V Bomber dispersal airfields after 1968
 

Gents,

A quick query on the V Force for you. Once it was stood down on the entry into service of Polaris, and adopted a tactical nuclear role, did the system of dispersal airfields remain in any form of practise or use?

In other words, in ttw measures, was it intended in the late 60s or early 70s that the Vulcans etc would go to the dispersal airfields as things warmed up, or were those plans scrapped with the end of the strategic role?

For those worried about OPSEC, the list of dispersal fields is well known and in the public domain!

Jimlad, when the deterrent was handed over to the RN only one thing changed. The V-force stood down from the QRA. We no longer mounted one aircraft per sqn at RS15.

In fact the perceived threat from the V-force increased significantly after 1968. Two sqns deployed to Akrotiri and forward dispersals in Iran and Pakistan increased the reach by thousands of miles. When we first deployed the peripheral SAM belt was quite thin east of the Black Sea. Post deployment there was a significant increase in SAM 2 and 3.

I spoke with a crew member from the Strike Wing and they had covered similar targets to the Bomber Wing but clearly the perceived threat was now greater.

I remember Vulcans arriving at Leeming on dispersal in April 1979.

Gents,

This is extremely helpful information- thank you for taking the time to post. I'd be particularly interested in whether Llanbedr, which was by then an RAE establishment, was still used in this way, particularly post 68. Also, whether any dispersals ever ocurred in RAF Chivenor, which wasnt a named location for them.

I have heard a connection with Vulcans and Llanbedr,but not certain.

Jimlad, Llanbedr was a Cottesmore dispersal. I can't recall if the Waddington Wing used it. Similarly Chivenor was used as a dispersal at some point.

The Vulcan's at Leeming in '79 were on a normal practice dispersal, were they not?

The Aircrew and Groundcrew practising removing the spiders and associated detritus from the dispersal caravans by the Crash Gate to Lawson's Cafe.

From my point of view, as the Runway Caravan Controller, the only excitement was The Scramble.

As the aircraft applied power, the ground shook, the Runway Caravan shook, I shook, my stomach shook. My breakfast was deposited on the grass adjacent to the Caravan, surprisingly the regurgitated best efforts of the Airmen's Mess shook..

Awesome.

Dispersal?
 

3 o`clock in the morning....Doorbell rings

Wifey goes down to answer it, she quickly returns & says

"There a bloke down there called Micky Finn - he says you have to go to work!"

10 o`clock ...I step out of a smelly vomit ridden Hastings to the beautiful sight of lots of water, loads of hills and some heather.

Midnight - all 4 AFs done, new chutes fitted and I`m staring at the dark waters of Cambletown Loch and my `heed` is thumping from the serious number of malts I`ve tried...:ooh:

Happy days!

..also "enjoyed" Brawdy, Filton and Bedford...but Macrihanish was the best....

Not just the Vulcan fleet. I can well remember a generation exercise at Marham in the early 80s when 55 dispersed to Kinloss. 4 x K2s complete with crewchiefs in the 6th. seat. The support groundcrew were driven from Marham to Kinloss in the old 32 seat blue grey coaches, not one of the happiest days.

Also used to get the most magnificent kippers there.

As far as I can remember it was a practice. I was a baby Dark Blue on the Bulldogs that were then based at Leeming - we went to Topcliffe every day.

The OC of the Vulcan det promised our course a beer if we'd attempt to infiltrate the dispersal area by the cafe. Unfortunately the det minibus was spotted entering the cafe car park and disgorging us so we were bubbled early on and soon in the bag.

How we laughed as we were chased and captured :}

Llanbedr was a nominated Victor dispersal in 1970

50(B) Sqn were frequent visitors to RAE Bedford in the early '80s.

I remember one exercise when the SEngO longed a thunder flash straight into the guard sangar on the roof whilst getting to throw it over the roof into the field beyond.

"Stay on the bus" was always the call on arrival at the Keysoe Road gate, as if we wanted to get off......

It always amazed me the way the Fox (now long shut) always managed to order extra beer just before you lot turned up at Bedford. :E

I was on the Waddington wing from 74 to 79 and my log book records dispersals to Conningsby, Bedford, Wyton and Wittering

Bedford Visitors
 

I was RAE Bedford from 79 to 83 and we had regular visits from the tin triangles but never the Victors

Ballykelly was a Cottesmore dispersal. I seem to remember not being able to react to a scramble message because a train was due to cross the main runway!

t7a, quite correct, in fact the Bomber Controller had the time table and provided the train was on time it would work.

Another feature was we had the only flush toilets on the airfield. With the low water table, they said, the resident sqns had Elsans.

One year we had the JSHTU - Hovercraft trials unit - they would hover taxi from the sea down behind our dispersal. They came barging towards us on the ORP and had to do a hurried air dump.

