So, there I was at Kersfeld Junction. We had just taken Kersfeld Junction, I was just there, flying as low as I could. It was probably about 200 feet. 420 knots, 200 feet, 3 kilometres visibility. Are you with me?


I was talking with my ex-navigator this morning, and he said “Do you know why we are still here?” He said “Because, when we went to Biggin Hill, do you know why they selected us? - because we were fit. If you remember, there were about 300 of us that turned up at Biggin Hill, and they ended up with only ten of us, because all of the others failed medically, so we were there because we had good medical capability.” One of those was eyesight, he reckons.


So, anyway, here we are, talking about our peripheral vision, and I was coming up to Kersfeld Junction and our peripheral vision was working well: trees, railway lines were all flashing past, and I knew I was safe because I was low. I was at about 200 feet. I was below where I was allowed to be: 250 feet was the limit, and I was at 200 feet. Well, you know what happened.


My peripheral vision suddenly saw something go ‘whoosh’ underneath us. It was a Buccaneer, and there is the end of my story.”


Malcolm Brown then told the tale of the first time he jumped out of one of Her Majesty’s aircraft.  He was on 16 Squadron and took off from Laarbruch on a 6-ship formation to bomb the East Coast Ranges. This was his first trip with a chap called Luke Kemp, who some of the Buccaneer guys may remember as an erstwhile ‘QWI’. They had never flown together before and, at the back of the 6-ship (probably No 6), off they got airborne, off to the first start point, and then to Volkel Airfield for a simulated attack before leaving for the UK and the East Coast Ranges for some Toss Bombing. He recounted:


“Off we went at 500 knots and 500 feet as we were only allowed to go to and, all of a sudden, there was a ‘boom’ and the aircraft shuddered a bit and then the ‘Christmas tree’ lit up on the right-hand side: ‘FIRE S’ and all sorts of other things. Well, there was a big ‘bang’, matter of fact it was a ‘bang-bang’ and the cockpit filled with smoke, and I thought “What’s all that about?” I looked down and thought “My cockpit canopy is really clear!”. There had been a big purge on the groundcrew not cleaning the canopies at that stage. Then: “Christ! The canopy’s gone!” There was no wind (we were at 500 knots). I looked up and thought “Well, hang on, that’s odd.” Then there was this dull red glow behind me and the old ‘Christmas tree’ was still alight, so I thought “Crikey! Lou’s gone!” I shouted “Eject! Eject!” at that stage, but Lou had gone, so then I decided (by that time I was at about 350 knots and about 1500 feet) so, I thought “It’s time to go!” So, I pulled the handle.

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