Coincidentally I just came across these wheels, the same ones, in Glasgow Architectural Salvage (GAS) on Clydebank in Glasgow.

Just to let you know that I have had probably the most pleasant 15 mins on the forum ever reading this thread. Thanks Les B and exmpa for such an eye opening account of potential operations in the event of the Cold War turning hot.

I’m too young to have experienced the tensions of the Cuban missile crisis, or to be able to appreciate fully the tensions in the 70’s and 80’s, but if it sends a chill down my back thinking of it now, I can imagine how much worse for those who would have to perform the duty of executing a nuclear attack.

The most chilling part is the thought of perhaps having nothing to return to….

Thank you guys, it’s been entertaining and informative 🙂

Sorry to drag an old thread out of the cupboard but it’s a thread well worth looking at again and I have a small ditty that touches on what WL747 said back then.

Having been in RAFG (as groundcrew I hasten to add) on a MOB in the late 80’s I well remember 4-day exercises which used to simulate the opening gambit as it was seen at the time.

The last afternoon of the exercises stick in my mind – the tannoy system was well utilised and we used to hear standard pre-written messages throughout the 4 days: the one that always, always, always (and even now whenever I think about it) used to make my testes climb up into my body went along the lines of “All remaining aircraft scramble for survival” 🙁

By this time (if it were for real) the main attacks had gone in utilising all serviceable aircraft and any remaining aircraft that were good to fly but not necessarily serviceable enough to carry out an assault were started up and launched in some sort of save the aircraft and pilots type scenario.

That particular tannoy coupled with numerous aircraft starting up across the base was simply the most chilling thing I have ever encountered because it meant that in minutes few the incoming Red Block nukes would blow us all to hell and back 🙁

Lots of substantial Brigand parts deep in the malaysian jungle. Time to rescue them before the Scrappie does….

Speaking of which, found this locally in somewhere that is becoming very jungle-like…

and

One of the forum members, Hindenburg, has pointed out that it comes from a Brigand (or maybe a Warwick).

Did you notice the damage to the door stanchion, the skin above the doors and also damage to metal window frames on the inside of the hangar above the annexe?

Sadly there are no panels to get to the inside of the doors close to the impact points otherwise I’d have been in there years ago :D.
Don’t suppose James mentioned the resident ghost in that corner of the hangar did he? Back in the 90’s the section Safety Equippers were housed in that area and they reported ‘a presence’ a number of times – to the point where one of the girls wouldn’t work in there on nights if she was alone (and she wasn’t the kind of person to bulls**t TBH). It always a lot colder in that corner than anywhere else in the hangar :diablo:
I was always led to believe that the He111 crashed about 70-100 yards away from that end of the hangar but it was only word of mouth.

PS Su, the GEF mob moved out about 4 years ago, into the old Tornado Propulsion Flight when that closed down, and 202 have got the place to themselves nowadays.

PPS. 202 have been operating off the base of the demolished hangar, K20, for the past 4 weeks or so whilst the aircraft wash area and taxiway up to their disperal was being resurfaced.

Found this sad relic this afternoon in Als famous scrapyard from his youth (Williamsons):

The port gun port panel from Supermarine Scimitar F1, serial XD264:

And the external view:

Apparently XD264 was lost in 1961:

The pilot was unable to lower the starboard undercarriage due to hydraulic failure during an aerobatic sortie and ejected at 8000 ft six miles out to sea from Lossiemouth. The aircraft then turned inland and crashed into woods five miles south of South Cullen, Morayshire

There’s an image of her in her prime back in 1959 on the Thunder and Lightnings site –> http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/scimitar/gallery.php

There’s more bits lying around than I expected, nothing huge though sadly 🙁

…The most likely scenario is that Williamsons got the SOC aircraft in large chunks from the MUs, removed the alloy cladding with torches or axes to melt into ingots at one of their yards, and were left with a lot of material they just couldn’t use, like Bakelite and perspex. It looks like they cleared out this low-worth stuff every so often, and maybe fly-tipped it all into the quarry…

Ahhh, that fills in the missing gap that I have. I heard about quarries being filled with bits of aircraft as much as 13 years ago when I lived up in Bishopmill. At the time I went on a few (half-hearted) explorations close to Spynie hospital and found nothing that I associated with aircraft (20 year aircraft techie that I was at the time) however all I was doing was superficial surface observation stuff. TBH at the time I couldn’t imagine the people of Elgin allowing trucks full of trashed aircraft from Bogs ‘o Main or Lossie being dumped in local quarries. And to be honest I still can’t, which is why the ‘fly tipping’ theory works for me. 🙂

… near the crew of an He 111 which crashed on the airfield in 1940,…

Just feet away from hangar K21. You should see the bullet and cannon shell holes in the eastern doors and support stantions of K21. 😮 Some of the holes are huge: considering that the largest bore weapon on a He-111 was only 7.62mm some of the holes don’t make sense even if you take shrapnel from exploding ordnance (bombs) into account. I have a theory that the airfield defences may have been a little too ‘eager’ with their attempts to down one of the enemy – does anyone know the location for something large, like an Oerlikon, on the perimeter defences back then? Tony?

Over the years there have been various reports of a ‘presence’… OK then, a ghost… in that corner of the hangar; apparently an RAF officer was killed during in that area during the attack … eh!… eh!? 2 + 2 = …4-ish 😀
Having known, directly, one of the people who felt the presence I have no reason to doubt her. At the time the history of the incident was not well known (well before the history room was as prominentas it has been in recent years) and she was/is not the type of person who would make up that type of attention seeking rhubarb.

I think I’ve seen one of those Y-shaped thingies at some point in my life but I can’t quite remember when nor in what context… I’m fairly certain that it was before I joined up, and I have to say I lived (and worked for 6 months) in a very rural environment back then. Having said that it looks very basic, very ‘rural’, like it’s been made in a local smithy somewhere so may not be a nationwide piece of hardware.