Starter Crew
Spot on!!
We were "duty/6hr/SAR" and (as described above) fresh in theatre. It was late afternoon when we got the nod about the Fearless contact.
The nav (top guy...famous brother) was a little disconcerted. New weapons, ROEs (first real shooting amtch for all of us remember). Capt (SB) right no panic, it'll take the ground crew a couple of hours to get the load, so plenty of time to plan this out.
One minute later... phone rings...
"Aircraft ready...scramble"
XV239 5 hours day 3 hours night.
We did not know the classification until we "joined" and that's when the Nav pulled all the circuit breakers!
Lead Wet (SG) downgraded the whole thing after about 30 seconds after contact in anyway. (Charlie Luncher Note...as you'd expect, with the correct mixture of contempt and weary "I told you so").
Awesome wet team, the golfer, the Falmoth Master and the sleeper.
We were not AAR at that time (trials were in progress) and I don't think the 500 pounders were fitted until a bit later either. My log book shows us slinging them at Garvie Island on May 28th.
We did two stints
23 Apr to 5 May & 19 Jun to 3 July
Lots of memories...going on the wazz after a black buck raid was pretty high up the list. I broke a rib falling of the balcony of the exiles club.
PS
ROEs at the time disclosed in a number of books but I'm not sure they have yet been officially released so I'll stay stum. Sufficit to say they were only applicable to argies. Usual rules for Sovs (as they were then) applied.
PPS
You might well ask why we stayed up for 8 hours............