…... all the way through the Buccaneer years and all the way through the Hawk. The Hawk, to get credit as it wasn’t ‘front line’, for the most marvellous production of statistics in terms of generating fast-jet pilots. So that history had been very important.
The President had been talking to the Guest of Honour about their Log Books. He urged the ladies present to look through the Log Books to see the history that was contained within them, and offered a personal anecdote:
Just a week previously, his 2 grandsons had paid a visit with 
their mother and father to the Manston Air Museum. He had received a very excited call from his 2 grandsons, who had said: “Grandad, there’s a Buccaneer here, it’s got no wings, but it’s in this museum. Have you ever flown it?” He replied that he would “just go and check my Log Books.” So he went up to the Holy Temple where the Log Book was kept and checked through it for Buccaneer XV352, and it was one of 208’s. And as he went through the list, it really brought home to him what the 208 Squadron spirit and history was about because he was able to tell them that he had ‘tanked’ that aeroplane across ‘The Pond’; He had been into Goose Bay, Labrador flying OLF (Operational Low Flying); He had taken the Squadron, pretty much, across to Maple Flag for its big exercise; He had flown it on ‘Mallet Blow’ around the UK; He had been in Norwegian fjords in that aeroplane; He had flown into Orland on Squadron exchange (no more to be said about the Orland Squadron exchange); and he had flown into Laarbruch on a TacEval airfield attack. He recalled this attack (and these things are remembered from a Log Book), and that he had been told at 10 miles out (following the radio call: “10 miles out, airfield attack, Taceval Laarbruch”), that the airfield was closed because of bad weather. He recalled saying: “Fine, 
but we are now 7 miles out and we will be through in a minute!”, and he had continued through the airfield, which had been closed. Things like this are remembered, and that was the beauty of the Log Books. So he rang back to Manston for his grandsons and said: “This is the story, boys” and he knew they were terribly impressed. Having left it at that, he then sent the story as an email, and said to them: “If ever you go back to school after half-term and they ask you ‘what did you do on holiday?’, tell them that Grandad flew XV352 and that’s it. He had then put the Log Book back in the ‘Holy Temple’ (which was, of course, the ‘I Love Me’ room in the loft.
Click on this link to view the whole history of XV352:
