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The Victor
Era - 1962 to 1968
100
Squadron reformed at RAF Wittering on 1st
May 1962, as the second squadron to be equipped
with Handley Page Victor B Mk II. Wing Commander
Mike Robinson assumed command of the reformed
Squadron. 100 Squadron had returned to
Wittering as part of the UK’s Strategic Nuclear
Deterrent Force, and in so doing assisted in
providing the UK’s contribution to the NATO
Retaliatory Strike Plan. The ‘Cold War’ was at
its height, and the operational posture
reflected this situation.
The
‘V’ Force, as the UK’s Strategic Nuclear
Deterrent, was a critical part of co-ordinated
nuclear strike planning in response to any
attack on NATO. The criticality was related to
the fact that ‘V’ Force bombers would reach
their targets in the Soviet Union before USAF
manned bombers, and RAF attacks had to be
carefully integrated with strikes from US
land-based ballistic missiles. To achieve
co-ordination with missile strikes, the stress
was on navigation; precise timing and track
keeping were essential components of the nuclear
retaliatory operation. The ‘V’ Force, also had
the capability to act independently and inflict
unacceptable levels of destruction on Eastern
Bloc targets should the national need arise.
For
the ‘V’ Force to be effective as a deterrent, it
had to demonstrate the ability to react
appropriately to a range of crises from rising
political tension through to increased levels of
actual military threat. A constant round of
practice alerts achieved this, and no notice
generation and dispersal exercises combined with
the Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) added to the
maintenance and proof of this capability.
The
Victor B Mk II aircraft was capable of Mach 0.95
performance at 45000 feet and above. It could
carry a 35,000-pound conventional bomb load,
although the principal weapon, from design
inception, was the free fall thermo-nuclear bomb
code-named Yellow Sun 2. The stable mates of the
Victors were the Valiant and Vulcan aircraft.
Mark I versions of all three of the ‘V’ Bombers
had entered service in the mid 1950’s with the
Mark II versions of the Victor and Vulcan
becoming available in the early 1960’s. These
later aircraft had much better performance and
improved navigation and defensive systems.
The
Victor had a crew of 5; two Pilots, two
Navigators and an Air Electronics Officer (AEO).
The navigation ‘team’ consisted of a Nav Radar
and a Nav Plotter. The Nav Radar had attended a
10-month course at the Bomber Command Bombing
School at Lindholme on radar scope
interpretation and the detailed operation of the
Navigation and Bombing System (NBS) fitted to
all V-Bombers. The Nav Plotter had completed at
least one full tour prior to joining the V-Force
and initially used very traditional techniques
with flight plan proforma, a separate navigation
log and Lambert’s Conformal Plotting Charts;
however, these techniques changed when low-level
tactics were introduced. The role of the AEO was
a mix of air engineer, signaller and defensive
systems operator. All Victors and Vulcans had
been deliberately designed to generate
sufficient electrical power to supply a small
town, and this excess power was available for
jamming equipment, which could be used across a
wide range of frequencies to protect the bomber
force during its high-level penetration of
Soviet defences.
A new Victor crew arriving on the Squadron from
the OCU at RAF Gaydon were qualified to fly the
aircraft safely, but not operationally. The
first task of the new crew was to complete a
defined pattern of training sorties, some ground
training requirements, and to become familiar
with their assigned “Accounting Line Numbers” or
ALNs; these were the routes and targets
contained in the NATO and National War Plans.
Only then could the crew be declared ‘combat
ready’ and stand QRA.
Achieving Combat Ready was the first step in a
complex six-month training schedule for a crew
to achieve, retain or improve their Bomber
Command classification as a ‘constituted crew’.
Operating as a constituted crew meant that the
five men trained, flew, stood QRA and would go
to war as a named team. Substitutes were not
allowed because of the teamwork required to
operate the V-aircraft, and the secret nature of
target materials, which they regularly studied
in “the vaults” built into the operations blocks
at each V-bomber base.
In the
1960s, the V-Force squadrons contained the most
elite aircrew of the Royal Air Force who had
been specially selected for their skill and
experience. The Bomber Command classifications,
which individuals and crews strived for were, in
order of excellence:
-
Combat ready;
-
Combat star;
-
Select and
-
Select star - although this
was later re-titled Command.
Very
few crews achieved this highest standard.
