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The Journal of the Royal Air ForcePhotographers Association
(formerly RAFBEPA)Edition 39 Summer 2010
Buchholzerstrasse 1
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Chairman’s ChanceComment!ObituariesKodak momentsReunion visit ideasWhere are they now?Under the spotlight - part 16JARIC - A Short History - part 5The MFPS storyDo you remember when....?More RAF Cold War heroesHumour in blueHarry the ScrewdriverTale of a G45More RAF slangLet’s go surfing...now!And finally......
Cover photo: Von Lienen’s at no.1 MFPSRAF Wildenrath RAFG 1960’s
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Spring has sprung and summer ishere at last, so they tell us. Time toget the cameras out, get clicking,and record those precious “Kodak”moments.
For me it was a time to get out andabout and join my Probuscolleagues for an interesting dayout to meet with Wing CommanderKen Wallace MBE at his home atReymerstone Hall, Norfolk. Kenretired from the RAF in 1964 toconcentrate upon the developmentof his revolutionary autogyrodesign following first flight in1959, and even went on to doubleas James Bond in “You Only LiveTwice” flying his own well-armed“Little Nellie” autogyro. Otherfilm and television roles followed,plus many requests from the HomeOffice and MOD to fly his various
autogyros with all manner ofsensing or photographic equipmenton board to assist the Police andthe military in reconnaissanceoperations.
I am sure that many members haveseen Ken in the past performing hisexcellent flying displays in theautogyro at the various RAF Opendays throughout the country but forus lucky few on this visit Ken, whocelebrated his 94th birthday justtwo days prior, gave us a flyingdisplay that was truly memorable.On his home familiar turf atRymerstone Hall he demonstratedthe full capability of his invention,to include “hands off” flying, shorttake offs, and low, very low levelpasses which left us all in awe ofthis very energetic “senior citizen”having the time of his life buzzingthrough the Norfolk countryside.
Prior to the display we were givena personal tour of his home whichincluded a trip down memoryhall…..Ken’s museum collectionof flying memorabilia from hisearly RAF days and, morerecently, his collection of giftsfrom his work on the James Bondfilm to include the famous leatherKen conducts a pre-flight
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suitcases into which “007” packedthe autogyro. The tour would notbe complete without a visit to hisown hangar and workshop wheresome 18 autogyros were ondisplay, most of which were builtby Ken but all built to his uniquedesign and specification. This wasa real treat for the engineers on thevisit.
Ken’s hangar display includedexamples of his aerial photographywork for the MOD and the HomeOffice on various programs. Forthe ACFs, there was also acollection of cameras on displayranging from the F24, F52, F95and Vinten linescan sensors tomention but a few. In short therewas something for everyone.
Ken is President of the Norfolkand Suffolk Aviation Museum atFlixton and has set some 17 WorldRecords for the autogyro in two
classes - so 34 Records in all - andmany still stand. He has beenshowered with awards anddistinctions by national bodies andprofessional institutions here andabroad for his manyachievements. Best of all he waswilling to share his manyexperiences with us that day andgave us all renewed hope that wecan enjoy life to the full……..even at 94!
I am sure that in your own areasthere are many special places tovisit that would provide theopportunity to record a “Kodak”moment or two. Why not ventureout and do something differentand then tell us about it. We wouldlove to hear from you.
Yours aye
John Barry
Safely back down !
Ken shows hands free flying !
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Comment!Your editor in trouble again, this timeinside the revetment at No.1 MFPU!
We currently have 65 soulsbooked in for this year’sreunion dinner on the Saturdayand 29 for the Friday informalbuffet. The remaining reservedrooms being held for us havenow been released to the hotel,so if you still wish to attend andhave not applied yet, you hadbetter get your skates on, asrooms can no longer beguaranteed, other than thosealready booked.It promises to be a greatweekend again, although a littledisappointing to find only 5brave souls have booked for around of golf. Still, there areplenty of other attractions tosee and do in the local area.This will be a new hotel to theAssociation, so fingers crossedit all goes smoothly as it is alovely hotel set in 300 acres ofgrounds in North Shropshire.
Well, we had quite a fewpreferences for badges for useon clothing.
There was a large majority infavour of design number 1,which I must confess is mypersonal favourite as well.Your committee will now meetto discus where we go fromhere. Kindly Dave Derrick hasoffered to be the administratorof the branded clothingscheme if it all takes off. Oreven if we put it all on!!!Watch this space!
Apologies if this issue is latearriving but the editorial officesuffered a major computercrash a few weeks ago andsome data was lost despitebeing backed up on anexternal hard drive which wasalso affected. You just can’twin with computers can you!
Till the next issue, stay safe,
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OBITUARIES
John MurrayTaken from the Carnoustie Guide & Gazette
John Murray who served as a photographer from 1954to 1976 when he retired as a Sergeant after 22 yearsservice. He served in Cyprus, Germany, Leuchars andNortholt. His wife Margaret predeceased him in 2004but is survived by a daughter, Fern.
My thanks to Robert Chalmers for informing us of John’s passing. Ed.
John ReaFrom the Shropshire Star 25/5/10
John Rea passed away on May 18th after a long illnessaged 88. He worked for the Daily Express andfreelanced for other national newspapers as well. Hewas a photographer involved with reconnaissanceduring World War II and served in Burma. He wasnoted for being one of the first photographers in theMidlands to display a 20” x 16” colour photograph inhis shop window. John leaves his wife Meryl, sonsSimon and Jonathan and grandchildren Clarice andSebastian.Funeral took place at Emstrey Crematorium on 25thMay 2010.
Did any member know either John Murray or John Rea? Ed.
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Ian Evans - Wentworth Gardens near Rotherham
Maggie accident - RAFG
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Some things to see & doat the 2010 reunion!
Ellesmere attractive small town or Hack Green Nuclear Bunker
Hawkstone Park Follies of Narnia fame or National Waterways Museum
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WHERE
ARE
THEY NOW?Bob Dixon is looking for CPL ‘TUG’ WILSON.
He remembers being very close to ‘Tug’ and his family whilstserving with 13 Squadron at RAF Akrotiri around 1961 or 1962.They both played water polo for the station.Also, ‘Tug’ possibly went to RAF Wittering around 1964.
This is a general enquiry from JACK TAIT who is at present doing a PhD atManchester concerning Programmable Analogue Drawing Machines which hehas designed and built.He would like someone to identify a machine used in the Radar Research sectionat RAF Wyton from 1954-1955. As an NCO Photographer he was involved withthe technical part of producing high quality prints from radar recording testingsorties in the station Lancaster bomber.When produced they were then scanned on a drum in a machine using a swinggalvanometer to convert the black & white images to colour contour outlines forphoto reconnaissance purposes. The contours had different colours for eachdensity range on the prints which represented the ground information apertainingto the terrain overflown.Does anyone know what the machine was called?Jack also was involved in designing colour courses in the 70’s for Officers andNCO’s from Cosford. As a result of that he did a Master of Philosophy degreeat Manchester on colour measurement.
If anyone can help please contact via Jack’s web site at:
http://web.me.com/jacktait/Taitographs2
Thank you. I know Stu Usher was involved with a lot of Radar work at Wyton inthe 70’s.. Ed.This request came via Geoff Parselle.
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Under the spotlight
Joe Oliver - part 16This time we are going toQueensland, a very long drive,approx. 900 miles to Brisbane andthen further north. The idea wasto drive about 200 miles each day& on reaching Brisbane we wouldtake a break. As we drove throughVictoria up to New South Wales &into Queensland some of thecountryside views we wentthrough were really spectacular.Visited the bird sanctuary atCurrumbin, just insideQueensland. Here you pay a smallfee & get a plate full of honeywater & bread to feed the multitudeof Rainbow Lorikeets. Describedas paint box parrots they are sotame that they take the food whilstyou hold the plate and occasionallysit on your head, I have photos ofthem all around us. This all beganin 1947 when ALEC GRIFFITHShad a few Lorikeets in his gardenand put food out for them. From Currumbin we drovenorthwards along the Gold Coast,which stretches for miles & has 21lovely sandy beaches. Of course,
we were there in 1970 and it wasbeing developed quickly then. Ithad accommodation for 80thousand tourists with motels,blocks of flats, servicedapartments, guest houses & 18hotels, so it very quickly becamea place for honeymooners andtourists. Nowadays Japanesetourists go there and stay in theirown hotels and have their ownshops.We then drove on to Brisbane andstayed there for a couple nightsand visited the city.
11Rainbow Lorikeet
We saw The Lone Pine Sanctuaryon the Brisbane River that had alot of Koalas and was opened in1927. These animals had beenruthlessly slaughtered over theyears. Then off up the coast headingnorth and passing the unusualGlasshouse Mountains. There are11 of these massive upward thrustsof trachyte, a volcanic rock thathas in its structure feldsparcrystals. At the foot of one was anotice with a sale sign forpineapples at 50 cents a dozen andwhen I was in Kenya we could buythem for sixpence each, so a giveaway price. We passed throughNambour which is in sugar canecountry. Huge fires were on the goburning off what is called trashand killing any vermin/snakes andleaving the main sugar cane stemfor harvesting. The cut canes werethen transported to the mill on 15inch wide gauge trains thatsometimes crossed the road.
