Finningley Boy/NutLoose,
RAFG/2nd TAF Nuclear alert was, in the Canberra, Buccaneer, and Phantom FGR2 era, all RAF as far as aircraft, aircrew and ground crew went, but as the weapons were US supplied, and remained US property, there was a resident US Munitions Detachment on each station that retained custody of the weapons and guarded them accordingly. This meant that when the alert aircraft were loaded with live weapons they too were guarded by armed US sentries at all times. They were VERY hot on the 'no lone zone' regs. I always wondered how the Jaguar coped with these regs as, in theory, the moment the aircraft taxied (which RAFG alert aircraft never did) the pilot should have been shot dead by the sentry if that sentry was sticking to the rules...
Finningley Boy,
RAFG Hunters;
The Hunter F4/F6 fleet in RAFG/2TAF was 100% pure air to air in role, there was no close air support/ground attack/conventional interdiction requirement in Germany at the time, all out nuclear retaliation being the NATO policy up until 1967. It is often forgotten what a change in RAFG the introduction of dual capable Harriers, Phantoms and Buccaneers was. RAFG had NO conventional ground attack ability between the retirement of the Venom FB4 and the introduction of the Phantom/Harrier/Buccaneer generation.
Interestingly, before the 1957 Sandys cuts, there was a tentative plan to equip the ground attack Venom FB4 squadrons with converted Hunter F4's, to be known as Hunter FGA4's, as the air to air Hunter units all gradually re-equipped with F6's.
It was all out nuclear or nothing. Even the RAFG Canberra B(I)6 and B(I) 8 squadrons were pure nuclear, their conventional capability being purely for overseas reinforcement out of area deployments. The other RAFG Hunters, the fighter recce 2 and 4 squadrons, were tiny outfits with an establishment of 9 FR10 and 1 T7 per squadron, meaning that the entire Gutersloh wing was smaller than an average 24 a/c NATO squadron.