ResmorohAt Wattisham – Hunters – (where I was a mere Met Man) in the early 50’s there was a “Jet Clock” up in ATC where the ATDs were entered – plus estimated endurance(s) – and if there was ‘No Reply’ from any a/c after the Endurance Time had been reached, it said “Look on the ground”!!!!
HTH
Resmoroh
ResmorohNewforest,
Je reste ma valise!
Willip & Newforest,
Begin the possible Street Names search now – it will save the Planners employing Consultants at some exhorbitant rates (your Council Tax and mine!) to come up with a load of rubbish names. Not just a/c names, or Captains/Admirals – what about that WREN who put that fire out in the Galley (and don’t tell me there’s never been one!). Research the names/places/events NOW and bombard the Planners. Else in 5/10 yrs somebody on this Forum will be griping about the same problem!
You’re the experts – go for it!
Rgds
Resmoroh
ResmorohI agree entirely with your sentiments. But surely it is not beyond the imagination of the Planning Cttee to ensure that Conditions are placed on any development such that the history of the place is not completely lost. Associated street names are easy – but if there’s to be a pub then name it after the airfield (or whatever Stone Frigate it used to be called in RNAS-speak) and make sure the interior decor is appropriate. The history of RNAS Ford could be documented and displayed in any Community Centre. Similarly with any school – get the little brats to go out and collect the street names and find out who/what they were all about. One might even think that the street layout might replicate the run/taxi-ways of the original airfield. Any religious buildings could have associations with ditto on the RNAS (or will the PC Police forbid it?)
Time, however, marches on and we have, regretfully, to march with it – else we’d all still be using bows & arrows and running around in a coat of blue paint as our Sunday Best suit!
But seriously this is a problem that is, I feel sure, going to occur again and again. It is up to us – by browbeating The Planners – to ensure that the history of these places is not forgotten.
Rgds
Resmoroh
Resmoroh“M” Brevet
It seems likely that the last official wearer of the “M” brevet was Sqn Ldr B D Hunt (2418988B), RAFRO, Class CC, who gained his brevet as NCO aircrew on 202 Sqn and who resigned his Commission on 1 Sep 85 after several years with the Mobile Met Unit (MMU) on Op CORPORATE at RAF Stanley. Also Wg Cdr C N “Tiny” Mentz (190129), RAFRO, Class CC, who Resigned his Commission shortly after CORPORATE was over and when he was OC MMU, was entitled, similarly, to wear the “M” brevet. It’s display on the then popular “Woolly Pully’s” caused some comment!
HTH
Resmoroh
ResmorohI presume they sent the support Beverley off down-route several months before the Vulcans departed. 12,000 miles at 120 kts is 100 hrs flying time! And how many Haystacks were used to ferry spares to the (to the almost certain!) AOG Beverley? The exploits of the Support Crew(s) would make almost as good reading as those of the Vulcan mob. I was in a Beverley, coming home from the Med, when we were overtaken by a train whilst flying up the Rhone Valley into the teeth of a spirited Mistral!
Jeepers, is that long ago?
Resmoroh
ResmorohComparing the shots of the Tower, and the Dome, with Google Earth pix it does seem to indicate W Raynham. However, there is a structure on the horizon to the left of the Tower shot. The same(?) structure can be seen on the horizon to the right of the Dome shot. The sun is obviously at about 120 degs – so an early morning GE pic. The structure seems quite high, but I can’t find a structure on GE casting that sort of shadow?
Resmoroh
ResmorohThe Cold War nuclear “Warning & Monitoring Organisation” in the UK was, in fact, a Department of the Home Office. If my memory serves me right (and I was one of the Met advisers to that Dept) there were more than 650 posts scattered around the UK. Some have been converted to other uses (i.e. the one at Altnaharra, in Scotland, is now an Automatic Weather Station). Some, near the coast, have been taken by the sea! However, almost all of them should appear in the data held by the various Local Authorities in the their Sites & Monuments Record (SMR). The Master Copy of these is held, I think, by English Heritage at Swindon.
HTH
Resmoroh
ResmorohAirline Catering
Seeing those pix of the cabin of Caravelle brings back memories of when, in the early 1950’s, a Caravelle was transporting some of The Faithfull from Tunis(?) to Mecca for The Annual Haj. It had been flying along the usual N African airway and had (in the middle of the night) been expected to report “Overhead El Adem”. In stead of whch we got a May-Day and a request for an immediate landing!
Some of The Faithfull had, apparently, huddled together at the back of the cabin and lit a small fire on the floor (from sticks they had presciently brought with them) and on which they were going to brew some “chai”. Modern airline catering/refreshments have nothing on this!
Let alone the FAF with “Zee hay is for zee horse” episode
Good days
Resmoroh
ResmorohI refer you to the old adage; there are Bold Pilots, Old Pilots, but not too many Old Bold Pilots!
Rgds
Resmoroh
ResmorohAs a possible location at Kohat may be a bit far south. The shadows under the a/c indicate the sun is fairly high, and to the left of the centre-line. Therefore the shot was probably taken between, say, 1000 and 1400 local time. If so then the a/c must have been pointing between, say 330 degs and 030 degs. There’s some fairly impressive mountain type stuff not too far off the end of the runway!! We might be looking at somewhere further “Up The Khyber Pass”? Parachinar, or Thal, maybe? Where is Jagan when we need him?
