Sabres
Langley,you may know how JM got his MC,but otherwise `google` Wiki,`Operation Claret`;right at the bottom are `external links`;`How John Masters received an immediate MC`...Thread drift/digression but there is aviation content,I know,I was there...
Sadly JM died of C a few yrs ago....
Sadly JM died of C a few yrs ago....
We regulalrly had Hercs operating from Farnborough for 1 & 3 Paras at Aldershot and Ghurkas based at Church Crookham for droppng at Hankley Common.
On one occasion when they dropped some Ghurkas we were asked to have an ambulance standing by when they landed back at Farnborough.
Apparently one of them managed to break a leg before he jumped. This would have been in the mid '90s because the MOD withdrew ambulances from Farnborough when Experimental Flying moved to Boscombe Down in '94 but under other MOD rules, an ambulance service was still required to be present during flying operations (we weren't yet a civil airfield where there is no requirement to have ambulance services based there) so the good old St John Ambulance Service were contracted to provide the service. When we told them they were to get an actual casualty, they were over the moon and transported the Ghurka to Frimley Park Hospital in well under the required 7 minutes; I know because I timed them.
On one occasion when they dropped some Ghurkas we were asked to have an ambulance standing by when they landed back at Farnborough.
Apparently one of them managed to break a leg before he jumped. This would have been in the mid '90s because the MOD withdrew ambulances from Farnborough when Experimental Flying moved to Boscombe Down in '94 but under other MOD rules, an ambulance service was still required to be present during flying operations (we weren't yet a civil airfield where there is no requirement to have ambulance services based there) so the good old St John Ambulance Service were contracted to provide the service. When we told them they were to get an actual casualty, they were over the moon and transported the Ghurka to Frimley Park Hospital in well under the required 7 minutes; I know because I timed them.
No big deal but the Gurkhas do get a bit touchy about the spelling. And we none of us want to be faced with a touchy Gurkha, do we?
I cannot think of a single reason for any balloon flown by / for Met. to be there, and it surely was not allowed up when any flying [arrive/ display/ depart] was in progress.
It looks like a standard war time issue such as my father flew to protect Coventry, the Suez Canal, and D Day ships.
A mystery to me.
It looks like a standard war time issue such as my father flew to protect Coventry, the Suez Canal, and D Day ships.
A mystery to me.
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Scroll down this fascinating site of yesteryear and you will see the RCAF sabres including their demise chopped up.
https://dhc-2.com/Prestwick%20Portraits.html
https://dhc-2.com/Prestwick%20Portraits.html
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RCAF Sabres were overhauled at Renfrew as well as Prestwick and some were passed to the Lutwaffe.
I remember being in the Renfrew terminal when one taxied past with it's iron cross markings which quite shocked some of the waiting passengers.
I remember being in the Renfrew terminal when one taxied past with it's iron cross markings which quite shocked some of the waiting passengers.
First time I helped out at Bisley for the ISCRM one of my cadets opened his tent flap to go for a pee at about 2am. Standing there right outside was one of the Ghurkha guards; his teeth whitened in the moonlight as he smiled and he started (only started) to draw his kukri.
Cadet never did get his pee.
Thank you.
When I was a keen young boy scout I was much into knots, lashings and splicing.
"Splicing" said dad "I had to splice not only ropes but wire" [I assume cables?]
Thus I became best damned splicer in the troop, and I still maintain bell ropes in S Lincs.
When I was a keen young boy scout I was much into knots, lashings and splicing.
"Splicing" said dad "I had to splice not only ropes but wire" [I assume cables?]
Thus I became best damned splicer in the troop, and I still maintain bell ropes in S Lincs.
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Ah Staravia, long gone before my first visit to Lasham in 1978... Believe they came from Prestwick where a lot of Canadian aircraft were retired.
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I`m sure there were Sabres stacked near a road between Odiham and F`borough,about `67....
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Staravia also had a yard at Church Crookham and one at Ascot. I seem to recall they kept a rather nice Dove at Blackbushe. Doug Arnold was supposed to have made his fortune in scrap metal, a link perhaps?
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Staravia
memorable moment was seeing seemingly 'new' Sea Furies across the road in various stages of undress with some upside down whist they attended to the Dowty bits.
On a summer '69 visit to Lasham there were 54 CF-86s, 31 Seahawks, 10 Sea Fury and 18 Hunters. I can remember that the Sea Hawk wings were all stacked like a knife rack. How they had all survived so long from the mid 50s is curious but whilst steam locomotives had their saviours from Barry, no-one came forward to help these!