Pressed on - I don't rememberseeing anything of interest atGymie, Maryborough orBundaberg, home of the wellknown rum, until we reachedGladstone and here there was ahuge open cast mine. Describedas the largest Bauxite (aluminiumore) mine in the SouthernHemisphere, yes absolutelymassive, everything about thiswas terrific. Looking down intothe mine the large dumper truckscarrying the bauxite looked likedDinky toys, unbelievable. On to Rockhampton, nothingspecial there so on to Mackay andalthough we were coming intolovely countryside we continuedon to Prosperine to visit our exRAF friends the late ED (radar)& JEAN PHILLIMORE. Eddecided to settle down as he hadmoved around a bit. He fanciedfruit growing & had 100+ PawPaw trees until the great storm of1970 blew down 100 of them.Later he moved to Caloundra 60miles north from Brisbane.Approx. 20 miles fromProserpine is Shute Harbour andfrom here we caught a launch tothe Whitsunday Isles. These arethe holiday isles and HaymanIsland was really opulent & runby ANSETT, the airline firm. Wefirst went to South Molle then
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Daydream Isles. We stayed acouple of nights on HaymanIsland. Back to Proserpine to Ed& Jean's. Ginger is grown locallyso Ed took us to a factory for avisit, after this Ed advised us totake the train to Cairns as the roadwas rough.So after the train journey toCairns, I cannot remember howlong it took us, we arrived at thenice little town with no beach butmangroves instead. One of theattractions is the Kuranda Railwaythat runs from Cairns up the hillsand to Kuranda itself. Thisrailway station is perched abovethe Barron River and is said to tobe the most picturesque inAustralia. It winds around thegorge & is lovely. A coach runout into Tableland, west of Cairns,and you see massive trees, somewith a curtain fig strangling thehost tree. This is started off bybirds dropping a seed that roots,thickens & multiplies as it wrapsitself around the host tree andeventually kills it, see my slide.One day we had a interesting boattrip to Green Island to see theBarrier Reef but it bucketed downwith rain and we had to return toCairns. My son who worked forBHP in Cairns did the trip in 1971and said it was a rip off as the truereef is much further off shore and
difficult to visit. After a few daysat Cairns we headed back toProserpine to collect the car &start our very long journey backhome. On the journey back wewere covering more than 200miles per day and progress wasgood, stopping at towns to havea nights sleep. When we werewell into New South Wales Ifoolishly left it until earlyevening to find accommodation,stopping at 3 towns, but novacancies. In the end we had toplough on, I drove more than 500miles to get home, arriving backat - I remember it well - 10minutes past one in the morningand very tired. I drove a total of4,321 miles; much too much fora 20 day holiday.Later we took a short trip toBright in Victoria around 120miles north east of Melbourne.This small town prides itself onits autumn coloured treesbecause they have so fewdeciduous trees that have suchcolour. That's it for now.
13Kuranda Railway Station
A Short History
Part 5
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15
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More next time......17
(well, some of it !)Well the title is not really veryaccurate as I know not much aboutthe history way back of the MobileField Processing Sections.
However, suffice to say that film hasbeen processed in portable or mobilevehicles almost since photographywas first discovered by Fox Talbotwith his grainy picture of a window.The military were not slow to realisethe potential of being able to movetheir processing facilities along withadvancing troops. This was nevermore so than in WW 2 when the frontswere shifting with monotonousregularity, sometimes evenbackwards!
Towards the end of the MFPU’s lifemost were deployed on Cold Warduties in RAF Germany. The numberof the Unit taken from the first numberof the squadron they supported. Iserved on number 1 MFPU whichserved 17 Squadron for example,based at RAF Wildenrath. 8 MFPUsupported 80 squadron at RAFBruggen, 3 MFPU supported 31squadron at Laarbruch and so on.The exception, there’s always oneisn’t there, was number 4 MFPUbased at HQ at Rheindahlen, a nonflying station.
The reason the initials changed fromMFPS to MFPU was very simple.Originally each mobile section wasallotted to a wing or a squadron andwas called a Mobile FieldProcessing Section. During the early1960’s the decision was taken tomake them Units rather thansections and thus they became MFPUnits. There was a bonus to all ofthis because I started my firstposting after Wellesbourne on anMFPS which meant that one had todo station parades and other guardduties. However, the mobile unitsalso had their duty rostas as wellwhich made life a pain for theaverage erk! So, once we became aUNIT, great, no more stationparades or other duties. Howeverthe MFPU duties remained. Such as‘frostguard’, to ensure that in theharsh German winters, the vehiclesremained fully operational at alltimes, 24/7, 365 days a year. AsMike Speake so aptly put it, “Youshuffle from wagon to wagonchecking that the air cons are all onfull blast and the D.19 has notfrozen, in case the Russians makea dash for the Channel ports”.