Then there was the strictest adherence to the Bomber Command 4-hour feeding cycle. We had a post-flight, then a high tea of ham and eggs, steak and chips in the mess, and a late supper of H&E when we got back from the bar.

The favourite steward was Jenkins who could do wonders in lighting the fire, laying the tables, and delivery the meals quickly in batches of 5. Like your favourite cew chief, Jenkins was the favourite steward. The others hated him :)

Was the V Bomber dispersal known as Operation Kinsman, or am I thinking about something else?

P6, Kinsman was indeed a dispersal exercise where crews allocated to a particular dispersal would exercise that dispersal. It was not part of a force generation exercise.

One we did was Ballykelly with 4 aircraft deploying in on a Monday and operatng out of there until Thursday when we flew home. Another notable one I recall was Pershore. We did a hi-lo-hi in and scraped in below fuel minimums after 5hr 45. We had never been there before but were committed to a straight in approach from overhead Cumberland; the skipper called visual about 50 miles out. The following day we did the same route cut short to 5hr 25.

We had the QRA caravans with individual bunk rooms. I remember getting up in the early morning light as dawn broke and looked in on our AEO the late Paddy Roache. All seemed well as Paddy was standing there half-in, half-out of his flying suit. A few minutes later when he hadn't arrived for breakfast I was sent to find him. He was tucked up in bed. He had been getting undressed!

Kinsman was a routine Restricted exercise although Peter Hennessey makes much of it in his book The Secret State. The nickname was later changed but I can't remember what it was called.

Op VISITATION.

Thankfully, long gone.

Now there is a nickname that it would be hard to work out :cool:

PN

Like a visit from the Mother in Law, but not quite so pleasant. Or maybe...............................

EX. INDEX was the name of the Strike Force Dispersal exercise we used to do in the late '70s.

Unfortunately our INDEX aerodrome was RAF Finningley - in those days a Learning Command base full of baby navigators and trainee rear crew. We usually had the night off before the 'fly off'. Supposedly to get some rest, it invariably meant invading the OM bar and returning much later. The next day one often felt distinctly shabby!

The bus was due to return us from the bus on one occasion, but the driver was nowhere to be seen. So OC35 decided to drive us back to Charlie dispersal himself, much to the consternation of the MTO. Fortunately he did so safely!

VISITATION was a Henessy misinterpretation - he looked at the name and thought it was the order to strike. In reality it was the helo evacuation from No10 to designated shelters.

Thanks Jimlad.

I should learn not to believe everything I read.

Kinsman became Candella

YS

YS, concur. That name rings a bell.

On Hennessey, much of the source work is done by PhD students. Having found Kinsman they didn't find Mick or Micky Finn. The Kinsman master opord of course listed, at restricted level, all the dispersal airfields (as addressees/friendly forces) for that year.

PS

I had to educate WOn of God's people about changing of codewords as she had put out an SRO saying that Kinsman was now Candella (or similar Opord) thus compromising the new codeword.

ST Mawgan played host to Vulcan in 80/81 ish.. I recall a particularly foggy night on the airfeild, when I met one coming down the taxiway in the opposite direction. Quick visit onto the grass in the Minivan saw us out of harms way - We'd taken a wrong turning at one of the runway crossing points. - Easily done in the dark and fog.
I seem to recall they were hooked up with some rubber things to comms posts along the Northern parallel taxiway,

Telescramble - aka Bomber Box. There would be a Bomber Box in the sqn dispersal, in ATC and probably in Ops as well. In the late 60s this was an 8-line output from Bomber/Strike Commands WW2 bunker and then split into two 4-set up the country with pairs into each dispersal. Coninuously live with regular (one minute IIRC) confidence pips.

A similar system, Telebrief, served the fighter airfields but this was from the SOCs.

The pedantic Answer to this Question (dispersal sites after 1968) is that after 30/6/69 there were none. Individual aircraft, maybe a Flight, did TDY.

The purpose of dispersal was to give PM the option not to First Strike (precisely: First Launch, capable of recall) as the Threat worsened, but to Second Strike, Launch on Warning. Fylingdales BMEWS was live from 17/9/63; Clear and Thule had been up since 10/61 but of modest comfort to UK. Nonetheless Bomber Command stood QRA, 1 aircraft per squadron, 24/7, from 1/4/62. Previous dispersal Exercises worked to a presumed 15 mins. Warning, detection of aircraft Threat. Soviet IRBMs precipitated <4 minute Q.

Operational Readiness Platforms to generate 2 or 4 aircraft 2-3 minutes' Q from 9 Main Bases and 27 dispersals were built to Fylingdales' schedule, initiated by 2/62, done largely in 1963 (Wynn.P.306; P.339 has Waddo's completed 2/63. Posters here doubt some planned ORPs - Bruntingthorpe, Elvington, Prestwick, Stansted). PPRuNers noted (most of) these 27 sites and others, but did not separate Away Day Detached Duty from Q/ORP sites. There was no large scale, armed dispersal before 1/4/62 because:
- aircraft did not sit away from Main Base with live British weapons prior to Yellow Sun Mk.2 (see Brian Burnell's site: learn of chicken feathers and ball bearings); and:
- US weapons remained under US custody. So neither RAFG/Canberra B(I)6/8, standing Q 15/9/60-6/6/72, nor TBF Valiant, Q 10/10/60-26/1/65, could disperse.

