V Force Operational Readiness Platforms?
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
From RAF Nuclear Detterent Forces, Chpt XXX.
From the beginning of 1966 the number of dispersal airfields had been reduced. The Waddington based Vulcans (free-fall B.1As/B.2s) used Finningley and Mariam as near dispersal and Wattisham, Fulton, Macrahanish, Manston, Valley and Brandy as distant ones. Scampton’s Blue Steel B.2s used Coningsby and Bedford as near dispersals and Kinross, Lossiemouth and Boscombe Down as distant ones. Cottesmore’s free-fall Vulcan B.2s used Honnington and Leconfield as near dispersals and Pershore, Leuchars, Lyneham, Yeovilton, Ballykelly and Leeming as distant ones..... Whilst Wittering’s two Victor B.2 squadrons used Gaydon, Wyton and Coltishall as near dispersals and St. Mawgan as a distant one. The former dispersals given up by Bomber Command in 1966 were Middleton St. George, Cranwell, Prestwick, Llanbedr, Burtonwood, Bruntingthorpe and Elvington.
From the beginning of 1966 the number of dispersal airfields had been reduced. The Waddington based Vulcans (free-fall B.1As/B.2s) used Finningley and Mariam as near dispersal and Wattisham, Fulton, Macrahanish, Manston, Valley and Brandy as distant ones. Scampton’s Blue Steel B.2s used Coningsby and Bedford as near dispersals and Kinross, Lossiemouth and Boscombe Down as distant ones. Cottesmore’s free-fall Vulcan B.2s used Honnington and Leconfield as near dispersals and Pershore, Leuchars, Lyneham, Yeovilton, Ballykelly and Leeming as distant ones..... Whilst Wittering’s two Victor B.2 squadrons used Gaydon, Wyton and Coltishall as near dispersals and St. Mawgan as a distant one. The former dispersals given up by Bomber Command in 1966 were Middleton St. George, Cranwell, Prestwick, Llanbedr, Burtonwood, Bruntingthorpe and Elvington.
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From RAF Nuclear Detterent Forces, Chpt XXX.
From the beginning of 1966 the number of dispersal airfields had been reduced. The Waddington based Vulcans (free-fall B.1As/B.2s) used Finningley and Mariam as near dispersal and Wattisham, Fulton, Macrahanish, Manston, Valley and Brandy as distant ones. Scampton’s Blue Steel B.2s used Coningsby and Bedford as near dispersals and Kinross, Lossiemouth and Boscombe Down as distant ones. Cottesmore’s free-fall Vulcan B.2s used Honnington and Leconfield as near dispersals and Pershore, Leuchars, Lyneham, Yeovilton, Ballykelly and Leeming as distant ones..... Whilst Wittering’s two Victor B.2 squadrons used Gaydon, Wyton and Coltishall as near dispersals and St. Mawgan as a distant one. The former dispersals given up by Bomber Command in 1966 were Middleton St. George, Cranwell, Prestwick, Llanbedr, Burtonwood, Bruntingthorpe and Elvington.
From the beginning of 1966 the number of dispersal airfields had been reduced. The Waddington based Vulcans (free-fall B.1As/B.2s) used Finningley and Mariam as near dispersal and Wattisham, Fulton, Macrahanish, Manston, Valley and Brandy as distant ones. Scampton’s Blue Steel B.2s used Coningsby and Bedford as near dispersals and Kinross, Lossiemouth and Boscombe Down as distant ones. Cottesmore’s free-fall Vulcan B.2s used Honnington and Leconfield as near dispersals and Pershore, Leuchars, Lyneham, Yeovilton, Ballykelly and Leeming as distant ones..... Whilst Wittering’s two Victor B.2 squadrons used Gaydon, Wyton and Coltishall as near dispersals and St. Mawgan as a distant one. The former dispersals given up by Bomber Command in 1966 were Middleton St. George, Cranwell, Prestwick, Llanbedr, Burtonwood, Bruntingthorpe and Elvington.
From RAF Nuclear Detterent Forces, Chpt XXX.
From the beginning of 1966 the number of dispersal airfields had been reduced. The Waddington based Vulcans (free-fall B.1As/B.2s) used Finningley and Mariam as near dispersal and Wattisham, Fulton, Macrahanish, Manston, Valley and Brandy as distant ones. Scampton’s Blue Steel B.2s used Coningsby and Bedford as near dispersals and Kinross, Lossiemouth and Boscombe Down as distant ones. Cottesmore’s free-fall Vulcan B.2s used Honnington and Leconfield as near dispersals and Pershore, Leuchars, Lyneham, Yeovilton, Ballykelly and Leeming as distant ones..... Whilst Wittering’s two Victor B.2 squadrons used Gaydon, Wyton and Coltishall as near dispersals and St. Mawgan as a distant one. The former dispersals given up by Bomber Command in 1966 were Middleton St. George, Cranwell, Prestwick, Llanbedr, Burtonwood, Bruntingthorpe and Elvington.
From the beginning of 1966 the number of dispersal airfields had been reduced. The Waddington based Vulcans (free-fall B.1As/B.2s) used Finningley and Mariam as near dispersal and Wattisham, Fulton, Macrahanish, Manston, Valley and Brandy as distant ones. Scampton’s Blue Steel B.2s used Coningsby and Bedford as near dispersals and Kinross, Lossiemouth and Boscombe Down as distant ones. Cottesmore’s free-fall Vulcan B.2s used Honnington and Leconfield as near dispersals and Pershore, Leuchars, Lyneham, Yeovilton, Ballykelly and Leeming as distant ones..... Whilst Wittering’s two Victor B.2 squadrons used Gaydon, Wyton and Coltishall as near dispersals and St. Mawgan as a distant one. The former dispersals given up by Bomber Command in 1966 were Middleton St. George, Cranwell, Prestwick, Llanbedr, Burtonwood, Bruntingthorpe and Elvington.
Interestingly, some of the dispersal airfields relinquished by Bomber Command in 1966 were utilised by USAFE as dispersal locations for F4s under Operation Finch. This task ceased circa 1971 and AFAIK was only exercised on a limted number of occasions. This could indicate that it was a secondary or alternate plan in the event of primary locations becoming unusable.
YS
YS
Last edited by Yellow Sun; 19th Feb 2018 at 13:12.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Typed. on iPad in bed at o’dark hundred bleary eyed (and with bl**dy predictive text having to go back when noticed.
Retires hurt to sulk in corner and swear never to get out of warm bed to fetch book to try and help again......
Retires hurt to sulk in corner and swear never to get out of warm bed to fetch book to try and help again......
Ahh don’t be like that.
It’s an interesting article nonetheless, with a few predictive text bloomers which happen all the time. My first sentence came out as, Ahh don’t be. IKEA that, FFS!
And I do like the sound of RAF Brandy and RAF Mariam
It’s an interesting article nonetheless, with a few predictive text bloomers which happen all the time. My first sentence came out as, Ahh don’t be. IKEA that, FFS!
And I do like the sound of RAF Brandy and RAF Mariam
Waddo did at least one deployment to Bedford (Thurleigh) with the B1As. I know for certain because...
1. I went
2. I got a lift to the site on a tow tug (Tugmaster Sentinel?) all the way down the A1 - biggest open top sports car in the world...great experience. Elfin Sayfty? What Elfin Sayfty?
3. My brother was OC Aero Flt at RAE Bedford at the time, so I was able to visit him in my downtime
1. I went
2. I got a lift to the site on a tow tug (Tugmaster Sentinel?) all the way down the A1 - biggest open top sports car in the world...great experience. Elfin Sayfty? What Elfin Sayfty?
3. My brother was OC Aero Flt at RAE Bedford at the time, so I was able to visit him in my downtime
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Am baffled by why folks don't just disable predictive as it is far more trouble than it is worth. Has been disabled on my phone, I-Pad and everything else since the day I got the devices. Switch the bl**dy thing off!!
Predictive text or planned obfuscation
And there was me getting all excited about the curtain being lifted on the mysterious world of the obfuscated names for those 'sensitive' dispersal locations.
Heartbroken to find that it was just the machinations of the evil ones who write the software on our newfangled typing boxes.
Heartbroken to find that it was just the machinations of the evil ones who write the software on our newfangled typing boxes.
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"This is the Bummer Controller, for StrikeList A2c. Scramble to 3Yh2V."
Is that better?
Is that better?
The 4 dispersals I had the pleasure of visiting with Micky F (see earlier) were Thurleigh; Macrihanish, Brawdy and Filton. A quick look at the latest google maps shows that evidence of additional work still exists. however filton is not entirely clear. I cant remember where the jets were parked there - we were billeted in the old wartime RAF huts long since gone.
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The Waddington QRA was, as said earlier, on Alpha dispersal where the E3s now live. Before it was completely concreted over for the E3s, Alpha was not, like all the other dispersals an 'H' layout, more of a double '8'. Ground crew were based in a couple of huts near Alpha 1, under the care of Flt. Sgt. "Midge" Midgeley in my time. We had a workshop/office and next door a TV lounge and Games room with snooker and ping-pong tables. There was no kitchen - we split teams and ate at the airmen's mess - a mad scramble, with much scattering of food and utensils if the tannoy erupted with the "Exercise Edom...." call - and we would roar through the station back to QRA as fast as an RAF Land Rover could manage. [Negotiating a tight corner at 70 mph in a Land Rover makes an interesting experience]. One's crew partner would meanwhile have got the bungs & blanks off by himself, cursing his luck - by the time the exercise was over and the aircraft back on the pan and serviced, the mess would be closed. The on-duty team were crewed two to an aircraft plus one driver and a Corporal I/C and we slept in caravans parked behind our huts. A tour on QRA lasted one month, 48 hours on and 48 hours off with Line Servicing Squadron 'A' and 'B' Flights alternating the two day intervals. Daily routine was performing the daily checks after breakfast, with the occasional 'Combats' and bombing up when an aircraft was rotated. The rest of the day we were 'hanging slack', playing snooker, cleaning the premises, reading or watching TV. Consequently, QRA was popular with Singlies, but not so for Scalies who were stuck on station with no contact with their families for two days at a time. There were four aircraft, each of three manned by a crew from each squadron and a spare in case of a hard failure of any of the three. All four were held 'Live'.
On a Micky Finn our domestic arrangements could be pretty terrible. RAF Valley was one of the worst - there was a dispersal area near the beach with a dormitory and a couple of WW2 barrack huts. These had been vandalised with windows broken, no working heating and smelled of urine. The only place to bed down was in the hut at the Two-ship ORP. After a 12 hour stint at Waddington, followed by a flight to Valley in a Beverley then 36 hours of continuous duty with no bed rest I was so knackered I fell asleep at the Ground Power Unit during the scramble - standing up, fifty feet from a pair of Vulcans running up to full chat!
Such was life on the Cold War front line in the late sixties. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.
On a Micky Finn our domestic arrangements could be pretty terrible. RAF Valley was one of the worst - there was a dispersal area near the beach with a dormitory and a couple of WW2 barrack huts. These had been vandalised with windows broken, no working heating and smelled of urine. The only place to bed down was in the hut at the Two-ship ORP. After a 12 hour stint at Waddington, followed by a flight to Valley in a Beverley then 36 hours of continuous duty with no bed rest I was so knackered I fell asleep at the Ground Power Unit during the scramble - standing up, fifty feet from a pair of Vulcans running up to full chat!
Such was life on the Cold War front line in the late sixties. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.
The 4 dispersals I had the pleasure of visiting with Micky F (see earlier) were Thurleigh; Macrihanish, Brawdy and Filton. A quick look at the latest google maps shows that evidence of additional work still exists. however filton is not entirely clear. I cant remember where the jets were parked there - we were billeted in the old wartime RAF huts long since gone. there still appears to be a teardrop shaped hardstanding near western end which could probably take up to 4 vulcans.
Brawdy shows 2 slots, Macrihanish 2 and Thurleigh 4.
Brawdy shows 2 slots, Macrihanish 2 and Thurleigh 4.