The end of the cold war alsosignalled the end of the MFPU’s.
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The fact that the sections becameknown as “muffpussies” I am sure hadnothing to do with the change tobecoming units. Most of us in thosedays would not have known what amuffp...........oh never mind! Later ofcourse they became known as(possibly worse) “muffpoos”.
Being a “mobile” unit of course meantthat from time to time you had toprove to the powers that be that youwere actually capable of moving! Themost boring of these of course wasthe move half a mile down the maincamp drag to either the control towerand ops room area or to the squadronhangars. Once there you had tosurvey the area. It was very importantthat you knew not only where butequally important, when, the MalcolmClub wagon would be around with teaand rolls. Secondly of course one hadto pay lip service to our raisin d’etreand get the dev warmed up! Ofcourse, quite often all this happenedby being roused from one’s bed at anhour you did not realize existed andtaking your life in your hands, jumpingon the rear of a Maggie truck.
Then of course, we did actually gofurther afield, such as to Gilze Rijenin Holland or even USAF Ramstein insouthern Germany. This was not somuch a test of our photographicabilities, as a test of how many ofthe vehicles would break down beforegetting half way!
Talking of vehicles, does anyoneremember how fast the Von Lienentractor units went when NOT pullingtons of photo processing gear behindthem?
The sheer speed and acceleration ofthose V8 air cooled diesels wasamazing. This fact on number 1, wasusually demonstrated by one of ourMT drivers, known as Blodwen,whosadly passed on some years ago. Hewould jump into the cab, tear offdown to the Airmens Mess and havefinished his pud by the time the restof us got there by various means!
Sleeping was one of the mostcommon pastimes on the MFPU’s.This was because there were manydays when the squadrons did not flyfor one reason or another and apartfrom bull, there was little else to do.However, sleeping while on duty wasconsidered by the CO and the W/Oto be entirely unnecessary eventhough you may have been up halfthe previous night pumping outthousands of prints from the multi-printer. I remember once, most of theunit had been stood down and just afew bods left on duty. I duly crawledinto one of the numerous cupboardsinside the hand printing wagon. Allwas fine until I was awoken by thesound of someone clanking up themetal steps into the vehicle. Havingleft a small gap in the cupboard toassist with breathing, I observed apair of very shiny Oxford shoes thatcould only belong to Flt. Lt. King(Wally King) our CO. I rapidly startedto think up all sorts of reasons why Iwas inside a cupboard! None of themseemed plausible to me. Thankfullyhe did not stay long, or worse openany cupboards! I am sure there mustbe many similar memories out thereso get your writing kit out and let’shear them!
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In the next issue, thanks to Gerry ourillustrious secretary, we will beserialising “The Darkroom Boys” a relicfrom 1945 about the antics of number 3MFPS in WW2. Don’t miss it!
A No.7 MFPS wagonbacking onto a landing craft
at Gosport in Hampshireon 30 Aug 1944
in preparation for theNormandy landings.
No.8 MFPS in the field in RAF Germany 1958
One of the amazing Magirustractor units (above) and 8MFPS control office (right)
7 MFPS picture courtesy Roy Conyers Nesbit8 MFPS pictures courtesy John Eden
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A typical set up of an MFPU would have been:
2 Continuous Processing Units (CPU’s), 2 Multiprinting units.2 F.95 and or Gun Camera processing vehicles.Several Ford Koln trucks used as Hand Printing, Office, Film store and chemicalmixing. No.1 MFPU had the luxury of a disused Von Lienen trailer which wastransformed into a very nice crewroom. Alas it could not be taken ondetachments! They would also have had a Mercedes Water Bowser, Boschmobile generator units, one or two 3 ton Magirus trucks, a VW Beetle for theboss (or later a Mini-Minor) and last but not least a motor bike.On an airfiled site these vehicles were usually placed at one end of the airfieldin one of the unused circular revetments (airfield dispersal apron) that weredesigned for aircraft protection.Each unit also had it’s own MT personnel, usually a Cpl and an SAC, an SACelectrician, an SAC clerk and quite often a general dogsbody, either an AC1 orLAC GD.As we shall see in future issues the wartime strength of the mobile units tendedto be in the 80’s but in Cold War Germany it tended to be nearer 20 to 30personnel.
Hatchway into one of therevetments already
mentioned in the text.
Camp cooking 8 MFPS style!21
Some of the 8 MFPS lads
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Yet more 8 MFPS lads
The late Tony Woodward whotook most of the pictures
Lads outing from 8 MFPS, 1950’s
We are grateful to JohnEden for permission toreproduce these photos
Ed.
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MORE RAFCOLD WAR HEROES
On the 1st May 1960, RussianMay Day, a CIA pilot called GaryPowers, turned his Lockheed U2spy plane into a gentle left turnover one of the Soviet Union’smost secretive areas. There wasa sudden thud which shook theaircraft. When he looked in therear view mirror on the canopycoaming, he could see the wholeof the rear of his aircraft was amass of flames. He managed tostraighten up for a few secondsbut then the aircraft buntedviolently and he began aninverted, nose-high,uncontrollable spin. Any otherpilot would have banged out butsomething troubled Powers. Hisaircraft was fitted with a self-destruct explosive to prevent anyintelligence on the aircraft gettinginto enemy hands. He could seethe button right in front of him but,as the CIA had also issued himwith a ‘suicide needle’ hidden in acoin, he had a sneaking suspicionthat when he pressed that button
the whole thing would blow withhim still in it. If they didn’t wantthe U2 to fall into enemy handsthen they sure as hell wouldn’twant the pilot to be captured. Hedecided to play safe. Now remember, in those daysejection seats were not automatic.American seats were actuated byhandles on the arms of the seatand once out of the aircraft, thepilot had to manually release theharness holding him to the seat,fall clear, and pull the old-fashioned ‘D-Ring’ to open thebackpack chute. However thechute would open barometricallyas the pilot passed through15,000 feet. Powers opted for amanual bail-out. He blew thecanopy, undid his straps and,fighting the incredible ‘G’ Forces,tried to throw himself ‘over theside’. This was not too successfulas he’d forgotten to disconnecthis R/T and oxygen leads. Hetried to get back in but the violentspinning of the fuselage, meantthe wings had ripped off sometime before, preventing hisrescuing the situation. Then,miraculously, he ripped free. Itmust have been at the verymoment he passed through15,000 feet as the chute openedautomatically. A few secondslater and the chute would haveopened and fouled the aircraftstructure. He was now on the endof his chute over the hostile
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USSR and descending intohistory. For a few days the Russianskept quiet about their valuableprisoner but finally the Russianpremier, Khrushchev, at a largegathering with the Americanambassador sitting in a privilegedposition at the front of thechamber (far ahead of his normalseat) revealed the fate of the U2and the fact the pilot was alive,well and under interrogation. Inthe USA, panic ensued and theybegan to devise false flight plansto deny Powers had flown overthe USSR intentionally. AlthoughI do believe it incredible that theSoviets were expected to believesuch a ’navigation error’.
Although the Top Secret U2base was located at Incirlik airbase, ten miles from Adana inTurkey, Powers had taken offfrom Peshawar in Pakistan whichwas often used as a missionjumping-off point. His missionwould cover 3,788 miles, acrossRussia, to Bodo in Norway.2,919 miles of that would be overSoviet territory past Stalinabad,Aralsic, Chelyabinsk, Kirov,Archangel and Murmansk. Hewould be flying in the newlyuprated U2 at a little in excess of80,000 feet to cover two maintargets - Tyura Tam, the Sovietequivalent of Cape Canaveralwhich was located 80 miles to theeast of the Aral Sea and Kapustin
Yar which was anotherintercontinental ballistic missiletest site to the southeast ofStalingrad. His camera, in thefuselage, had a 944.7mmrotating lens which peered out ofseven optical ports. It could take4000 paired shots of a 125 mile-wide, 2,174 mile-long strip of theUSSR and any of you RAFphotographers who worked onthe resulting films will know theincredible standard of resolutionthose cameras produced. It wasunbelievable.
I’ve taken a while to get to thereal reason for this story in orderto reveal the bravery of not justthe CIA pilots but the four RAFpilots who were attached to thebase at Incirlik. As with the RAFpilots mentioned in the lastFlashback, they were there toensure we had access to the TopSecret recce intelligence of theSoviet bloc. If we wanted to seeit then the Americans, quite rightreally, insisted we took some ofthe diplomatic and personal risks.
