Bucc 04

ANECDOTAL HISTORY

EVENT

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Buccaneer 2 [ 1 of 6 ]

President, Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, good evening and thank you for inviting me to give the presentation this year. I am going to tell you about life on 208 during the last year at Honington and the first year at Lossiemouth. I shall cover in some detail the deployment to Cyprus for Operation Pulsator, which entailed the provision of Air Support to our brave army colleagues on the ground in Beirut.

Graham Pitchfork very generously but I suspect very sadly handed 208 over to me in December 1981. At that time, the Squadron was employed in the [3] Overland Strike/Attack role, which meant our job in war was to hit targets on land, such as airfields, ground defence installations, communications centres, and so on, with conventional weapons known affectionately as iron bombs. The main weapon in that category was the 1,000lb iron bomb.

We were also trained to be ready to carry and drop nuclear weapons. All overland. I am stressing these otherwise tedious details so that you might appreciate the significance of what comes later in tonight’s story.

Life on 208 then was straightforward enough though there were many challenges each day in providing enough flying for the training of the crews in each of the roles. And aircraft serviceability was always a concern! [4] But Jules Flood made his 1,000 hours on Buccaneers and we celebrated that with him! [5]

There were several VIP visits including one from [7] HRH The Duke of Gloucester. And of course there were the inevitable minevals when even the Thrift Shop was not safe from Sptznatz intruders! [8]

But there were also times of enjoyable exercising, like a fortnight on the Moselle on exchange with a German F104 Squadron at Buchel.

[9] Buchel Arrival Even out there, it was not all hard graft at flying in marginal weather!

[10] Bucc over Schloss Back home, we found time to give our departing SENGO Buccaneer ride

[11] Farewell SENGO 1 and then enjoyed celebrating his survival!

[12] Farewell SENGO 2

Then there was always Goose Bay where we could fly a lot of low level sorties and not annoy too many of the locals.

[13] Mike Knight and boys beside Bucc. Our AOC, AVM Mike Knight, came out to visit us and fly with us on a sortie. Back at Honington as the weather got better, so the social life moved outdoors [14] ( Helena at the crease.) and our lovely wives challenged 9 Squadron to a game of rounders.

And all the training was to be focused on a trip to Cold Lake in Canada for a Maple Flag exercise.

[15] Cold Lake Bucc Arrival

[16] Squadron with female Mountie Although we were disappointed that we were there in the high fire risk period which meant no dropping of live weapons, we nevertheless enjoyed pitching our wits against the USAF F15s and the Ground Defences. And when the range areas were closed through bad weather we persuaded the Canadians

[17] that a low level Buccaneer sight-seeing trip amongst The Rockies was a good idea.

[18] And back at Honington, during the Families Days, 208 invariably flew demonstration 4 ship airfield attacks.

You ought to be able to spot your Association Secretary, Treasurer, and Membership Secretary!

[19] A/F Attack 1

[20] A/F Attack 2

But we were engaging in all of these sort of routine activities against a backdrop of some serious uncertainty.

The time was rapidly approaching when the Tornado would be operational at last! That would mean the Buccaneer being withdrawn from the Overland role and confined exclusively to the Maritime anti shipping role. The Maritime anti shipping role was nothing new for the ex-Navy Buccaneer of course, but something quite new for the 208 of the early 80’s. What was worse was that there was already a Buccaneer squadron committed to Maritime operations, some number between 11 and 13, I think! And even worse than that terrible thought, there had been a second Buccaneer squadron in the role, No 216 Squadron at Lossiemouth. It became apparent that the most popular plan with the staffs was that 208 overland would be disbanded but the aircraft and some of the crews would move to Lossiemouth