Beautiful pictures, reminds me of the time I found a photo of my grandfather's battalion on the NW Frontier in the 1920s. Had to raise a smile when I realised we'd both been on ops in the same part of the world but almost a century apart.
However, I do feel the article would be more accurate if re titled 'How the RAF was once ready to face the Russians'. Today, I'd give us a day or 2 against them tops, assuming we ever managed to get anything airborne after a 'cyber first strike' or sabotage of key locations and installations.
Wonder what the equivalent photos in 50 years will be of - Management Board meetings, a pile of business cases and a large hangar with a couple of cannibalised airframes in the corner?