How would the flares been deployed and how old would they be?Are the still in use or are of WW2 vintage?

Given the location, they were probably dropped from a Nimrod. They were last carried on 3rd June 1984 when Gordon Smith had one ignite in the bomb bay of XV257 shortly after takeoff from St Mawgan. An immediate embargo on carriage followed and soon afterwards they were withdrawn from service.

The 4.5″ flare had by then little operational application, Lightstrike and Velocipede procedures having been withdrawn from the tactics manual. They were only retained for SAR purposes and were very rarely used.

I cannot be sure, but I may have made the last operational drop of the 4.5″ flare on the night of 3rd Jan 1979. We dropped flares for Sea Kings from Culdrose searching for survivors from the Greek vessel Cantonad that had capsized off the channel islands. I do not recall hearing of their use subsequently.

exmpa