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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0957.PDF
8 July 1955 67 Since the Sabre squadrons based at Jever were completing theirannual gunnery attachment at Sylt and only a small number of Hunter pilots had as yet done enough flying to take part in the exer-cise, Jeyer was not at war. When we visited them they were just recovering from one of Northern Germany's characteristic cloud-burst-like thunderstorms, but four Hunters were ready to scramble. Two squadrons, No. 98 (S/L. J. H. Smith-Carrington) andNo. 118 (S/L. C. M. Gibbs) had moved to Jeyer for conversion, leaving their Venoms behind them elsewhere in Germany. TheHunters are, of course, of the Mk 4 variety, incorporating a number of improvements about which the pilots are enthusiastic but which,unfortunately, cannot be detailed. So pleasant has the Hunter proved to fly that it was said that the main difficulty was consideredto be a tendency towards over-confidence. The four pilots had already, in the space of six weeks, become operational and werestanding by to join in Carte Blanche. But as the weather improved rapidly and the cloudbase went up to 800ft, the four aircraft tookoff and allowed themselves to be photographed from a Vampire Trainer. Time was short, however, and we had to fly back to MuenchenGladbach. By the evening of Saturday, 36 atom bombs had been dropped and the advantage still lay with 2nd A.T.A.F., althoughthe intervention of the U.S. Sixth Fleet was expected hourly. The tactical aims of both sides had now clearly emerged as the destruc-tion of each other's atomic capability. The requirement was for search by reconnaissance, pin-pointing by assessment and com-munications, and destruction by attack. And once an attack had been made reconnaissance was again required to assess the result. At Bierset, near Liege, we visited No. 2 Squadron which hadbeen re-deployed there at the beginning of the exercise, together with the Belgian No. 42 Squadron, with which they were normallybased in Germany. The Belgians with RF-84Gs were somewhat (Top) A Meteor F.R.9 at Bierset in Belgium with F/O. G. Mar low, who flew "Flight's" representative on a reconnaissance to Bitburg. (Centre) Helicopters ware extensively used in Carte Blanche. These white Sycamores and a silver Dragonfly were at Wildenrath. (Bottom) A Can- berra B.2 being bombed up at Giitersloh. The wheels are jacked up to allow the handling trolley with its clutch of bombs to be wheeled in under the tail. Hydraulic jacks then lift the bombs up to the carriers. under strength since they were using their last aircraft beforebeing equipped with RF-84F Thunderfiashes. No. 2 Squadron personnel were living under canvas in a field some distance fromthe runway and the wing ops centre was heavily camouflaged beneath some trees nearby. The squadron's Meteor F.R.9s, underthe command of S/L. R. H. G. Weighill, the former Rugby inter- national, had been heavily engaged since the beginning of dieexercise in keeping an eye on various airfields just across the bomb-line. They had seen Matadors and claimed to have photo-graphed two F-lOOs at Bitburg. We immediately accepted an invitation to fly down there in a Meteor 7 with F/O. G. Marlow. It is the job of FR aircraft to sneak in over the target at fairlyhigh speed, take one quick look if there is any likelihood of opposi- tion, and return to base at full bore with their reports and photo-graphs. The essence of the approach is to keep below radar cover and to sneak up valleys, making maximum use of naturalcover, but, owing to a number of misfortunes during the early days of the exercise, their minimum height had been raised tono less than 2,000ft witii die result that they were well inside radar cover and could make no use of their normal techniques.Bitburg was heavily occupied with F-86s and F/O. Marlow expected plenty of resistance. However, when we arrived overBitburg all was calm; in fact the station had every appearance of being closed for the weekend. But diere, on two dispersalpans, were two F-lOOs with enormous under-wing tanks and their characteristic aggressive attitude. As Sunday, the fourth day, drew to a close the pace was decep-tively slack, but we felt that die last two days would be decisive in one way or another because then no holds were barred. Itwas going to be "free play" of atomic weapons; any airfield knocked out would stay knocked out until the battle came to anend because there were no forces left on either side. At the time the exercise ended on June 28th, 12,347 sorties hadbeen flown and 300 simulated atom bombs had been dropped. Though full assessment would take several months it was alreadyclear mat, in the words of A. Cdre. P. G. Wykeham-Barnes, chief of operations, A.A.F.C.E., atomic war would be "short andhorrible." "In an all-out atomic war," he said, "there would be no winners and no losers, and little left to assess." The maintask of A.A.F.C.E. lay in providing an efficient deterrent to war by remaining at a perpetual state of readiness. In any case itwas certain that one or other side would suffer fatal damage witiiin the first two days, and that everything possible must be done toprepare the fighting units for the effect of atomic attack; they must continue operations despite the destruction and disorganizationwhich would follow the dropping of each atomic weapon. Pro- cedures and communications had worked well, but further simpli-fication was still desirable and the flying units would have to be prepared to meet such threats as complete jamming of radarservices. In the two years which had elapsed since exercise Coronet, A.A.F.C.E. had been built up into a key unit in thedefence of the western world. PRECISION APPROACH RADAR DEMONSTRATED AT Hatfield airfield last week Elliott Brothers (London), Ltd.,1 gave a demonstration of the American Laboratory for Elec- tronics' SPAR portable precision-approach radar equipment, forwhich they now have the sales rights for the United Kingdom. The qualities claimed for SPAR are its lightness, cheapness,portability and great accuracy and, besides many civil sales in the U.S.A., orders have been placed by the U.S.A.F. and the U.S.Navy. The latter has given it the designation GPN-6. SPAR consists of two units, the azimuth and elevation scannersand the R.F. head on a tripod mounting, and a rwo-wheeled covered trailer housing the display. The trailer is also used fortransporting the scanners. Range is ten miles and the accuracy up to 0.5 per cent of range from touch-down, plus or minus 20ft.The scan rate is 2 c.p.s. over 30 deg in azimuth and 2 c.p.s. over 10 deg in elevation. Circular polarization is provided for reductionof rain returns and is claimed to eliminate precipitation clutter. Both glide-path and centreline displays are on the same tube-face,with a single control for the operator; and the display itself can be positioned up to 10,000ft from the scanner unit. SPAR canbe unloaded, set up and calibrated in one-and-a-half hours, and this was, in fact, done at Hatfield. A set is to be installed therepermanently. Laboratory for Electronics have also announced a new airfield surveillance S-band radar with a range of 50 milesand moving target indication, called STAR.
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