phil9560 wrote:
Wasn't the Station Commander at Valley upset by something similar?
Ah yes.
I was a student on a Gnat course in 1975. The Stn Cdr, known for some reason as 'Tojo', could be somewhat irascible; the only time he ever spoke to me during my time at Valley was to chew me out for overstressing a Hunter - not unreasonably, I would have to say. The bollocking, that is.
Anyway, we would often have lectures from front-line crews who flew down to Valley for the purpose. One sunny day we were told to be in the ante-room at 16:00 for a brief on the Buccaneer. The WIWOLs, who made up most of the staff in those days, didn't think much of their students being told to attend a 'bomber' briefing, but Tojo had given his orders and we had to go.
The first part was fair enough, but then the navigator gave his spiel. Unusually for the Bucc force, this was dull in the extreme. He droned on about the various attack options and attempted to explain the difference between bunt retard and DSL attacks....the room was hot and stuffy....the chairs were comfy....and eyelids were definitely beginning to droop.
Suddenly there was an almighty 'whoomp' followed by 3 more which shook the mess and woke everyone. It was 4 x Lightning F2As 'saying good-bye' as they headed back to Germany after MPC. Tojo was up on his feet, purple-faced with anger as he stumped out of the room to find a phone - he got through to his oppo at Gutersloh and ensured that a suitable reception committee would be waiting for the Lightning mates.
I'm sure the beat-up was arranged by a phonecall to STCAAME by one of the QFI WIWOLs; we thought it was brilliant and it certainly livened up the dull brief we'd been enduring!
However, a couple of years later a similar Lightning stream departure had even more spectacular results when no.4 in the stream dropped a low-level boom on Caergolliwg...