The original leader of the RAFdetachment was SquadronLeader Christopher Walker buthe was tragically killed duringtraining when his U2 broke upover Wayside in Texas. He wasreplaced by Squadron LeaderRobert Robinson who joined theother members of the team,Flight Lieutenants Michael
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Bradley, David Dowling and JohnMacArthur. By the end of theirdetachment they’d all earned theAir Force Cross. Each man madeseveral flights over the USSR inaircraft devoid of all markings tophotograph rocket and missilesites. Each mission had beenapproved by the then PrimeMinister Harold Macmillan. Flightswere also made over othereastern bloc countries and theMiddle East.
Then, when Powers was ‘shot’down and his fate discovered, theRAF pilots left immediately. Thiswas to save any embarrassmentwith the Turkish government asthey had no idea the RAF pilotswere there. The Britishdetachment was ordered to‘vanish’ until things died down. Infact Robinson went to Spain forsome months. Ironically,Robinson had warned the USdetachment commander that MayDay was not a good time to flyover the USSR. He reckonedthere would be a maximum alertand, as Powers was passing closeto Moscow, extremely provocativeand every attempt would be madeto secure a propaganda coup.How right he was.
Later, a limited version of theCIA U2 programme wasresuscitated although there wereno permanent overseas units andno more over flights of the Soviet
Union. The RAF was recalledand in 1961 two RAF pilots Sq Ldr‘Chunky’ Webster and Flt LtCharles Taylor joined the CIAprogramme. They were replacedin 1964 by Sq Ldr Basil Dodd andFlt Lt Martin Bee. Websterelected to stay with the U2 force.He resigned from the RAF andjoined the Lockheed Corporationto continue missions for the CIA.Other RAF officers flew U2sbefore British involvement in theprogramme was terminated in thelate 60s.
It has been hinted, althoughnot confirmed, that RAF pilotsalso flew the U2 out of Japan,Formosa, Okinawa, thePhilippines, Alaska, WestGermany and of course, England.These were all dangerousmissions and, as air defencesimproved, the relatively slowspeed of the U2 meant that theCIA missions, carried out underthe guise of NASA weatherinvestigation flights, werecurtailed.
Then satellites took oversurveillance from space but,before that, RAF crews werepenetrating Soviet airspace inanother ubiquitous aircraft. Thefinal chapter will be in the nextFlashback.
Dave Newham
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Humour inBlue
Two drunk airmen are standing on a cliff edge near St Mawgan airfieldin Cornwall, one has some budgies attached to his arms, the other drunkhas some parrots. They both jump off the cliff and crash to the ground.Lying next to each other in sick quarters, one says to the other, “I don’tthink much of this paragliding”, the other one says “No, I don’t like thisbudgie jumping either”.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Heard at an airport recently when being asked to remove his shoesfor security. “I’m just glad Richard Reid the shoe bomber was notknown as the underwear bomber”.
“”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””1960’s definition of an optimist:An F-104 Starfighter pilot who gives up smoking
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A photographer for a small town newspaper was told to go and getsome pictures of a large forest fire. Realising he could not get anydecent shots because of the smoke and the heat, he decided toorder a small plane from a local airfield from which he would getsome really great shots. He was assured it would be ready andwaiting for him. He drove at high speed to the grass airfield,dumped the car and raced across to the plane which was alreadyfired up and waiting. He jumped in and told the pilot to head for thefire and then do some low passes. When a little nearer the fire thepilot asked why were they doing this. The photographer saidbecause he was a news photographer and that is what they do.The pilot then replied “So you’re not a flying instructor then?”.
How do you know when you are half way through a date with a fighterpilot? He will say: “That’s enough about flying, let’s talk about me”.
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
27
Whilst scanning through the springedition of Flashback I glanced at thephotograph of the opening of thenew School of Photography, typicalI thought, full of Officers.Flipping over to the next page, aname leapt out at me, that of SgtHoole, must be the same man Ithought as I went back to theprevious page, it was, his face leaptout at me.It was indeed “Harry the screwdriverHoole”.When I arrived at HQ 38 Group RAFUpavon (on the hill) in January1977, Harry was WO i/c thePhoto/Litho section.What a wonderful understandingman he was, trouble was, what he didnot understand, he took apart,fortunately these items were mostlyC class stores.He was a bit like flat pack furniture,when he had finished his little task,he always had two screws left over,this always necessitated areplacement being ordered.Harry thought he was in charge buthe could not cope with a section fullof civvy printers and three stroppyPhoto G’s.
