Update HM Coastguard SAR Unit 1971 to 1974
As the former chief engineer of the unit throughout its entirety, I can update/correct on a previous posting. We positioned at Manston from Redhill in May 1971 for a work up period prior to start of contract on 1 June 1971. Our 'patch' was Beachy Head to Clacton, overlaps being with RAF Coltishall and RAF Thorney Island. The trial period was successful and extensions were granted until, for political reasons (change of Government from Tory to Labour), came to an end on 30 Sep 1974. There were quite a number of hurdles to overcome. One major one was that the RAF was not particularly supportive of a civilian SAR unit (station C.O. to be precise) & would not give us priority for fuel, even though we were SAR, so BHL bought a 2nd hand bowser that we refuelled from and that, in turn was refuelled by the station bowser. The caption under the Wreck Shield photo was written by me. Award was for the most meritorious rescue in 1972, rescuing 3 fishermen under a capsized dinghy. We successfully trialled the first thermal imaging for offshore SAR. Our serviceability averaged 96%, vastly better than the RAF's 75% before us. A new ops room was built to our specification. Average take off time was 72 seconds after the scramble klaxon sounded. The a/c itself and its SAR equipment level differed considerably from its RAF/Navy counterparts to provide improved survivability for casualties and crew alike. Engineering crew comprised 4. The RAF returned with 2 Wessex Sep '74 with 25 technicians. At least 4 of the personnel shown in 2 of the photos have passed away. That's not surprising given that it's over 40 years ago. An irony is that the withdrawal of 22 Squadron's a/c in in 1969 was to go to Libya where a certain Col Gadaffi was staging a military coup. Manston set the bench mark for civilian SAR (we were all ex military anyway) and paved the way for BHL's expansion into a national service on behalf of the MCA.