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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1406.PDF
560 FLIGHT, 23 October 1953 SYCAMORE OVER SWITZERLAND . . . Sauvetage, a group of quite the largest and most muscular young men I have ever seen. At morning rehearsals at Lake Thu|i, two of them, each wearing only what appeared to be the more strategic half of a "Bikini," came aboard as passengers and, from about 35ft, leapt into the lake. The first we "rescued" by means of the winch. That is to say, we lowered the hook and raised it again with our "casualty" hanging on to it like a giant fish. His colleague then came back on board by climbing up a rope ladder. It was interesting, in passing, to note that when our two demonstrators later gave their performance before an official audience they were wearing fairly substantial overalls. But whether this was because the lake water was a degree or two colder than they had expected, or because they felt that the actual demonstration demanded something sartorially more decor ous, we couldn't decide. The next exercise introduced us to an unusual but most efficient type of lake-rescue apparatus—a series of papier-mache balls of about a foot diameter lashed together at intervals to form a life-line of about 250ft. With this in the rear of the cockpit we flew to the rescue of several people realistically posing as survivors from a capsized boat. We flew round them in a tight turn, paying out the line as we went, so laying down a sort of huge circular lifebuoy on the surface of the lake and within easy reach of the demonstrators. It seemed to me a most effective way of helping survivors at least to stay afloat until they could be picked up. Members of die Socidte' also demonstrated gear devised for casualty evacuation in the mountains—a rope-and-pulley appara tus known as Liberator equipment, by means of which one of them was able to descend to earth from the cockpit, controlling his rate of descent, and a harness which was similar to the "bo'sun's chair" normally used for winch rescue, except that the rescuer secured the casualty by strapping him on his back. While we were impressed by the ingenuity of this equipment I ALITTLE-PUBLICIZED contribution to the seven-nation NATO Exercise Mariner, which ended on October 4th, was the intensive and highly successful minelaying operations carried out by Lincolns of Bomber Command. From the night of September 26th, when the Command first came into the picture, the Lincolns went out nightly to lay mines in the Thames Estuary, off the French and Dutch coasts and in the approaches to the Channel ports. Although there was night-fighter activity in these areas, on not one single night was an interception made and this success was highly rewarding to the Lincoln crews, who are in no doubt of their position vis-a-vis jet night fighters. The trip which the writer made towards the end of "Mariner" was laid on by the officer commanding R.A.F. station Wittering, G/C. W. P. Sutcliffe, D.F.C., whose Lincolns, in addition to the minelayers, also took a prominent part in the simulated atomic- bomb attack on the NATO striking fleet in the Atlantic. From Bomber Command H.Q. I had a pleasant flight in a Com. Flight Oxford, piloted by F/O. Munday, flying at 3,000ft in a sunny, cloud-flecked sky. I was invited to fly in a veteran Lincoln of No. 100 Squadron piloted by one of the squadron's flight commanders, F/L. S. E. Fawson. The Lincoln's target that night was the Harwich approaches, although in order to give the crew a reasonable exercise (and the night fighters a fair chance) our trip was scheduled to cover over 600 nautical miles. In addition to our two navigators, F/L. E. M. Williams (nav.-plotter) and F/O. W. Stevens (radar-nav.) we had on board an engineer, a signaller and a gunner. Whilst watching our aircraft taking on her mines I was told of the squadron's new prized possession—a high-pressure petrol bowser which fills at the rate of 125 gallons a minute from each of two hoses. I also learned mat the magnetic mines to be used by die Lincolns contained a charge of sodium phosphide which, on explosion, could take the paint off a vessel's side, leaving the vessel in no doubt whatever as to what she had run into! Apart from this special filling the mines were identical with the opera tional type. The mines were supplied to the R.A.F. by die Navy. After a specialist briefing, during which me captain, navigators, gunner and engineer, received their individual instructions, the general briefing took place, and we were delighted to hear from the met. man that, apart from some stratus in the southernmost part of the Channel, we might expect a good run. We then adjourned for a well-cooked supper of egg, bacon and chips to fortify us against the Channel cold. Our captain made a gentle, east-west take-off at 2045 hr B.S.T. am quite sure that people watching were equally impressed by the greater potential efficiency which became obvious when the gear was used in