The printing section was on theother side of the hanger and the civiswho were a good bunch would runrings around Harry, anything out ofthe ordinary such as work wereusually met with talk of industrialaction of some sort, Harry wouldscuttle back to his office huffing andpuffing that he had put them all intheir place.We Photo G’s were located in a longhut attached to the Hanger by acorridor, Harry usually left us towork in peace but occasionally camefor a friendly chat.As was the practice in those days,the civvies regard the four weekspaid sick leave as an entitlement inaddition to annual leave, the graphicartist in the section would wait untilHarry had departed on a Friday andask me to tell Harry on Monday thathe had phoned in sick and would notbe coming back until the followingweek, he could usually be foundrecuperating in Spain.Harry decided one day that hiselderly Mother in Sheffield neededlooking after so he bought a houseup there and became a “BeanStealer”.This meant that we were free of himmost of Monday and Friday whilsthe travelled, Tuesday to Thursdaywere also quite good because hewould take extra long lunch breaksto play the machines in the Messwith his ‘Friend’ the WO from MT.The rest of the hanger in which weworked was the Gym complete witha sauna, which where we tended to
Harry
‘the
screwdriver’
Hoole
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spend Friday afternoons, good forridding the body of toxins whichcomprised mainly of lunch time’s ale.I quite often volunteered to be thesecurity key man, this entailed goingfor early lunch, coming back andlocking things away, then off to theNAAFI for a good hour of suppingand cheese toasties, tea was just thesame except that I could often makeit back to the cookhouse for anothermeal, after that a good sleep wasusually in order. If it was Bull Night,a working sign on the door did thetrick.One of my regular trips out was tothe Bomb Dump MU at Chilmark,this was a fantastic place full of cavesand with its own railway system,calls from them were usually urgentbecause something had gone wrong.It was not unusual for them to opena railway container from the RoyalOrdnance Factory to find that a 1000round load of 20mm cannon shellshad broken loose and were falling allover the place.Of much more interest was watchingthem taking apart Cluster Bombs,real bangers.Flights around the UK and overseastrips were very easy, even unofficialones; the network within HQ 38Group was such that supernumerarytickets were almost 10 a penny.The Photo Section comprised of CplChris Drinkwater last heard of livingat Wroughton, myself and AN other.Chris usually had his hair greasedand combed straight back, I think itmust has dawned on him one day that
his bald patch was quite advancedbecause he came into work oneMonday with a new hairstyle, YESthe dreaded comb over, lunchtimewas normally spent in the NAAFIbut after about 10 minutes of mickeytaking he left in a great huff.Having arrived at Upavon fromGermany via Cosford I decided thatanother overseas tour was in orderso I put in for Cyprus.One day I had a phone call from ANOther who had just been told byManning that he was off toGermany, this being his first choice,Cyprus being his second, would Ilike to swap.You can imagine my reply, so off toAkrotiri I went which is where I firstmet Bob Weeks but that is anotherstory
Derek Adamson
45th Entry
50th Anniversary
January 2012
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Tale of a G 45
Gun Camera
It was of considerable interest thatI noted in the latest copy ofFlashback the article on ColinWilliamson written by BrianAttwell and it was this thatprompted me to reflect on a recentpurchase I made on EBay which Iwould like to share with you.
I have in my wife’s words thisstrange cannot help myselfdisposition to collect old cameras,damn odd when I think about it,as I was never much at using oneto any useful end that I recall.Whilst my main interest is incollecting brands I could at thetime have only dreamed of owning,it is more the history and theengineering that has gone intothem that really keeps mecollecting rather than ever havinga view to try and use them.
Let me return to Brian’s story andthat of Williamson the camerasthey made for the RAF and inparticular the G45 gun camera. Introlling through the EBay offeringsone day I spotted a chap down inCanberra who had two items onoffer that I simply could not letpass up with out a bid. The chapconcerned had no idea what hehad and was to his credit quiteopen about that fact but a quickemail put him right. The obvious
camera was the G45, however theother bit had me scratching myhead but it soon came to me thatthe other item was in fact themagazine and body less the lensunit of an F95. Actually gettingit was a bit convoluted and I willnot burden you with that bit butsuffice to say that after a fewdays I had in my hot sweatyhands one rather mint G45complete, including its magazinebut left him with the incompleteF95.
In my time in the RAF I only everhad dealings with the PRCanberra’s of 58 and 13 Sqdn’sso the G45 was a camera I onlyever came in contact with whilsttraining at Cosford so in beinghonest it had I guess no realattraction for me. Why did I buyit you might well ask, well apartfrom pure interest I was keen tosee if it had any history and whatits path might have been as tohow it made its way to Australia.
In looking over the camera, whichwas in superb condition, I notedsome lettering that had obviouslybeen added at some time in itspast life, and it was this that hadme straight to the internet andfingers typing.