Rgds
Resmoroh
ResmorohThe Mombasa ‘Moi’ is the one – formerly the WW2 airfield at Port Reitz.
Resmoroh
ResmorohStrickly speaking, of course, and taking into account the title of the original thread posting, then the title of the oldest airfield has to go a patch of grass near Malmesbury Abbey, Wilthsire, England. It was here that the monk Eilmer crash-landed after launching himself from the tower of the the then abbey in the year 1010. As he is currently accorded as having acheived 200 yards horizontally before pranging then we should assume that this was the first heavier-than-air flight. As it was in the air, and the ground on which he landed was a field, then – surely – this must be the first air-field!
See http://www.eilmer.co.uk/eilmer-biog.htm.
Or perhaps the Abbey’s brews were a little strong!!! I note, however, that his CO grounded him and refused to countenance any further flying experiments. Wilbur and Orville had to wait 900 years before they cracked it!!
LOL
Resmoroh
ResmorohOne of the better “zaps” that I’ve seen! – and ‘zapping’ was a major industry in the Falklands after all the shouting and roaring had died down!
Rgds
Resmoroh
Resmoroh[QUOTE=JDK;1044519]Some of the LZ Horsas were actually scenic ‘flats’ and not three dimensional at all.
The parachuting scenes in “A Bridge Too Far” were filmed between 31 Aug – 17 Sep 76 based at RNAF Deelen, and using the Spuelde DZ.
Prior to that the film company had experimented with dropping Belgian (I think?) paratroopers from C-130 Hercules (out of shot) and were, by camera ‘trickery’, made to appear as if they were exiting from Dakotas. This was a total failure.
The film company then, effectively, “hired” a Company of the then 16 Para Bde. I was involved (RAF Mobile Met Unit) in both the preceeding trials of dropping real paratroopers out of Dakotas (which no-one had done since WW2), and in the actual filming sequences.
The technical trials were conducted at Hankley Common DZ using (I presume?) the Farnborough/Boscombe Dakota on 24 and 25 Aug 76. These involved the correct setting of the famous “6 Bolt Stop”, and jumps by the Instructors from 1 PTS. On 25-27 Aug 76 real ‘Grunts’ were chucked out of this a/c onto the Everleigh DZ on Salisbury Plain. Nobody died so we went to Deelen.
I can confirm that most of the gliders seen in the film were 2-D ‘flats’. Those from which action was required were probably done in very partial reconstructions in the studio.
The “numerous” Dakotas were not so. If my memory serves me right there were 3 from the Royal Danish Air Force mainly (if not exclusively) used in the Supply Dropping sequences. There were 6(?) from the Finnish Air Force. Both these guys were highly professional and ‘bl**dy good’ at the job. There were (I think) about 6 assorted ‘civilian’ Dakotas which had been assembled from all over the place – known to the RAF/Paras as “Jam Butty Airlines”. Very dodgy! Almost all a/c were painted/re-painted in various guises (RAF/USAAF) several times. If you watch the drop sequences very carefully you can see a ‘vic’ of 3 Daks in one part of the screen moving in synchronisation with another ‘vic’ in another part of the screen. Camera trickery – or ‘matting’ as I understand it’s called in the trade.
Taking real, modern, young, Grunts to the Oosterbeek Cemetery was a very special event. And this was, remember, pre-Falklands. Been an honour to have served with them.
On the return from Deelen Mod had hired the cheapest flights from KLM they could arrange. Once airborne the Captain apologised that MoD had only budgeted for Coffee & Biscuits as the refreshments. “However” he said “in view of the debt of honour that the Dutch people owe to the Parachute Regiment, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines invite you all to partake of complimentary champagne.”. Don’t come much better than that!!!!!!
Rgds
Resmoroh
ResmorohDear All,
This is a purely cyclic problem. I served 40+ years (both as an Air Ministry/MoD civilian and in RAF uniform) as a military meteorologist. When I retired in 1996 I did a part-time Archaeology degree at my local University. During the 4 years of my time there it was obvious that the views of various archaeological problems changed, significantly, over time. It’s the same with historians – modern or otherwise.
It does not matter what the subject is – somewhere, in some University – there will be some clown (with more time on his/her hands than we can pay for) who needs to do a Dissertation or Thesis that will attract attention (and therefore funding!!!). It does not matter what the subject is provided it goes against “current thinking”!
In 10, or 20, years time these same historians will be writing learned papers that prove, conclusively, that the current detractors of, for example, Hamburg, Dresden, etc, were actually wrong!
This is all niff-naff and trivia. But what appears, today, in print (or on the internet) is taken, by many, to be The Truth! The real truth of past events will never, accurately, be known.
The ‘pro’s’ and ‘cons’ of Dresden, etc, were Ordered by Air Ministry (NOT Harris!) on the say so of the Govt (i.e Churchill, the Chiefs of Staff, and CAS, et al). When the politicians discovered that their past decisions were attracting negative public acclaim then they (as they always do!) sought to distance themselves from the decisions – and leaving the military commanders to take the blame. The military commanders were not, then, as politically aware as they should have been. And, hopefully, are more so now.
I do not wish to re-ignite The Harris Debate, but readers of this – and other – Boards should realise that The Truth is not what is sought. Only that version of it which is politically expedient at the time.
Rgds
Resmoroh
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