Reading this interesting thread has reminded me that whilst serving at RAF Uxbridge in the late 1960’s or early 70’s I had an ‘out of the blue’ telephone call from one of the film’s producers who told me that he was working on a similar ‘RAF’ themed follow-up. After chatting about the BoB film for a few minutes he said the reason for his call was to ask for assistance in contacting retired Group Captain Hamish Mahaddie, the BoB’s RAF technical advisor who was again needed for the new film.

To this day I have no idea whether anything came of it!

Re: My post 36 above and follow-up comment from Daz.

After noting that Gp Capt Mahaddie did not receive any credits for the BoB film, I did some quick research on the net and found that he played a significant part in the film’s production.

Apparently he was approached by the film’s producer’s, Harry Salzman and S. Benjamin Fitz, and asked to find the large number of period aircraft required for the film and arrange their use. He managed to locate 109 Spitfires in the UK of which 27 were available, although only 12 would be made flyable. He also negotiated the use of 6 Hurricanes of which 3 were flying.

As many forum members obviously know, in an effort to achieve commonality, the production made standard modifications to the Spitfires including elliptical wings and period canopies. These ‘hybrids’ were affectionately known as ‘Mark Haddies’.

Seems a shame he didn’t get a mention for his efforts!

Regards …..Paul

Reading the above posts has reminded me of a very pleasant Spring day in 1976 which included a few hours at the Scottish base. From memory, after a routine morning in my Ops Wing office at RAF St Mawgan I climbed into a Nimrod for an afternoon ‘excursion’ courtesy of 42 Sqn. Once airborne I recall enjoying very nice low level views of the Cornish countryside before quietly sneaking up on some rod anglers in the back of their little fishing boats in St Austell Bay. I can only assume that there must have been a very good reason why we didn’t ‘power up’ our deafening engines until we were directly overhead these unsuspecting boat people. I can only imagine the insults and threats they aimed at us as we roared away! Anyway, after this little bit of fun we continued east up the English Channel towards Devon where more good views were had including close-ups of Plymouth city centre and Plymouth Hoe. Here we spent some time practising a fly-by over the city in preparation for an upcoming Lord Mayor’s day’s parade which would be officially ‘opened’ by a St Mawgan Nimrod. On completion of this rehearsal we turned north and set course for Scotland and RAF Turnhouse.

Looking forward to more dramatic scenery and a rare opportunity of seeing the magnificent Forth bridges which had always fascinated me, I was more than pleased to have such super clear views of the two famous structures as we approached the base. After landing on what, I suppose, would have been the old runway, I ran into an old RAF friend I hadn’t seen for several years who told me all about the base and how much he enjoyed being there. I could see why, it seemed to me be a good posting for any young airman wanting something a little bit different. Following a good ‘chewing the fat’ session with my friend, I rejoined the Nimrod crew for the return trip to St Mawgan which allowed more views of beautiful UK scenery including the Scottish and Welsh mountains.

On arrival back in Cornwall I just had time to lock my office before walking through the camp to the bus stop to catch my usual 10 past 5 Western National double decker to my home in Newquay. A nice slow end to an otherwise fairly hectic but very enjoyable day out.

Sadly, although I have pleasant memories of RAF Turnhouse as it was in 1976, I don’t think I would recognise the place today.

Regards………Paul

A few decades ago whilst visiting Europe’s largest underground lake at Hinterbruhl in the Austrian hills, I was surprised to come across the fuselage and other bits of a Heinkel He 162, one of many built in this dark and eerie place by slave labour during the latter part of WWII. A rather disturbing memory.

Re stamrish’s above post

Not sure if you meant to quote my post 9 in your above post as it was written in reply to Pen Pusher’s post 8. Anyway, it doesn’t matter as it’s also relevant to your 1960’s search for flight details.

Reading your comments, it is quite sad to think that the famous old British Eagle airline that was so well known at Heathrow, and around the world, is no longer remembered in all quarters. To many of my generation the airlines unmistakeable colour scheme really enhanced the elegant lines of the Bristol Britannia aircraft.

With regard to BUA, another famous old British airline, I also flew on one of their trooper VC10’s to Aden via Bahrain which was much quicker of course than the Britannia troopers, although at that particular time I was in no real hurry to get to that awful place! Like you I also went to Germany on a trooper, this time on a British Caledonian BAC 111 with the same under rear fuselage entrance that you remember. So many troopers in those days!

Best of luck in your continuing quest. Regards….Paul

Its fascinating that despite the above facts you are still convinced that your Far East tour involved RAF Britannia’s from and to LAP/ Heathrow. It would be very interesting to know more about these unusual flights especially as they took RAF aircraft away from their usual routes – could they have been VIP or aeromedical flights?

As you may or may not know, RAF Lyneham went through a huge rebuilding programme in the late 50’s and early 60’s to become the UK’s Air Trooping Centre, with a new Terminal and Hotel for the thousands of passengers passing through each year. Brand new modern facilities were also constructed for the RAF staff. To use Heathrow with the added London expenses of landing, customs, and passenger handling fees on a regular basis would have made no sense at all.

I also note that you remember the aircraft having a defective nose-wheel before landing which resulted in you flying around in circles for a while. Given these circumstances I would have thought that the RAF captain might have elected for a landing at Lyneham, a short flying distance away, where the aircraft’s regular engineers were based, instead of relying on expensive British Eagle or BOAC engineers at Heathrow to have a look at the problem. A British Eagle captain on the other hand would definitely want to land amongst his own engineers at Heathrow. Just a thought!

The RAF routes to the Far East were purposely set-up (as previously described) to enable RAF aircraft to hop from one RAF overseas base to another thereby avoiding those countries unsympathetic to the British cause. Unlike civilian airlines, the RAF, being a military organisation, would also have needed to have the necessary diplomatic clearances to overfly foreign countries. An admin nightmare!

As I mentioned recently on another site, as well as the RAF and British Eagle operating troopers to Singapore, British United Airways also flew troopers with Britannias from the beginning of the 1960’s. Their route to Singapore (Paya Lebar) included stops both ways at Istanbul and Bombay. Their UK departure and arrival airfield was Stansted now known as LONDON Stansted. Could this be the answer?

Finally, I fully understand that you have complete faith in your father’s version of events, but I must add that just because someone was in the RAF it does not always mean that they know much about aeroplanes. A few of my RAF acquaintances would freely admit not knowing a Varsity from a Vulcan, they only joined after seeing the recruiting adverts inviting young men to play lots of sport and see the world. The last thing they were interested in was noisy smelly aeroplanes!

Anyway, interesting stuff and a nice reminder of some good old days’.

Regards….Paul

Re my above. Istanbul of course is not the Turkish Capital. Silly me! Will try harder next time!!

Regards….Paul

To me it looks like Aircraftsman 2nd Class (A2C) J Smith.

Regards…..Paul