For those of the former MPA persuasion...
Thread Starter
For those of the former MPA persuasion...
.....tonight at 9PM on Beeb 2 "The Silent War" part 1 of two "Know your enemy".
Seeing our tale from the other side.
The Ancient Mariner
Seeing our tale from the other side.
The Ancient Mariner
Extremely interesting programme - well worth watching. If you missed it, try to catch it on BBC iPlayer.
When I think that we weren't even allowed to breathe the term 'SOSUS' at RAF Brawdy in the mid-'70s, or to ask what the humourless people at the 'NAVFAC' actually did, it's still a surprise to hear it discussed so openly on TV.
When I think that we weren't even allowed to breathe the term 'SOSUS' at RAF Brawdy in the mid-'70s, or to ask what the humourless people at the 'NAVFAC' actually did, it's still a surprise to hear it discussed so openly on TV.
Thread Starter
Being discreet....
.....wot Beagle sed.
About the same time as he was at Brawdy I was at St Mawgan. I and all my squadron mates watched in utter disbelief the documentary by Tom Mangold called "The Deep Cold War". It included shots of a Nimrod crew as they tracked a soviet nuc, inside the Ops room at Andoya where on the wall charts you could if you knew see the location of the sensors, and interviews with Mr SACLANT (one admiral Ike Kidd) who was very forthright.
We were not supposed to talk about any of this outside a windowless room in the middle of STM Ops block on pain of death, and as OC that little unit was a black belt in TaeKwonDo it would have been a tad painful. A Sqn Ldr lost his job for talking unguardedly.
And here it was all over the Beeb!! WTF over.
I was living in my own house then and of course all my neighbours were asking "Is that what you do when you go flying at all odd hours?"
"Er ,er, no comment"
It was a very strange time and I can only assume that it was opened up for propaganda purposes, or, because they already had a better system in place.
Who knows? Sure as shot I didn't.
The Ancient Mariner
About the same time as he was at Brawdy I was at St Mawgan. I and all my squadron mates watched in utter disbelief the documentary by Tom Mangold called "The Deep Cold War". It included shots of a Nimrod crew as they tracked a soviet nuc, inside the Ops room at Andoya where on the wall charts you could if you knew see the location of the sensors, and interviews with Mr SACLANT (one admiral Ike Kidd) who was very forthright.
We were not supposed to talk about any of this outside a windowless room in the middle of STM Ops block on pain of death, and as OC that little unit was a black belt in TaeKwonDo it would have been a tad painful. A Sqn Ldr lost his job for talking unguardedly.
And here it was all over the Beeb!! WTF over.
I was living in my own house then and of course all my neighbours were asking "Is that what you do when you go flying at all odd hours?"
"Er ,er, no comment"
It was a very strange time and I can only assume that it was opened up for propaganda purposes, or, because they already had a better system in place.
Who knows? Sure as shot I didn't.
The Ancient Mariner
When I arrived at a secret base in Cornwall to do my first operational conversion, we were advised to watch
available in the Unit's video (remember them?) library.
And also to read "Hunt for the Red October" by Tom Clancy as the two best introductions, at an unclassified level
, that were available to us students. It certainly saved signing all those classified documents out from the registry.
the documentary by Tom Mangold called "The Deep Cold War".
And also to read "Hunt for the Red October" by Tom Clancy as the two best introductions, at an unclassified level
, that were available to us students. It certainly saved signing all those classified documents out from the registry.
Not long after I'd had a (second!) occasion to punch off 2 x 230 gall drop tanks from my Hunter, I was having lunch with a colleague in the OM at RAF Brawdy when we were joined by a couple of spooks from the 'biscuit factory' (as we called the US NAVFAC - which was commanded by a Capt Jacobs).
"Hope he didn't blow your ears off when he dropped his tanks in the bay the other day?", quipped my colleague.
At which the spooks simply got up and walked away....
"Hope he didn't blow your ears off when he dropped his tanks in the bay the other day?", quipped my colleague.
At which the spooks simply got up and walked away....
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There is a lot of drivel on TV at the moment but I must say that documentary was by far one of the best programmes I have seen in a very long time. A credit to the BBC and the RN Submarine Service. I look forward to part 2.
