RAF Germany tales of yore
 

Can anyone help?...What was the name of the plain in Germany where the air defenders capped (mast?) and there generally ensued a massive furball at low level during affil? It was a popular spot and planned sorties usually involved several uninvited guests (TOO;)) of various nations.

:ok: Peheim. Ich glaube. Friday lunchtimes. Brit F4s, burners off, smoke on, go. Easy meat.

Peheim mast in Area 1 comes to mind, plus Reken mast in Area 2 - happy days - 0800 take-off from Wilders in our 4-ship of F-4s, north at 500ft AGL over JHQ Rheindahlen, tap the burners to wake up the staff wallahs, then on to either Reken or Peheim for "Affil" as it was termed....

'Twas the Peheim mast in LFA 2, north east of Nordhorn Range. I only ever knew the plain as the North German Plain though.

Peheim mast
 

Thanks everyone...got mixed up, so long ago. To add to the nostalgia, MFF on the deck below 92 and 19 Sqn fourships just the other side of the ridge waiting to pounce on any stragglers not soaked up by the Sparrows...must stop now...tears welling up:O

Look what I found:

http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/r...ll/Peheim1.jpg

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/6537/f4ym5.jpg

A target rich environment. Happy days.

A place of fear and dread for your lowly "Hubschrauber" pilot !!

"Phantom at ten o'clock"
"Seen"
"Where are his bloody mates ??

Or if you really wanted to poo your pants -
"Starfighter at nine o'clock"
:D:D:D

The Southern weather alternate was in Area 7. Usually full of der Luftwaffe F4's, and Starfighters, USAFE F15's and 16's and Canuk F18's.

Happy Day's

3P:eek:

Starfighters
 

While on the subject of the most dreaded beast in the skys of Germany - thought this might amuse !!

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...ere/sure08.jpg

:ok:

Must be out hunting for Jaguar :p

You might want to explain that to those who do not know the story :ok:

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...5&pagenumber=3


Jag Splash

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At the time we used to do no notice aircraft generation exercises to show Ivan we were ready for him. Hooter blows and you have 12 hours to get 70% of your aircraft fully serviceable and armed. At endex we often flew them off in armed state and did practice intercepts.

As a safety break the circuit breaker for the trigger circuit was pulled (it sits in the back cockpit down where the navigators right calf may be. Of course you're not supposed to make the master arm live or select the weapon or pull the trigger either.

Mighty F4 traps unsuspecting Jag mate on recovery to Bruggen. Winds in behind him and the training takes over: master arm live, sidewinder selected, lovely loud growl in the headset (shows missile acquisition, and trigger pulled.

Woosh.... Fox 2 kill. Circuit breaker must have been wobbly 'cos the navigator maintains to this day it was out.

Court Martial gave them a mild slapping mainly because the regulations were in a shambles and the defence (think it was John Smith later leader of the Labour Party) said how could they be expected to work with such poor documentation.

Bottom line is you teach a man to be a fighter pilot don't be surprised when he acts like one!

The F4 later became the gate guard at Stornoway of all places!

They did Air to Air training in Germany and shot down a Jag many moons ago.......... see

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...5&pagenumber=3

25 May 82 - Phantom shot down Jaguar with AIM9 [Archive] - Key Publishing Ltd Aviation Forums

When Men were Men and boys were boys

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...Gee/F4HAS7.jpg

And the aircraft in question XV422 - Oscar:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...FORMATION1.jpg

On deploying the "rather large" number of vehicles to support Harrier Force .

We were getting ready for our packets to follow the enormous convoy streaming out of Gut. main gate.

From my oldest and probably wisest SNCO:

"Where's the piano"?

Oh where does one start? Sticking on the Toom theme, we Gutersloh types used to enjoy the odd F4 det from Wildenrath. Of course, once a year they would send a few aircraft up to take part in Bold Gauntlet, a gathering of numerous NATO AD types and a few transports simulating a Berlin airlift scenario - awesome parties. I also remember the F4 chap landing having lost his back-seater. There had been a rather close call between the F4 and a Canberra with the Pilot's Nag choosing to jump out.

Many, many wonderful memories (and a few tragic ones) from the 80's RAFG.

Unfortunately for the 92 sqn armourers the driver and nav forgot that they had done a walk round with white missiles on board and had signed for live loaded jet. The switches were marked as per local instructions.

I was on 14 at that time, the shot down driver was a JP going up with a QWI (gentleman of the first order - not a spoof but a proper good man) for a bit of chasing around the sky.

Waiting to turn round and re-bomb the 2 ship, saw 1 in circuit at the approximate time ...

Sqn tannoy "all grouncrew to the soft", the see off lineys were hoiked into WO & JEngOs office for a grilling before being told that the jet had been shot down by the toom.

Signal from Coningsby Missile site WO to Wildenrath site WO read along the lines of ' not going to APC this year, you won'.

Met the Nav some time later whilst doing orderly dog at Conigsgrad, after some 'where have you been before' talk conversation was somewhat stilted when we realised the link.

Still, enjoyed the beer for the seat working as advertised :)

I seem to recall the same JP splashing AA off scotland after a double engine fire a bit later. What did happen to him over time?

Just slightly off topic but still, I think,connectable - in the book "Seek and Strike" [a history of Bruggen] there is reference ,on pages 78 and 79 ,to some larger than life character identified only as Fg. Off. X who was thrown off 14 Sqdn. then 31 Sqdn. then,in turn returned to the UK where he ended up at Finningley. He was highly thought of there - took early retirement, went on the Krypton Factor. Unforgettable apparently.
The book contains much more amusing detail than I've shown.
Is he on these forums? Is he identifiable? What can he possibly be doing now?

When I was driving a desk at JHQ in the early 1970's the only disturbance was from RAF Wildenrath Harriers (noisy enough without the afterburners) and the occasional two-ship GAF F-104's flying low-level north from Nörvenich.

JHQ Rheindahlen in the early 1970's from my album.


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/JHQ2.jpg



http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...JHQCropped.jpg