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Old 17th Nov 2008, 14:53
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603DX
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Garden of England
Age: 85
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Around 1959/1960, 85 Squadron with Javelins were based at RAF West Malling, Kent. Quite a bit of additional concrete construction was necessary to accommodate them, including massive blast walls at numerous dispersal points around the airfield, and I think the runway may have also been extended at this time.

When the Javelins were night flying their landing approaches often passed close to my house, which was located about 4 miles east of the threshold, and the eerie wail of their twin Sapphires would give a very distinctive series of "wake-up calls" until they were all safely down. Much more penetrating and slumber-disrupting than their Meteor NF11 and NF14 predecessors had been through the late 1950's, which I had become accustomed to and could sleep through undisturbed.
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