The USN at Brawdy were most unamusing company as BEagle rightly said. I was chatting over a beer with a Lt Cdr one eveining and when I asked her what she did, she told me she couldn't answer that. "So, it's nothing to do with you guys having a line of sonars from Greenland to here then?"; "I can't answer that"; a pause and "where did you hear such a rumour out of interest?". "A bloke down the pub in Haverfordwest". No sense of humour and she then had the impertinence to decline my subsequent invitation, despite me plying her with orange juice all evening... Ho hum, thank heavens for Minnies
not caught the tv show yet but if you interested in the subject - I can recommend heartily the book "Blinds Man's Buff"
- top read and real life testimony from both sides.
...she then had the impertinence to decline my subsequent invitation...
Even Air Engineers*!
*(Except, of course, 'Moulinex'....
)
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"Dangerous and Risky"
A brilliant documentary, which reminded me of the comedy film "Down Periscope" with Kelsey Grammer (Frazier) and Lauren Holly when she asked, how will we evade the chasing subhunters - "We'll go right under the tanker between the propellers".
Cut to what I thought were ridiculous graphics of a sub within metres of 30' tanker props, in your dreams thought I. The turbulence would get you chopped up like salami.
I take it back, the pictures of the Kiev props apparently taken from 90 degrees to the side, (if that's what they were) take one's breath away.
Hat's off, that is immense skill and confidence, from someone who has been skippering small boats and yachts for more than 30 years.
Imagegear
Cut to what I thought were ridiculous graphics of a sub within metres of 30' tanker props, in your dreams thought I. The turbulence would get you chopped up like salami.
I take it back, the pictures of the Kiev props apparently taken from 90 degrees to the side, (if that's what they were) take one's breath away.
Hat's off, that is immense skill and confidence, from someone who has been skippering small boats and yachts for more than 30 years.
Imagegear
BEagle,
When one had been in the colony for 3 months and the offerings of the local female had been appropriately dismissed, there was little option. Plus I'd been on a month of orderly officer duty and was desparate - she was ginger as well!
When one had been in the colony for 3 months and the offerings of the local female had been appropriately dismissed, there was little option. Plus I'd been on a month of orderly officer duty and was desparate - she was ginger as well!
....she was ginger as well!
Either you're referring to colour of hair or, if using the Cockney vernacular, implying that you were offering to 'cure' her
???
Stayed in the Sergeants mess for a week in 1980, Petty Officers et al, really good guys, sank an awful lot of beer with them.
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Small world.
A couple of years ago I was chatting with a retired Naval scientist and when I mentioned my Nimrod experience he asked me if I'd heard of SOSUS and I said that at one time we'd done a couple of flights dropping explosive charges into the North Atlantic for calibration purposes. "Ah" he said " I was the bloke on the other end listening"!
A couple of years ago I was chatting with a retired Naval scientist and when I mentioned my Nimrod experience he asked me if I'd heard of SOSUS and I said that at one time we'd done a couple of flights dropping explosive charges into the North Atlantic for calibration purposes. "Ah" he said " I was the bloke on the other end listening"!
Thread Starter
Ah yes the calibration flights...
.....my one was from Keflavik to Gib in a straight line at 100feet dropping one charge every half a mile starting half a mile off shore of Iceland. The Shack was absolutely stuffed with card board boxes of charges, hardly any room to move. As the boxes were emptied we ripped the boxes up and threw them out the beam windows.
The REALLY critical job was the nav and timing - I think we had a spare nav. We also had a second LORAN A set. No such thing as INAS in those days.
The guy who devised the nav procedures was given an American award for the outstanding quality of the output of his procedure. He is still with us in body but suffers from dementia - a sad affliction to all those who know and respect his ability.
The Ancient Mariner
The REALLY critical job was the nav and timing - I think we had a spare nav. We also had a second LORAN A set. No such thing as INAS in those days.
The guy who devised the nav procedures was given an American award for the outstanding quality of the output of his procedure. He is still with us in body but suffers from dementia - a sad affliction to all those who know and respect his ability.
The Ancient Mariner
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Interesting documentary but, as usual with this type of programme, rather over stating actual capabilities.... otherwise it would have been so easy, wouldn't it?
The British sub that hit the 'iceberg' was most likely Warspite, Sandy Woodward took over command of the boat about a year after she was repaired and found most of the crew on board who had been on the boat at the time were still suffering from Post Dramatic Stress to some degree. (The incident was so bad that 1/4 of the crew who were on the boat at the time of the incident banged out of the submarine service as soon as she made it back to base). The story is mentioned in the second chapter of "One Hundred Days".