Nice story, but mostly a crew-room tale in my opinion.
But you don't mention the airfield. You relate -
"The chiefy looked out of the window and saw no gaps in the line and said he didn't think so." If this was the case, and 57
were involved it would have been at Conningsby and the Canberra would have been a B.2.
Now 59 Sqn had B(I)8s, including XH204 (this frame's first sqn), and they were at RAFG Bruggen in 1957 (or Gutersloh, mis-remember which) when first issued with the 'side-saddle' Canberras (moving to Geilenkirchen in Nov 1957 - eventually became 3 Sqn in 61).
So . . . did someone get the sqn wrong during subsequent telling? And surely someone at ATC would have noticed an errant Canberra landing during the night.
But re-reading your post, the impression is that the SATCO was on a Canberra station and they had 'found' a spare Canberra in the rough at the end of their runway and assumed it was one of theirs . . . .nah, don't think so.
Incidentally, XH204 was the subject of a rather famous incident. On 9th May 1967 XH204 crashed near Wesel, Germany. It was being flown by Ron Ledwidge and his nav Jack Stewart when its aileron controls jammed. Both Ron and Jack got out safely. Ron was awarded the Air Force Cross for his airmanship that day. This is a remarkable story, an example of true airmaship on Ron's part.
