Runway fertiliser
It is a little known fact that short runways can benefit from applications of the old bulls blood.
RAF Bassingbourne early 1962, Gp Capt Clementi commanding - the Canberra OCU.
On the CO's direct instructions, all of the student aircrew were assembled on the runway in their greatcoats. I say all, but I know now that the older hands will have found other things to do. I was young and impressionable and did what I was told. Our job was to empty the stinky drums and spread big brown patches down the middle of the runway, from one end to the other.
It was clear to see where the product had been laid, as the rest of the runway was covered in deep snow. As far as I remember, nothing disturbed the material until the snow melted away. The experiment seems to have been a failure as the runway remained more or less 2000 yards long, until much later the army let someone take much of it away.
In the first three years of my commissioned service, I only wore the greatcoat one other time. Five of my fellow students, packed in a Mini returning from a frosty night in Cambridge, were hit broadside by a fast moving lorry. We all did our best at one or other of the consequent funerals.