But it was taken seriously in the Cold War, and he remembered this particular week. The weather was, in the vernacular, ‘rat-s***’ (excuse the language). The visibility was 3 kilometres on that day, and the Boss shared the attitude of most of the Squadron Commanders, which was that: “if, next Tuesday the war starts, would we say that if the visibility was not 4 or 5 kilometres, we wouldn’t go to war?” So, they would practice in bad weather just like they would do if it was the real war. The rules said ‘this’, but they would do ‘that’, as would all of the Squadrons in Germany at the time, and in the Royal Air Force ever since, really (because that is why we are the leaders in aviation).
In this particular week, the weather was ‘rats’ and, on Tuesday (he believed) off they went. It was probably about ten or eleven o’clock in the morning. They had had their Met Briefing, and they all had to go off and do their ‘little trip’ and, when they could not do their ‘4-ship’ because the weather was that bad, they used to go off as ‘singletons’: just go around the area, through Nordhorn Range, drop a bomb and come home. But at least they were airborne, doing the business.
He remembered getting airborne with his navigator and off they went, at 1500 feet, over to Clutch Radar Control, after which they then let down into the North German Plain, which was their low-level area. Minimum height – 250 feet (everybody with me so far?). He recounted:
“So, down to 250 feet. If you were letting down in that weather, it was kind of difficult. The radar wasn’t particularly good. It was an air defence radar in the Phantom, and you let down and the navigator would say “I think we are clear of those masts, but…..” (an experienced voice interjected: “it was the same in the Buccaneer, by the way….”). So, you would read out “500”, “400”, “300”… and then you would break out, and then you would be into 3 kilometres visibility, but it would just be ‘rat-s***’ and you couldn’t see anything, but you would be ‘down there’, and you had to be at 420 knots (7 miles a minute) or else you would ‘lose your navigation’, wouldn’t you? I mean, who would go at 360 knots? We were fighter pilots, so we still went at 420 knots. So, you are doing 420 knots in 3 kilometres visibility. You can see ‘bugger-all’, and you are hoping the navigator knows what he is doing (laughter from everyone).
The first turning point was always Kersfeld Junction, wasn’t it? This was a point on the ground where all the railways met, and this was our first turning point we had on our ‘half-mil’ charts. So, off we went, letting down and, “Ha! – we know where we are” (sort of thing). And, of course, the concept was – MY concept, my concept with me and my navigator was – let’s just fly as low as we could, because this was ‘bloody dangerous!’ That’s why the rules were there – 5 kilometres visibility – so that you could see anybody coming the other way and you did not have a mid-air collision, right? So, my concept was to fly as low as I could, and then anybody else would be above me, right? So, is everybody happy with that concept?
