Just found this thread since it came ‘up the list’. What a wonderful waste of a Sunday reading it all.
My recollections.
Exercise Sunspot Sept 1959. I was on 214 Sqdn, we were doing the in-flight re-fuelling trials but someone at Group or Command had left us on the roster for ‘Sunspot’. Our turn came around and when it was pointed out that we had our bomb bays full of HDU and there was no room for any bombs et al. We were apparently informed that it was too late to schedule a different sqdn, so we went!
During this detachment we lost XD869, see
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...ighlight=XD869
WRT to the Cuban Crises see:
The day Britain was 15 minutes from triggering Armageddon | Mail Online
Incidentally The Group Capt. Beetham mentioned in the Daily mail article was Wing Co. Beetham OC 214 Sqdn at the time of the ‘Sunspot’. He went on to become MoRAF.
My part in the Cuban Crisis? I was posted to Akrotiri on 13th Oct 1962 