If
tension rose between the Soviet Union and the
West, any resting crews would be called in from
home, others would be recalled from detachments
or leave and assigned specific ALNs. All
available aircraft, including those in deep
servicing, would be generated to a war footing
and loaded with nuclear weapons. If the crisis
continued or escalated, aircraft and crews would
disperse to the 36 major airfields in the UK
where Operational Readiness Platforms (ORPs) had
been constructed for this purpose. The AOC-in-C
Bomber Command regularly called generation and
dispersal exercises; these were codenamed
Exercise Mick and Exercise Mickey Finn
respectively. These practised and demonstrated
the operational capability of his Command to the
UK Government and its people but - more
importantly - to the Kremlin.
Dispersal of the force was designed to ensure
that the maximum number of bombers would get
airborne and be clear of the effects of a
nuclear strike within the minimum warning time
of just four minutes provided by the Ballistic
Missile Early Warning system at Fylindales.
Four aircraft scrambles from the ORPs were
practised regularly; it was a very impressive
sight to witness such large aircraft sitting
peacefully on the ORP; the order would come to
each crew over the Tele-scramble system from
Headquarters Bomber Command, High Wycombe,
sixteen powerful engines would simultaneously
burst into life, the first aircraft would be
airborne within 60 seconds, and all four would
be away within two and a half minutes. The
responsiveness, and the professionalism of crews
of the ‘V’ Force Squadrons in terms of being the
UK nuclear deterrent is exemplified by two
examples. These were the Cuban Missile Crisis in
October 1962, and a software problem that
occurred at the Fylingdales.
To
counter the possibility of a surprise nuclear
attack without a period of tension, each ‘V’
Force Squadron maintained at least one aircraft
at a state of full combat readiness. The
aircraft was loaded with nuclear weapons, fully
fuelled and “Scramble-checked” at pre-take off
readiness. The QRA aircrews and ground crews
virtually lived with the aircraft on a full time
basis. The QRA was frequently tested at no
notice, day or night, by Bomber Command HQ. When
“Exercise Edom - Readiness state 02” was called
over the Tannoy, there could be an element of
inter-squadron rivalry as crews raced to be
first in the cockpit with engines running ready
for take off when the ‘scramble’ command came.
This was a ‘way of life’ for the air and ground
crews of 100 Squadron during this era. Periods
of time on QRA were mixed with continuity
training, dispersal exercises and individual
aircraft detachments often to bases in North
America.
No
less important was the training provided for the
ground crews. The Victor MKII was a very
complex aircraft, and the ground technicians
were all selected for the technical capabilities
and skills. Ground crew were not allowed
anywhere near a ‘V’ bomber unless they had
completed requisite training often at the
manufacturer. Each aircraft had its own named
‘Crew Chief’; he was of Chief Technician or
Master Technician rank, and held responsibility
for the first line maintenance of ‘his’
aircraft. When the particular aircraft was
detached away from main base, the Crew Chief
invariably flew with the aircraft to provide
technical back up to the aircrew.
Flying
these demanding aircraft was a dangerous
occupation. On 20th March 1963, Flight
Lieutenant Alex Galbraith and his crew took off
from Wittering in XM714 for a Bomber Command
Competition sortie. Also on-board was a
navigator from 139 (Jamaica) squadron acting as
an umpire. Soon after take-off, an engine fire
warning occurred and, in the confusion that
followed, the heavy aircraft stalled and crashed
into the outskirts of Barnack village. The only
survivor was the co-pilot - Flight Lieutenant
Benny Jackson - who later rose to the rank of
Air Marshal. The Bomber Command rule at the
time was that the co-pilot should eject whenever
possible to bring back the story of what had
occurred so that any corrective action could be
taken.
For
the first two years of its existence as a ‘V’
force Squadron, 100 had its own aircraft and
ground crews. However, at the end of 1964 Bomber
Command decided to ‘centralise’ all modes of
servicing into a wing organisation. The aircraft
and ground crews were no longer ‘part’ of the
Squadron, which was reduced to aircrews only.
Whilst this may have been more ‘economical’, it
was not a popular move as it tended to break the
strong relationships that had always existed
between the ground and aircrews, and also the
affinity felt by many of the ground crews with
‘their’ aeroplanes.
