Vickers Valiant - ebay photo find #105

Vickers Valiant 1 of 138 Sqn at RAF Wittering

Vickers Valiant XD 861

57 Sqn, Victor K.2, XL188, 27 & 617 Sqn Tornado over RAF Marham - photo of the day

57 Sqn, Victor K.2, XL188, 27 & 617 Sqn Tornado over RAF Marham

Victor B.2 XL513 & XL 512 carrying Blue Steel - ebay photo find #57

An original Ministry of Defence photograph of Handley Page Victor B.2 XL513 equipped with a Blue Steel Missile.

Note the four Vulcans on QRA. Ministry of Defence wet samp to rear. Neg. No. 26694. Dated 1973.

Victor B.2 XL512 & Blue Steel Original Handley Page Photograph. An original Handley Page Limited photograph of Handley Page Victor B.2 XL512 equipped with a Blue Steel Missile. The photo is slightly under exposed and dark.

On offer here

The RAF in the Cold War 1950-1970 (Ian Proctor, Images of War - Pen and Sword)

With yet another 'Bear' intercept in the news currently, it is easy to forget how closely the RAF has watched our skies for decades. And while over the past few years, QRA aircraft have been scrambled on just over one day a month on average, Russian sorties towards the UK have been a reality ever since Churchill announced an Iron Curtain had descended over Europe. As if to remind of us this a recently published Pen and Sword book entitled 'The RAF in the Cold War 1950-1970' compiled by author Ian Proctor presents a collection of rarely-seen images from the height of the Cold War, taken by specialist Air Ministry photographers. The full-colour photographs were painstakingly collated from the Imperial War Museum archives and document a time when the world hung on the brink of nuclear war.

From the early 1950s the perceived threat of a Soviet strike on Western Europe or Britain dominated military planning. At the time of HM Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation review at RAF Odiham on 15 July 1953 (picture above), the RAF was still equipped in the main with war-time generation aircraft, including Meteor FR.9s, Vampire F.3s  Coastal Command Liberators and Bomber Command Washington B.1s. A sign of the future can be seen in the skies, a formation of swept-wing Sabres led by Flight Lieutenant Burns of  441 Sqd RCAF.

For the next forty years, the Royal Air Force was in the front-line of the Cold War. In Britain and Germany, light bomber crews exercised in preparation for a future conflict, while interceptor pilots stood by ready to counter incursions by Soviet aircraft. Between 1956 and 1969, the elite crews of the iconic V-Force of nuclear bombers trained to perform the ultimate mission, striking targets deep in the heart of Russia. Below, Vulcan B1 XA896 seen at RAF Waddington in August 1957. This aircraft was piloted by WC AD Frank and his crew who were selected in participate in the 1957 Strategic Air Command bombing competition held in Pinecastle, Florida. Note the aircraft is not in the more familiar all-white gloss finish. XA 896 was one of the first Vulcans to be delivered to 230 OCU in March 1957.

Interviewed in the Daily Mail (18 February 2015) author Proctor makes the point that while defence cuts are hitting Britain's capability to respond to threats, cuts have always been a reality for peacetime armed forces.

 "..Even at the height of the Cold War, the armed forces were not immune to cuts. A number of defence reviews were undertaken during the period, each ultimately reducing the number of operational aircraft or front-line squadrons, as priorities changed or technology advanced. In 1956 Fighter Command had no more than 600 aircraft within 35 squadrons each with 18 operational aircraft. By 1962, this had reduced to 150 aircraft in 11 squadrons...Today there are approximately 100 Typhoons in the air defence role, within five front line squadrons and one reserve, each operating an estimated 12 aircraft..."

While the Battle of Britain may have been the heroic high point for the Royal Air Force, in terms of aircraft and the sheer scale of operations, the Cold War was its golden era. Ian Proctor's remarkable selection of photographs go a long way to bringing that fascinating time to life. The colour reproduction is superb and the detail, including aircraft tail numbers where possible, is excellent.The photographs include publicity shots of all the famous RAF aircraft - from Canberras to Lightnings, from Meteors to Vulcans. These are superb pictures - well posed! Recommended!

Below; Javelins of 46 Sqd RAF Odiham July 1956

Loading a Blue Steel missile onto a Vulcan, RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, February 1963

Victor B.1 RAF Cottesmore, Rutland, 1957

Beute Blenheim IV - Ebay photo find

Beute Blenheim wearing 21 Sqd codes seen here being recovered/readied for flight by the Germans. 21 Sqn's T2282 is recorded in Graham Warner's Blenheim book as being shot down by flak near Flushing on the night of 10/11 Feb 1941 and crashing into the Scheldt after the crew baled out. The serial does look like T?282, so maybe the aircraft made a reasonable landing on the river and was recovered? The last view below shows the machine quite clearly atop a shingle bank alongside an expanse of water. A single click on the images to view large..

DH de Havilland Vampire T.11. IWM Duxford

 This recently conserved de Havilland Vampire T.11 went on display at the IWM Duxford last year in the Battle of Britain exhibition.