Hennessy/Secret State,P.201 has PM valiantly holding Alert 3, on Main Bases, not moving to dispersal...but he did not have the option to disperse because: Marham Valiant/Mk.28 were for Saceur, not him, to Task; his 16 Victor 1/Yellow Sun Mk.1 could not disperse; and for his 16 Victor 1/, 24 Vulcan 1/ and 8 Vulcan 2/YS Mk.2 on 3 Main Bases, there was nowhere to go fit to Launch on Warning. If he were to Launch on Command, use them or lose them, he would give Bomber Command the time needed to do so from Main Base.

Q+dispersal applied thus (derived from Wynn):
Honington Victor 1: 1/5/62-6/11/65, and Cottesmore Victor 1: early-63 - 9/64 (though whether 16 Sapphires could be up and at 'em in 4 mins. is unclear);
Coningsby Vulcan 2: early-63 - 11/64 (Wynn lauds the later responsiveness of Olympus 301, so whether 16 Olympus 201...&tc); Wing to:
Cottesmore Vulcan 2: 11/64-2/69;
Waddington Vulcan 1: 1/4/62- mid-67 (though whether 16 Olympus 101...&tc); Wing to:
Waddington Vulcan 2: 9/66- 30/6/69 (Strike Command Q stand down);
Scampton Vulcan 2/Blue Steel: (inert, from 28/3/63; wet: ) 7/64-30/6/69;
Wittering Victor 2/Blue Steel: (inert, from 24/10/63; 1963; wet: ) 7/64-31/12/68. PPRuNer PN has this combo's readiness as "lame".

Waddington Wing operated Vulcan 2/WE177B 9/66-21/12/82, Scampton Wing, 1/1/70-28/2/82. PPRruNers have Waddington's dispersals as BAC Filton, Leuchars, Machrihanish, Manston, Wattisham; Scampton's as RAE Bedford, RNAS Brawdy and Lossiemouth, Kinloss, Leeming. What they did not do after 30/6/69 was disperse on Q.

Tornodoken, comprehensive. The only thing I would say is that the V-force never dispersed on Q. Did you mean they never did a Micky Finn after 1969?

Prestwick was used as a dispersal; I seem to recaall vaguely it was a Cottesmore one. Elvingdon IIRC was a Scamton one.

You say why MacMillan never disperse the force in 1963. Do you have any info on the ring of steel? Bloodhound 1 sites around the bomber bases?

I know Woolfox Lodge covered Cottesmore and Wittering to the west, Woodhall Spa covered Coningsby and to some extent Waddington. There was one at Marham and also West Rainham. Where were the rest? North Coates? Was Catfoss? Haxey?

What was the effective range of a BH1?

Exercise Dispersals
 

Tornadoken,
Two points:
1.Vulcan 200 and 300 series aircraft engines had no appreciable difference in light up and go times. On a practice scramble the aircraft were almost sure to be mixed.
2.In the seventies Wittering was used by Scampton, and Wyton by Waddington in addition to those you listed - source : my logbook.

Paddy Roach AEO
 

I remember Paddy from 360 at Cott and Wyton, lovely man

I can remember going to Gaydon and Valley when I was at Waddington 69-70 when the Vulcan dispersed!

Catfoss
 

Catfoss had Thor. I haven't seen anything that suggests BH was ever based there.

DA, I only mentioned Catfoss as it was a regular low level target, along with North Coates, for Air Defence exercises.

PN; 247 Sqn at nearby Carnaby had BH until disbandment at the end of 1963.

Bloodhound Mk1 orbat
 

My understanding is that the Bloodhound Mk1 orbat (ISD 59-64/65) was 4 Wings:

21 Wg HQ Lindholme- 94Sqn Misson, 112 Sqn Breighton, 247 Sqn Carnaby

24 Wg HQ Watton- 242 Sqn Marham, 263 Sqn Watton, 266 Sqn Rattlesden

148 Wg HQ North Coates- 141 Sqn Dunholme Lodge, 222 Sqn Woodhall Spa, 264 Sqn North Coates (+ Service Trials Unit)

151 Wg HQ North Luffenham- 67 Sqn Woolfox Lodge, 237 Sqn Warboys

Also trials firing unit at Aberporth & training site at Newton. Some firings also at Woomera.

Bloodhound Mk2 started to be introduced in late 63 (North Coates trials unit) & ISDs 64/65 onwards. OSD 93.

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