Tim,
Apologies for the wind-up. All I did was an advanced search in pprune for XL391 looking for posts rather than threads. Your post was there near the top.
As for 301/201, not being a pilot it was really only of passing interest.
In 1964 the last wing to build up was the Coningsby Wing with nice sequential numbers all the way to 657. IIRC 597 was the earliest. In Jun 64 some aircraft were still white overall. I don't recall actually flying in a white aircraft.
Then as a casual observer Scampton had XLs. The OCU had had XH560, XJ782, 783, 823, 824, 825. Some of the OCU aircraft had Gee 3. I guess that it must have been 560 as thereafter we flew in a Tacan equipped aircraft.
I flew in XM599 in Feb 65 after I returned to the Cottesmore Wing, XM598 in Apr 65 and XM597 in May 65.
In Feb 66 I recorded my first flight in a non-301 aircraft, XH562. We took 562 to Cyprus and flying over Libya in low level turbulence at 350 kts the RAT fell out and instantly failed. At the end of the month we flew in 825. It was not until May 66 that I flew in 560 and 825 the following month. My final flight on the Cottesmore Wing was in 825 in Jan 67.
I thought at first that these changes might have been when we started to transfer our aircraft to the Waddington Wing. On reflection it is perhaps more likely that 560, 562, and 825 were attrition replacements for the one lost at Coningsby and the one lost in Wales and may be one other.
At Waddington I flew in 569 and XL445 in Mar 67 with the Mk 2 conversion for 50 Sqn well under way. I flew in 824 the following month and in 446 in Jul. I next flew with 44 Sqn in Oct 67 in 824. 44 Sqns conversion was underway and you can see a pattern in aircraft circulation. In Dec 67 I flew in 824 again this time with 101 Sqn.
In Mar 68 I flew in 610 so clearly the Cottesmore-Waddington aircraft swap was underway.
In May 70, back on the OCU I flew in 555 and 559. The following month in 573 and 446.
The OCU had early models. Later, in Cyprus we flew in a mixed bag of 201/301 ac.
In 1968 I recall that the Bomber Command Stats listed the location of all the aircraft - wing, CWP, Major and one location that I was never able to work out ADA.
At some point a large number or aircraft were rotated through mod programmes to have the BS removed and their stored bomb doors refitted.