Originally Posted by
Chris Royle
Some more from a friend who is a Hunter expert and who grew up within the Chivenor circuit.
I remember that Hunter! It was delivered to Chiv by road from Devizes in Wiltshire, where it had been outside an ATC Sqn hut for several years. Presumably they lost it when its condition deteriorated and it was issued to the firemen at Chivenor. It didn't go onto the fire dump straight away but was parked outside the main hangars for a while, where the enquirer saw it. Serial was WV323 (one number away from the Hunter that I had a ride in) an F4 (straight leading edge). Note also absence of ejector seat....understandably.
Some more from this web site
WV323 Hawker Hunter F4 f/f 08/06/1955, d/d 28/06/1955, to 7686M, perished Chivenor dump
Do you have any more photos of Hunters at Chivenor?
Ah, that explains it. You can just about discern the F4's straight leading edge if you look at the photo closely, I missed that.
From Jimmy Beedle's book, it would appear that WV323 served only briefly with 43 Squadron as "G", from February 1957 to March 1958 (they had already started receiving F6s by the end of 56).
It then, according to MAR, went via 5 MU as 7686M to Melksham (ATC?) in January 1961, and then to 2397 ATC Sqn, Devizes during 1963 and on to Chivenor in October 1969.