conjunction with the Sycamore. The next phase of operations called for landings at higher altitude landing grounds, one of which, at Mount Gantrisch, had the dual distinction of being our highest point to date (5,400ft) and also proving almost as awkward as Biitschelegg. We had to land on a small plateau with quite a steep drop to starboard and in front, and a high ridge of hills barring our approach from any other direction. Our approach was from the valley and we had to land over the drop—not a particularly comfortable way of doing things. Even so, we took off and landed several times without difficulty at full all-up-weight of 5,400 lb. Our highest landing point, however, was the Sanetsch Pass, some 6,600ft up, on the last day of demonstration flying. Here a new power line is being laid as part of an electrical development scheme, and we had intended to show the Sycamore off as a transport, carrying supplies and equipment into the pass from a nearby base. Unfortunately, a severe snowstorm kept us on the ground during the morning; and when, after lunch, the weather eventually cleared, it was too late to go through with the exercise. We decided, however, that we would at least show how simple it was to take the Sycamore in. The journey from Berne to Sanetsch normally takes a good three hours—two by car, and another on foot. Our time for the complete return journey, including ten minutes' stop in the pass, was no more than an hour and a half. The significance of this performance, during which we rose to over 8,000ft on the approach, hardly needs comment. It was, for all the Bristol team, a most pleasant trip which we shall always remember, and we are grateful to our friends of Helicoptere Suisse S.A., particularly Mr. Hoerning and Dr. Aeschbacher, for their very efficient collaboration. White-Smith assures me that the ground party is never likely to forget the car rides to the mountain landing places. There were times, I gather, when it was reassuring to reflect that the driver, Mr. Hoerning, is a racing motorist of international repute. well within the limits of the generous 3,000yd runway, and set course for Reading a minute later. Until the coast was reached we were flying at our safety height of 2,500ft and from the bomb aimer's position, with its sensation of hanging in space, one had a splendid view of the towns of Southern England passing in rapid succession. Like clusters of precious stones they blazed with light in all the colours of die rainbow. At Reading, where one pair of flashing zebra-crossing beacons seemed to stand out from everything else, we made a turn to port and headed for Selsey Bill, where we were to cross the coast. Once there the operational part of die trip began. We glided down to the required height of less than a thousand feet, navigation lights were extinguished and the rear gunner warned to keep a sharp look-out for the fighters that were expected. Then, as our Lincoln skimmed over the sea, widi only an occasional ship to break the monotony, we neared our first turning point, 20 miles north of Le Havre. Here we ran into the expected low stratus and we were able to see only an occasional fight on the French coast. The second leg was along the coast to Dieppe before striking north-east to Ramsgate. At this point our Lin coln increased altitude to laying height and the crew began listen ing over the R/T for the safety ship—which was to broadcast last-minute instructions as to whether the mines were to be dropped or not—to give "Clear" or "Foul." We, of course, were maintaining R/T and W/T silence. On the previous mining missions the Lincolns received "Foul" and jettisoned their mines at some prearranged point, but our instructions were to take them back to base if they could not be laid. Shortly before zero hour "Clear" came strongly over die R/T from the safety ship and our captain began his run-up. Time on target was 2300 hr and a perfect laying was made—only a few seconds late—off Orfordness. Shortly after take-off our Gee had become partially unserviceable, but the fact did not worry the crew to any extent, because on this trip we were dropping our mines by H2S. Our next leg was 80 miles east over the North Sea—presumably to give the night fighters another chance—then northwards for another twenty miles, followed by a straight run to Wittering. On reaching the east coast our captain pulled up die Lincoln to safety height and shortly after midnight we let down on Babs to make a perfect landing. The Babs was carried out to perfection, incidentally, and earned a pat on the back from the captain. Although the run was uneventful from the nighrfighter point of view we had completed a successful mission and fully lived up to Uie squadron motto of Sarang Tebuan Jangan Kijolok ("Never stir up a hornet's nest"). We certainly hadn't stirred up any hornet's nests that night, which was precisely what Bomber Com mand had expected of us. G.R.G. MINELAYING IN "MARINER"
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