The Shackleton - Some Maritime Yarns
Taking the Liner Route From Kinloss to Sharjah
You may remember that 30 odd years ago Iraq was threatening to invade Kuwait,
the Shah of Persia had invaded the Tumb and Abu Musa islands just inside the Arabian Gulf, and the Congolese warring
tribes were duffing each other up after the Belgians had cut and run (plus ca change, plus ca meme chose, as they
say over there). Well, we had defence arrangements with the Trucial Gulf States, so it was decided that the might
of the RAF (Shackletons and Hunters) and Army would sort this lot out.
Our heavy ground equipment went on ahead through the Suez Canal, where it stayed for years as the June 1967 Arab/Israeli
war caught the cargo ship part way through the Canal. Crew 6 flew the first 206 Sqn aircraft out with the others
following at intervals of a few days. We set off Northwards from Kinloss to follow the longest route from A to
B that could possibly be dreamt up. We chugged slowly through the Pentland Firth, Minchies and the Irish Sea en
route to Gib (9 hours), then on to Sal in the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands off West Africa (8 hours 5 minutes).
On the way to Sal we heard on the radio of the war going on in the Congo around Kinshasa (the capital of one of
the warring parties, Brazzaville just over the river being the other capital). Needless to say, we were routing
through Kinshasa.
Now it happened that we had our CO on board. He told us all sternly that we should not take any notice of the media
reports, as HQ 18 Group would have their finger on the pulse, and would see us right. So, after Sal, we chugged
on to Ascension Island (8 hours 35 minutes) listening to the news, as the next day we were destined for Kinshasa.
The news was bad, with the British Embassy in Kinshasa burnt down, Europeans being killed, and Simbas and mercenaries
running around- so we thought that we might be destined for the pot.
The CO read the riot act over the intercomm, saying that there would be a signal waiting for us at Ascension if there was a problem with Kinshasa. Needless to say there wasn't, yet the CO refused to signal our concerns about clarifying the situation, saying that there would probably be a signal for us the next morning. Yes, you guessed, next morning dawned and no signal, so in near revolt, off we went in an easterly direction to meet our destiny.
We were well on our way to Kinshasa when someone at HQ realised that there was one of the old grey bombers swanning
across the Southern Atlantic to a most uncertain fate. We received a flash signal to divert to Luanda, which was
then the capital of Portuguese Angola (9 hours 15 minutes), and I can tell you that place was not exactly in a
settled situation, with heavily armed Portuguese conscript soldiers everywhere. After dumping our kit in the hotel,
we all went off to a remarkably cheap night out due to the very beneficial exchange rate between the Portuguese
and the local Angolan Escudos.
The next day we flew over many miles of jungle to Nairobi (8 hours 15 minutes) for a two day sojourn including
a safari - well we had earned it hadn't we? Then up to Masirah (10 hours 20 minutes), and the last leg to Sharjah
(2 hours 15 minutes) after an eight day epic transit. We had to take off from Nairobi around 3 o'clock in the morning
as the heat and high altitude did nothing for the poor old Shack. After 20 minutes orbiting the airfield gaining
a few feet running up and down wind and trying to maintain altitude on the turns, we reached 2000ft above the airfield
and decided to set off as we weren't going to get any higher. ATC then cleared us via an NDB which was sited on
a hill higher than us. I remember that Claude the Captain said that it was like flying whilst sitting on the edge
of a razor blade, and he had all the groundcrew sitting in the aisle behind the nav and sensor seats, and no one
was allowed to move around for a couple of hours until the Cof G moved forward a bit.
Iraq thought better of taking us on (with not a single American in sight), and
the Shah pulled his troops out of the islands leaving us to fly those terribly hot and boring Bronzes, Turquoises
and other colours I can't remember. Shortly after arriving at Sharjah, we ambled down to Aden from which we were
withdrawing, to give some support to the arab forts on the border with North Yemen, as FLOSY were infiltrating
at night through the passes. As the Shack Mk3 engines were none too reliable, we wanted to go fly loaded for bear
ready to fight our way home after a forced landing, but the CO wouldn't agree to our forming a Kipper Fleet Army.
