Originally Posted by
Finningley Boy
Dave F68 and Mogwi,
I think you've answered my query.
I, believe 3 Squadron rather than 4, was tasked with secondary armed reconnassance. Given their origins one would have thought it was the other way round. But I welcome any correction.
FB
Yes, 4 had a declared recce rôle with the pod carried on the c/l pylon. This had a fan of oblique cameras plus a vert camera (ex-TSR2) which took offset pairs of negatives. 3 (and 20) had a port-facing F95 (large format, 8/16 [I think] frames per sec, selectable) that was quite adequate for recce and the pilots were also recce trained. The doctrine was for the pilot to note all possible int as he flew past the target and try to get imagery as a bonus. The SHAR carried a stbd- facing F95 with the option of 3” or 6” lenses.
Armed recce was flown so that if the leader failed to get weapons on target because of a late sighting, the #2 could rack across and drop. Bloody good fun until the bullets start coming back at you🙁
MOG