This and the Bucc thread is surely what the Military Forum is about.
As BEages said Flat man's stuff gave a real feel for the times – I was certainly in the cockpit with him as he taxied onto the runway. Some 30 years from now when the RAF is only flying UCAVs I am sure the guys and girls flying today will have similar stories to tell about what they have been doing recently.
By coincidence a couple of weeks ago I was reminded of when we thought the war had started at Jever one Sunday morning (6 Dec 59). All 2TAF airfields including Jever were red due fog so when Pete Jennings and I got scrambled as the first Hunter Battle Flight pair (pre QRA) we knew it was not a practice. A second pair launched as soon after us as they could generate them. Four jets going in that Wx on a Sunday morning caused pandemonium behind us. Pilots were paired up as they arrived at the hangars regardless of whether they were Swift recce mates from 2 or Hunter guys from 4 and 93 while the ground crew were winching up live gun packs in every corner. Pete and I with arm masters on (the only time the wire locking ever got broken during my tour) were vectored onto target after target down at 5000ft but never found a thing. Eventually they brought us back from a very long way southeast via one of the Berlin corridors, somebody had the presence of mind to declare Gutersloh Amber III, Pete did his GCA stuff and I stared at his wing tip.
Afterwards there were several rumours as to how and why all those paints had appeared on Brockzetal’s radar screens but we were never debriefed officially.