On 30th
September 1964, Wg Cdr John Herrington assumed
command of the Squadron. By this time, the
aircraft were no longer in their all-over white
‘Anti-Flash’ livery but were painted in
camouflage colours on the upper surface. They
had all been fitted with more powerful Rolls
Royce Conway engines, the navigation system had
been updated and the bomb doors modified to
accept the ‘Blue Steel’ Missile. Because of the
ever increasing number of Surface to Air
Missiles deployed along the Soviet borders, the
operational mode had also been changed. No
longer were the aircraft operating in waves on
high altitude profiles using jamming to
penetrate Soviet defences; instead, they were
planned to operate individually and descend to
low level under surveillance radar cover and so
avoid detection. This was not the operating
regime the aircraft had been designed for, and
the change would eventually take its toll in
terms of fatigue stress on the airframes.
The
Blue Steel missile weighed 16,000 lbs and was
powered by the Stentor rocket motor using High
Test Peroxide and Kerosene as propellants to
achieve a thrust of 35,000 lbs. The warhead was
the 1.1 Megaton - Red Snow -similar to that
contained in the Yellow Sun free-fall weapon.
The missile’s control surfaces included a canard
fore-plane, and it was guided from the launch
position to the target by an inertial navigation
system, which was aligned and corrected by the
Nav team en-route. From a low level launch at
250 feet, the missile climbed steeply to 55,000
feet accelerating to Mach 3; it then descended
onto the target some 50 miles away from the
launch point. On 27th May 1966, 100
Squadron carried out the first live launch of a
Blue Steel Missile by any operational crew of a
‘V’ bomber squadron. It was given the title
‘Operation Fresno’. Norman Bonnor was the Nav
Radar and Gordon Hagel the Nav Plotter in the
crew commanded by Terry Austin.
100
Squadron also carried out several overseas
detachments to various parts of the world.
Typical of such detachments included visit a to
Travis air force base in the USA, and a
three-aircraft detachment to the RNZAF base at
Ohakea in February 1964.
Wg Cdr
John Herrington handed over command of 100
Squadron to Wg Cdr Harry Archer in January 1967.
In March 1967, the Squadron won the Bomber
Command Bombing Competition outright, and were
awarded the Laurence Minot Trophy. The work put
in by the crews in their preparation for this
competition was prodigious. This ‘victory’ was
all the more unusual, in that 100 Squadron won
it as a Blue Steel Squadron, and scored a
‘direct hit’! For this feat, not only were the
Squadron awarded the Laurence Minot Trophy, but
also Rolls Royce made a special award of a
silver ‘Winged Lady ‘ to the Squadron ‘for
excellence’. In June 1968, Wg Cdr Archer was
the overall commander of the Royal Review
Flypast for HM Queen Elizabeth II at Abingdon,
which marked the 50th Anniversary of
the formation of the Royal Air Force. 24 ‘V’
Bombers took part in this flypast, including 6
Victors from Wittering.
Although 100 Squadron continued to ‘keep it
going’, the responsibility for the UK’s nuclear
deterrent was handed over to the Royal Navy with
the introduction of Polaris. The low level
operating profile had caused main spar stress
problems, and this necessitated a major
engineering programme if the aircraft was to be
retained in front line strike mode. This was not
considered feasible and, combined with the need
to replace the Victor K Mk1A tankers which were
somewhat underpowered for the role, the decision
was made to withdraw the Victor Mk IIs as
bombers and convert them for the ‘Tanker’ role.
The 100 Squadron aircraft were gradually
withdrawn, and on 30th September
1968, the Squadron again went into ‘rest’ mode
for the second time in 9 years.
100
Squadron had been ‘reborn’ for the second time
in 1962 again as a front line strike squadron in
the elite of Bomber Command, the ‘V’ Force. It
was equipped with, arguably, the most advanced
of the 3 ‘V’ Bombers, the Victor MKII.
During her 9 years as a nuclear deterrent
Squadron, 100 Squadron had achieved much
including the first launch of a Blue Steel
Missile from a ‘V’ Bomber, and had won the
Laurence Minot Bomber Command Trophy outright.
Truly 100 Squadron was Bomber Command Squadron
‘excellent’. A Squadron with such a proud
record, and which had made such a contribution
to the defence of the Free World would not be at
rest for long. The journey would be resumed in a
very short time.
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