This photo has been the subject of a couple of threads in the past.
I was a member of the bombing up team that loaded these bombs. It was only the second time it had been attempted, the first was on initial trials. Being the RAF we had to have a few practice loads with inert bombs as nobody had loaded bomb carriers on the front 2 bomb stations before.The long range tank usually occupied that position.We were told that the 35 bombs had been in the Butterworth Bomb Dump since WW2 and were approaching their use by date.
The bombs were dropped by XH 648, a B1a belonging to 15 Sqn, on the Song Song Bombing Range off Penang Island. The photo was taken by a
PR Canberra from Tengah which flew alongside.As I understand it the photo is a still shot from a film of the drop.The Range Safety Officer, an RAAF Sabre pilot, is reported as saying "I'm outta here " when told what was happening.
A couple of days afterwards the Armament Officer showed us the subject photo but because it had been designated Secret we could not have a copy. It was years before it was released.
XH 648 was one of 4 Victors from RAF Cottesmore which, together with 4 from RAF Honnington,were rushed out to RAF Tengah the week before Christmas 1963.All 8 Victors were lined up on the apron and the press invited to a photo shoot which resulted in front page coverage in the Straits Times together with a warning to Indonesia. In the New Year the Cottesmore contingent, having waved the big stick, was moved to RAAF Butterworth. In March the ground crew were flown back to Cottesmore in a British Eagle Brittania which they had just purchased from BOAC. Having been in the Air Movements bar waiting for it to arrive we all gave it a B/F Insp and were not impressed. 3 weeks later the Brittania crashed, with the loss of all souls, on approach to Innsbruck.