; Gernish; although that was not a dedicated RBSU. In addition I know that there was one in Germany, parented by Gutersloh. However I seem to recall that there was an earlier location at Glasgow, located at RAF Bishopbriggs. I can find no reference to this unit, can anyone help?
There was also one at Luce Bay near West Freugh; I remember the guys at the Lindholme unit saying they'd worked there (presumably a det) but I think it may usually have been operated by RAE. The Lindholme unit was still in operation in '73 although the airfield had closed (radar unit - Northern Radar - still open too)
West Freugh had that capability and may well have utilised the same equipment as the RBSUs. The RBSUs were mobile and I recall one of them, Tunby(?), being deployed to Dunkeswell (callsign "Devon Bomb Plot") for one of the Bombing Competitions.
The Bishopbriggs RBSU may also have been a temporary location.
Did not Devon and Tumby operate simultaneously and independently of each other, certainly from 67 until at least 73?
I don't know, there was certainly a detachment at Dunkeswell in the early 70's. Apart from the bombing comps., there was a fairly lengthy ecm trial conducted that utilised the RBSU.
The one that I am interested in, Bishopbriggs, was probably gone by the time the Mk2s came into service.
I think that I have now found the answer here in post#3 by PN.
A summary of the answer:
Quote:
Glasgow Bombplot had closed before the end of the '60s. It may have been the one that moved to Gernish in the Outer Herbrides.
The other high level bombplots at Ouston, Haydock and Kenley all closed and moved to Tumby near Coningsby, Lindholme and Dunkeswell.
Ouston had been able to score popup attacks on Newcastle but the presence of the increasingly busy airport and the undulating terrain made it unsuitable as a low level plot.
From time to time one of the plots relocated to Sleep, usually for competitions.
So the remaining question is:
Can anyone provide the dates when Glasgow Bombplot was active?
Please forgive if this is of no interest to you. In my 18 years as a pilot I was always in Transport Command (or whatever new name they called that week). However, in my spare time, I was heavily into the RAFGSA gliding movement.
I "borrowed a workshop" at Swanton Morley at the end of 1971 to rebuild a glider and, one night, a F/O walked in in uniform. It transpired that he was also heavily involved with the RAFGSA movement and was therefore very welcome.
He was basically a Vulcan co-pilot who had committed some sort of outrage and he had been put in charge of a mobile V-bomber marking team. He had several specialised vehicles parked on the north side of Swanton Morley.
I would love to put him on to this thread but he sadly b*ggered off to the hangar in the sky last year.
Yellow Sun. In Glasgow,in the early 60's,on a VHF airband radio I several times heard an aircraft apparently making a bomb run and speaking to someone on the ground. Is this what I was hearing?
Bishopbriggs is to the north of Glasgow and I did once go to a Battle of Britain day there.
In Glasgow,in the early 60's,on a VHF airband radio I several times heard an aircraft apparently making a bomb run and speaking to someone on the ground. Is this what I was hearing?
Sorry, but how would I know what you heard nearly 50 years ago?
The RBMU was located on the East site at RAF Bishopbriggs some distance from the old Balloon Hangers. It arrived in the later part of the fifties and was there for several years. Probably leaving about 1962. The station during these years had ceased to be a training base (basic) and was home to the Glasgow Centre of the Royal Observer Corps, a store for the Civil Defence Corp and a major store of emergency transport equipment.
Thank you for that information, it pretty well confirms what I had surmised. The closure date may have been early 1963 as a nav rad friend recalls using the unit and thinks it was probably around then rather than '62.
For three months in 62 I was detached from Scampton to Methwold Bomb Plot (721 Signals Unit) which the V bombers used to do bomb runs on various targets in the area. If my memory is correct one such target was the swing bridge at Sutton Bridge. We were accomodated at RAF Feltwell, then a THOR base.
I believe sisemen is correct. During my time up there, in the 1980s, the small RAF unit was still in place, but had ceased scoring the Vulcan bomb runs. The Liverpool 'target', I was once told, was a city-centre police station, near to the Philarmonic Hall.