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Written on the side of the camerawere what I knew was clearly themarkings of an RAF aircraft WK973, which I soon found out wasan RAF F8 Meteor and that factsoon had me on a path to sift outthe history of this camera. I shouldpoint out that I have not looked atthe RAF history of this aircraft soperhaps some might have amemory of where it might haveserved prior to its arrival inAustralia, as so far I have turnedup nothing.
The RAAF I well knew did have F8Meteors and it did not take long tofind that this aircraft was one sentout to Australia around theKorean War period and it becameA77 885 and served with RAAF 77Sqdn. This Squadron did have along history in the Korean Warhowever the Meteor was not wellsuited and sadly many were lostalong with their crews.This aircraft was delivered to theRAAF on the 16 September 1953so missed the Korean War butserved with 77 Sqdn until it wasconverted in November 1961 toU21A configuration, which is adrone and was destined for use atthe Woomera rocket trials beingconducted by the British at thetime. This aircraft survived thatperiod but in June of 1964 it wasSOC and scrapped at EdinburghSA in a fire demo.
So it is that the sole remaining bitof kit from that aircraft afterhaving served two nations in itstime is this G45 camera looking as
good as the day it was made,after all that a bit sad really.
One final mention on this Ishould like to share with you isthat having shown this camerato members of my local hamradio club one member askedthe obvious question,” can weget it working again” It is for mea particularly long journey fromCosford and in particular someinstructor showing the class theinner workings of this cameraand apart from knowing what itwas little else remained with methat was of help. I did none theless promise to see if that waspossible. An email to the RAFmuseum who I found out haveall the old AP’s on handproduced at a very modest costa complete section on the G45that gave me all I needed to getthe camera back in action.
It was a bit of a lash up as I donot have the plug that attachesto the rear of the camera but itdid turn over just as it wasdesigned all those yeas ago byWilliamson. If any of you knowwhere such a plug might behiding I would be happy toacquire it.
Bob Dixon, Oz.
Thanks for that delightful storyBob. We hope you find a plugfor it! Ed.
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More RAF slang.......
and there’s more.....32
Aye...aye....that’s your lot!We are indebted to John Lewis for providing such aninformative and amusing list of service slang. Ed.
On the 1st April 2010 HerMajesty the Queen was handingout the usual Maundy Money.As is traditional there were 84male and 84 female recipients,one for each year of themonarchs life.
Included this year was one Bill Attenborough who is 91 years old.He was a Royal Air Force photographer and remembers taking theQueen’s photograph in 1953, the year of her coronation. He had nevermet the Queen before and it was a great moment for him as thememories came flooding back. Maundy comes from the latin“mandatum”, Christ’s commandment to love one another.
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Let’s go surfing....... ........now!
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1. tripadvisor.co.uk Boasts more than 11 million members, clubbing together to rateand review hotels, B&B’s, restaurants and more throughout the world.
2. genesreunited.co.uk You can search for your ancestors and bulid a family treehere, Britain’s most popular family history site.
3. lettersofnote.com This is a stylish site with scans of letters, telegrams, faxes andmemos; Einstein encouraging Roosevelt to pursue atomic research, the Museum ofModern Art turning down a gift from Andy Warhol in 1956.
4. travelsupermarket.com Covers everything from late package deals to insurance.One of the best comparison sites.
5. bobsbooks.co.uk Lets you turn video footage into a flick book, design your owncalendar and transform frumpy photo albums into glossy coffee table books.
6. thehungersite.com This is an easy way to give to charity. Click on the site and thesponsors will then donate some money to one of several good causes such as CancerResearch, Literacy and Hunger.
7. epicurious.com A vast range of recipes, primers on baking bread and making piesand also an i phone app to create a shopping list from a recipe.
8. nationalgeographic.com This site is full of startling photography and mindexpanding writing on space, the environment, animals, even world music.
9. howstuffworks.com The creation of one Marshall Brain, aims to explore everythingfrom DNA coding to car transportation problems in simple articles and videos.
10. whatshouldireadnext.com Suggests ideas for books you should read based onwhatever you read last. Entertaining, if a bit hit and miss!
FACEBOOK. As of today there is a new privacy setting called “instant Personalisation”that shares data with non Facebook websites and it is automatically set to “Allow”.Go to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites >What yourFriends can share about you.Edit Settings, and uncheck ALL options. Youneed to let your Facebook friends know about this otherwise they will besharing information about YOU!
GERRY LINSTEAD.H. 01223-565244 or m. 07754-891846
“I often have trouble keeping mine up”
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The men’s shower block was always afavourite place for gun camera training
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Point and shoot was the predecessor toplug and play!
