PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Vulcan Bomb-Aimer Position
View Single Post
Old 6th Oct 2019, 19:24
  #29 (permalink)  
Slow Biker
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Cambs
Posts: 145
Likes: 0
Received 4 Likes on 2 Posts
Back in the mid '60s I worked on SongSong range, a set of islands off the Malaysian mainland; two weeks on, then a trip back to Butterworth to see civilization for a weekend. On occasion we spotted for Vulcans dropping 100lb practice bombs. The target was called a barge, in reality it was a large floating metal box structure. The wait after the 'bomb gone' message seemed ages, I was told the release point was Perai railway junction, maybe someone can confirm that. I never saw a DH, although memory tells me the aiming point was offset to avoid the damage a DH would cause. The Vulcans provided a bit of variety from the bread and butter work with Canberras dropping 25lb PB and RAAF Sabres with 3in rockets and 30mm. Night bombing was not enjoyed as it involved a trek through the jungle in the dark on a narrow path - far too much rustling going on out of sight. But we could be rewarded watching turtles come up the beach under the quadrant lights and lay their eggs; occasionally we would spot a monitor lizard plundering the buried eggs.

.
Slow Biker is offline