Valiants and Comets over the Black Sea: 543 and 51 Sqdns

Here is the official line..
Official Secrets Act
UK act of Parliament 1989, prohibiting the disclosure of confidential material from government sources by employees; it remains an absolute offence for a member or former member of the security and intelligence services (or those working closely with them) to disclose information about their work. There is no public-interest defence, and disclosure of information already in the public domain is still a crime. Journalists who repeat disclosures may also be prosecuted.

Posted to avoid tricky situations when the former or serving member decides to decline answering.

As others have explained to you the first port of call should be the National Archive and if you find from your researches there that what you need is still classified then you should contact the Air Historical Branch. By examining the Operational Record Books of the relevant squadrons you should be able to identify possible dates when the kind of operation you are interested in took place, you may even find the operation names and from there be able to trace their meaning. Armed with this information you would be able to ask specific questions rather than more general inquiries and you might find people more forthcoming.

FWIW, The V-Force target folders included radar screen photographs of the coastal penetration area. It is possible that 543 was tasked to obtain this data. It may have been decided that tasking other assets in the area of operations at the same time this was in progress would be advantageous or prudent.

I feel that most of what you are looking for is probably already available, it just requires that you do the research to locate it.

Oh, and the United Kingdom also has an FoI Act. That doesn’t take much research to find out.

exmpa

It was 50 years ago, ancient history. The protagonists are now in the 80s and what damage would they inflict upon the security interests of the country by discussing those events? If researchers made approaches through squadron associations they might even get a few replies.

exmpa

Ancient history it may be; but, from what I can gather ,those who signed the official secrets act are expected to take the information to their graves. This is in stark contrast to the USA where details of all Early Cold War Overflights were made available in 2003 and, at the time of declassification, a symposium was held in Washington and many of the original participants took part. From that moment on all were free to discuss the flights and the part they had played.
I have had replies about 543 Squadron activities from Association members but they have been reluctant to talk about their more secret (at the time) flights. They cannot be blamed for this. It is the fault of the government of the day and the agencies responsible for the declassification.
Of course the USA does have a Freedom of Information Act!

TBH I didn’t get to the end of the letter that was displayed on a crewroom wall – I’ll read all the way through next time! 😮

I obviously misread the letter!!

The Station Commander doesn’t normally invite you to the annual reunion.

exmp

😮 I obviously misread the letter!! 😮

I believe that a proposed 51 Squadron reunion may have been dealyed by events in North Africa.

It was the Nimrod R1 Out of Service event that was cancelled. This was an official function, nothing to do with the periodic 51 Sqn Association Reunions.

exmpa

I believe that a proposed 51 Squadron reunion may have been dealyed by events in North Africa.

No surprise that you have no first hand accounts, the crews involved all signed the official secrets act document and jokes aside they would be in a lot of trouble if they spoke out.
The spyflights site gives the flavour of similiar ops and also highlights the dangers.

It was 50 years ago, ancient history. The protagonists are now in the 80s and what damage would they inflict upon the security interests of the country by discussing those events? If researchers made approaches through squadron associations they might even get a few replies.

exmpa

No surprise that you have no first hand accounts, the crews involved all signed the official secrets act document and jokes aside they would be in a lot of trouble if they spoke out.
The spyflights site gives the flavour of similiar ops and also highlights the dangers.

This might be of interest ; http://www.spyflight.co.uk/51sqn.htm

and this one ; http://www.spyflight.co.uk/comet.htm

Thanks David,
I have visited the site. Very interesting! But, difficult though it might prove to be, I’m trying to find some first hand testimony.

This might be of interest ; http://www.spyflight.co.uk/51sqn.htm

and this one ; http://www.spyflight.co.uk/comet.htm