The Shackletons that flew on 8 Squadron had a special role in NATO Tacevals. A supply of adhesive red stars of good size was kept in store until needed. With the addition of several Russian speaking bi lingual extra crew the Shack would trundle off to another nATO airbase which was being Taceval tested. They played the role of a defecting Soviet aircraft,calling only in Russian and landing ,often without any clearance.Add a sprinkling of Soviet flight kit and the recipe was complete. On at least one occasion no one at the USAFE airbase recognised the Shack and real panic set in, the crew stayed in role, forcing the summoning of an interpreter which was part of the standard plan as well as isolating the aircraft and crew.

At my first tour RAF Valley, local called me on switchboard to say the Basset had landed, a few mins later a Pembroke taxied past the tower. Recognition skills were not common ground side…