Here's one I've been looking into - any thoughts?
Coningsby was well-known as the selected base for the OCU but I've also heard some mutterings about Hemswell (no really!) being used as a base for flight trials. Anyone else heard anything serious about this?
After that, things get very cloudy. It does seem clear that two (perhaps three) squadrons would have been based at Akrotiri, and UK/RAFG squadrons would be detached to Hal far for low flying training. There doesn't seem to be any documentation to clarify anything more though.
One assumes that the RAFG units would have been based at Laarburch, on the basis that the Canberra strike aircraft were based there and their replacement (the Buccaneer) was also based there. But a TSR2 brochure shows an estimated range map based on Geilenkirchen, which suggests that maybe the latter base had been earmarked at some stage? Likewise, there seems to be no evidence of any projected second UK base so maybe this would have been Honington, given that the Buccaneers went there?
As for squadrons, this seems to be even more unclear as much would have depended on whether the units were seen as direct successors to the Canberra tactical strike squadrons, or the strategic Vulcan squadrons. Officially-speaking, it ought to have been the former, in which case the best guess ought to be the units which eventually got the Buccaneer (15, 16 and maybe 12 and 208?), but then there's the Akrotiri squadrons too (presumably 9 and 35 given the eventual outcome)? There's also the recce units to consider - 2 Sqn must have been pretty certain but what about 41? And what would the OCU have been? 237 (as eventually appeared with Buccaneers) or 228?
Answers (or speculations at least!) on a postcard...
