My definitive reference book, which covers all Swedish military aircraft, is “Svenska Vingar 1”, ISBN 91-971605-3-9, but then I can read Swedish (just as well, since I earn my living as a Swedish-English translator!).

I’ll have to nip down to Morup and have a look at what they’ve got. There are some well respected Swedish names (some of whom I am acquainted with) on the governing board, so their organisation seems sound enough, not a bunch of pimply youths, anyway!

Operation Sonnie is also mentioned on pages 174-177 of “Blockade Runners” by Lars-Axel Nilsson and Leif A. Sandberg, which I have just read (ISBN: 91-630-4890-6). The laconic quotation above regarding the size and colour of the registration letters was made by Norwegian Bernt Balchen, according to an extract from his autobiography “Come North With Me”, in the afore-mentioned book.

Among a varied assortment of jobs that I was assigned to during my 17 years of RAF service was this:
http://www.yourboatphotos.com/picture/number1741.asp
I also worked in the control tower at Cottesmore on PAR and ACR7D when 10 and XV Sqn Victors were there, and was at Aberporth for the firing trials of the Bloodhound Mk 2. Very excitiing to start with, especially when the boffins said that our eyeballs would pop out as a Bloodhound was fired for the first time straight over our Type 87 radar from about a hundred yards away! Fortunately nothing like that happened, the radar didn’t lose track either, of course, and we became quite blase about it in the the end, although the cost (equal to that of a buying a house at the time) of firing a missile about once a week was a bit cringeworthy. All in a good cause, however, for the “cold war warriors”.

I seem to recall that helicopters could not be used because the tops of the buildings were festooned with aerials, air conditioning and elevator equipment, etc. Perhaps someone who had flown over the towers before 9/11 could confirm this.

I was attending a meeting in the Volvo Bus design department when someone burst in with the news. Most of the meeting rooms had TV sets installed, so we switched on and just couldn’t believe what we were seeing. That meeting went on for a very long time!

Incidentally at the time of the JFK assassination, I had just slept overnight in my RAF Morris Minor estate car at Newhaven before doing an overhaul of the radar on an RAF RTTL boat that was stationed there. My assistant and I immediately bought copies of every available newspaper and read them avidly while having breakfast in a nearby cafe.

Thanks, Moggy.
According to a comment on my link, RTTL 2748 was at Plymouth being restored as of May 2008.
As I remember, they had 3 x Napier Sea Lion engines and could do about 33 knots flat out, with a whole lot of shaking going on, so it was a case of two hands for yourself, never mind one for the boat! The spec. says 24.25 knots, but I was assured by the crew that we reached 33 knots on several occasions.
This spec shows the dimensions:
http://www.asrmcs-club.com/BoatsWebsite/rttl1aspec.html

Moggy, I would appreciate a credit for my photograph of Rescue and Target Towing Launch 2748, which I put up on this Librapix web site:
http://www.yourboatphotos.com/picture/number1741.asp