" Wonderful day at IWM Duxford - the sun has shone, we've had the buzz of a busy day with lots of visitors and Colonel Richard Graham has been thrilling audiences with tales of the SR-71 Blackbird..."  reposted from the IWM FB page

Stirling re-posted from Andy Saunders FB page

"Sweet Sue" Victor K.2 RAF Fairford 1991

Pre-digital shot that I took at the Fairford International Air Tattoo over the weekend of 20-21 July 1991 of HP Victor K.2 XH 671 'Sweet Sue', one of six 55 Squadron Victors that had been deployed to the Gulf for Desert Storm from RAF Marham in Norfolk. Granby provided a suitable swan song for the type which flew some 300 missions in total..

Lew Funk's WW II photos - Short Stirling bomber

At one time Lew Funk's images could be viewed on Flickr.

Lew Funk's Stirling pics were almost certainly taken at RAF Mendlesham which was a US airbase, hence the Jeep and US servicemen studying the aircraft.


The aircaft appears to be LF133 which belonged to 218 Sqn and was the aircraft used by Sqn Leader John Overton DFC who was the commander of A flight.

The aircraft has the names G H Dennis, AWH Aubrey and J Overton written in what appears to be red paint by the crew entrance door. Also written is '32 not out' which is a reference to the aircraft having completed a 32 mission tour of ops. There appear to be other names as well but I can't make them out. The tour was completed in 1944 and I'm guessing this picture is a summer 1944 shot. There's no invasion stripes, so it's presumably pre-invasion. This aircraft took part in the D-day deception 'Operation Glimmer', where chaff was dropped in patterns to simulate a spoof invasion fleet in the Channel. The aircraft shows 42 missions on the nose (rows of 8 not 10) so presumably not all the missions of this aircraft were with John Overton.

The nose art shows a clown/harlequin figure, the best I can come up with is a suggestion on another website of the figure being a cartoon character called 'Reilly Fowl', a play on words

'Black night for Bomber Command' 16 December 1943 - The Battle for Berlin

review Des Evans

"...Its taken me a few months to get round to reading this fine book As soon as I started reading it I was back at Bourn on that dark damp foggy night, its difficult to put into words the atmosphere one felt in the very early hours of the Friday morning when the bombers were due to return. I remember standing at our dispersal point waiting and waiting, you could hear the drone of the Lancasters engines as they circled trying to find a gap in the fog to get down, and for so many, time ran out as the fuel in their tanks diminished to zero. Richard Knott describes everything so well in his book. I can only relate to 97 squadron as we lost so many wonderful young guys, it was the squadrons worst night, not through enemy action, but lousy British weather and bad weather prediction by whom I know not..What this book reminded me of was the bravery of these young aircrews. Names come back to me with clarity and some of those who managed to get down were to lose their lives very shortly afterwards on similar raids to Berlin. I was ground crew, a flight mechanic, these guys although of higher rank than me were friends, and many of my friends who were ground crew shed many tears that night.We mixed well with our aircrews, trouble was we would just get to know them well, and then suddenly they were gone, and a day or two later you were introduced to a new young crew.---how long would they last--that was the question. In most cases, not very long. I recommend this book. When I'm asked, what period of your life was the best. This book is the answer. I learnt trust,comradeship and loyalty AND I learnt about sadness...."


by Martin Bull   (writing on ww2f.com in 2003)

"...This winter is the 60th Anniversary of Bomber Command's 'Battle of Berlin' : winter '43/'44. A battle which the German Nachtjagd and the weather conclusively won, the RAF losing 625 bombers and 2,690 aircrew killed. One of the squadrons to suffer the highest losses was 97(PFF), operating from Bourn, Cambs and yesterday I made a small pilgrimage up to the old airfield. As I drove up the A1, the weather closed in, with light mist and drizzle turning to sleet and snow flurries from low cloud. But in a way, this was fitting because on the night of 16/17 December 1943 ( 'Black Thursday' ) 97 lost five Lancasters around Bourn, all crashing in the fog trying to find their base. As I stopped the car on the remains of an old dispersal, the rain dripped onto the windscreen and even getting out of the car was a miserable prospect - what must it have been like to live in Nissen huts here ? Nearly all the buildings have gone - even the respirator store, still here when I last visited in the Summer, has now vanished - but the perimeter track and runways are still used for light aircraft flying. No flying today, though - so I walk through the open gate to the end of runway 07/25, its' full 1,960 yards still intact, to take some photos through the drizzle and to ponder on the 60 Lancasters and 24 Mosquitoes which left this runway, never to make it back 'home'. Back near the car, the area where the briefing rooms, flight offices and other admin functions once stood, is now thick with trees and brambles. I push through the dripping undergrowth and stumble over pathetic heaps of rubble, brick and concrete. Something white is sticking from the ground by a tree root : I pull and twist and half of an old NAAFI dinner plate appears,cracked and caked with earth. I bring it home as a souvenir of RAF Bourn. The last thought goes to a veteran, not of 97 but of 44 further up the road in Lincolnshire. From Martin Middlebrook's 'The Berlin Raids' , Pilot Officer John Chatterton :
'The Battle of Berlin that winter was my tour. My mind is full of night takeoffs, climbing through cloud, icing, Berlin flak - the sheer length and breadth of it - not of night fighters; we never saw one of those....no sitting on the grass or playing cricket with the groundcrew for us. We waited in the dark and cold and rain - that was our tour.'