Happened to be at Gut on EX. BOLD GAUNTLET back in 1982. This was a pretty dull exercise which involved us in our F-4s, the French with their Mirages and the Spams with F-15s escorting either a C-130 or C-160 up an imaginary north/south 'passageway' (don't mention corridor!) looking out for the odd F-16 or Hunter T8 bounce.

But there was also the chance of the odd LLOLPIs trip. By a remarkable stroke of fate, I was programmed for one such trip on the 40th anniversary of the Dams raid. The other jet went TU on start, so we went off for a low level navex instead. Then heard that the other jet was now serviceable and would meet us somewhere en route.

After wazzing the Nurgburgring, we carried on around the route and happened upon the Edersee. Around which I'd paddled in a canoe during King Rock in 1969. So it had to be done; round the castle and across the lake, noting that the locals were 'waving' from various vantage points. So much fun that we did it again, then set off to intercept the other jet inbound. After joining up, I asked him if he'd ever 'done' the Eder; when he said he hadn't, we did it as a pair. Then back to Gut.

Chatting about this after landing, we were overheard by the SNavO who looked rather pale. "Don't you know you're not allowed to fly low level over the Eder?", he queried. "Nope", I replied, "anyway we were up at 250 ft!". After a few more "We'll be in the $hit over this" mutterings, he buggered off.....

"Good job we didn't tell him about the Moenhe on the way home", I said to my friendly nav....:hmm:

Funnily enough, no-one ever complained.

Happy times!

:D:D:D

I suspect the Dams boys would be proud. I know the BoB boys I've met were that we still 'bent' the rules occasionally.

At the 50th, I was the co-pilot on the BBMF Devon which we'd used to ferry the Chaplain-in-Chief up. As we lined up for the short hop to Coningsby, the Captain said "we'll just wait". It was a perfect evening, and we had a very thoughtful and silent 3 minutes or so, sitting in leather seats with the noise of props and piston engines, thinking about the men who'd left 50 years earlier. We rolled at 28 minutes past, as the first Lancaster had (though 2 hours earlier as we weren't cleared for night flying); a kind of tribute.

A Puma couldnt do 220mph sadly :E

Kiwibrit & Jobza Guddun:



Both squadrons have always laid claim to sinking the Turpitz, but 617 sqn led the raid:

All three RAF attacks on the Tirpitz were led by WingCommander JB "Willy" Tait, who had succeeded Wing Commander Leonard Cheshire as CO of No. 617 Squadron in July 1944.

IIRC the photo evidence wasn't definitive on the Turpitz - but she'd been badly damaged in an earlier raid and probably wasn't fit for sea when she was sunk

I don't think either venerable Sqn 'sank' the Tirpitz. She capsized as a result of the bombing raid but the hull never went underwater, so technically she couldn't have been 'sunk'. Sinking of the Battleship Tirpitz shows her being scrapped after the war.

The Lancaster most certainly did return to Germany.
When I was at Laarbruch 80-83, there was a birthday celebration for the junior Bucc sqn...XV who at the time claimed to be one of the oldest if not the eldest squadron having roots before 1915.
No-one really cared in those days of multitudes of stations and aircraft. Inter squadron rivalry was important, especially in those heady days twixt XV and The Saints.
For XVs big birthday bash, they had a Victor (which were previously flown) lots of flying from RAFG Buccs, Phantoms and a GR3 which took off on the taxiway outside the sqn site. But the star was the Lancaster ( also previously flown during the war) on the ground and in the air. It came across from UK with a 125, that may have belonged to 32, for navigation purposes and was the first time a Lancaster had been back. Apparently the sound evoked memories from within Holland and Germany!
I do have some grainy colour photos of the occasion which I should really "modernise"

To true Motelycallsign, two bombs (Tallboys)went straight through the deck, but the one that did the damage, was a near miss that caused the ship to capsize, but due to the depth of the water, it just lay on its side,

Operation Catechism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


For you Jobza Guddun