During the night flights we dropped flares to light up attack on the forts, and tracer filled the sky, but luckily
it was being fired at the flares behind us. We also covered the 'Retreat from Ryan', up the coast from Aden, with
a bomb bay full of frag bombs, loaded 20mm, and about 6 feet of paper giving the Rules of Engagement. Nothing untoward
happened, apart from the magnificent sight of 48 salvo jettisoned frag bombs as they hit the sea at the end of
the operation - no one lands with those old second World War exudation encrusted leftovers.
Crew 6 Get The royal Salute
During our Shack Westabout (I also went on a Nimrod one but that's another story) crew 6 spent 3 weeks in Singapore on Exercise Fotex 67. On one of our ASW flights the copilot Dave B saw a periscope and we started bombing it with the old Bubs until it was identified as a tree. Some time later there was a loud bang (if I recollect correctly - I may be remembering another occasion climbing out of BK at night) and the Eng Dickie H shouted that No 3 was on fire. I looked round and saw the engs ruddy face which I then realised was the reflection of flames as he looked through his little window. I sent out a Mayday on VHF or UHF as SOP but answer came there none and I began to feel rather lonely. Anyway, the jolly old pilots got the fire out and off we chugged towards Kuala Lumpur at 1000ft. I called up KL declaring our slightly lesser emergency now the fire was out, and ATC instructed us to climb to some outrageous flight level (for a Shack) and report overhead an airway beacon. I told him that like it or not we were coming in a low altitude. So we landed and followed the usual vehicle until told to stop. As we got our we noticed that a large parade was just outside with the assembled company presenting arms and the band presumably playing the national anthem. KL had of course been expecting a visit from their head of state, although why they thought that he would arriving in a gently smoking grey bomber heaven alone knows. The horrified look on the parade commander's face, and the attempts by the band master to stop the band playing was hilarious.
So we all had to jump rapidly back into the our wounded bird and park it in some deserted corner. My vague memory is that we went back to Changi in a RNZAF Bristol Frightener and left the poor old girl for a later engine change.
Climbing Out of BK at Night
Having mentioned the loud bang during the climb out from Ballykelly one night, I thought that I should include this short tale. I had just joined 206 Sqn and was on my first JASS (Joint Anti Submarine School) course at HMS Sea Eagle just outside Londonderry. We took off at night for our first oceanex, climbing to 3000ft, and after passing Inistrahull I moved down into the bomb aimers position to load the front flare chute for the Crossing Coast Checks Outbound. There was an almighty bang and what I know now as the terrible sound of a prop runaway. I grabbed the hand holds to get back to my seat but the aircraft reared up as Claude F the Captain tried to control the prop by slowing the aircraft, with me looking up at his face which looked quite ashen in the light from the instrument panel. Shortly after that the nose dropped like a stone and shot me up to the roof, followed by me scrambling madly back to the routine navigators seat. John D the first nav shouted at me to get strapped in as we were about to ditch, but luckily we levelled out at around 1000ft.
A glimpse out the port side did not altogether fill one with confidence as number 2 Griffon was wobbling up and down quite energetically. Anyway we were close to BK and in no time we were safe on the ground. A con rod in No 2 engine had broken and smashed away a large area of the engine on the outside and needless to say there was oil everywhere.
The Majunga Detachment - Beira Patrol
I was based at RAF Ballykelly in Northern Ireland on Mk 2 Shackletons.
We had a number of two to three month detachments to Majunga in Malagasy, and this was a real pain as we were also
doing the Sharjah detachments in the Arabian Gulf. Well, Majunga was a far off place of which we knew little, but
we soon learnt that the locals spoke only French, and there were a few French expats who also didn't speak English,
except for Dr Jospan who could but wouldn't.
We rapidly learnt to speak Franglais in a loud voice, but going to see the doctor
normally with Majunga belly was always a bit nerve racking. The officers and SNCOs had separate apartment blocks
owned by Indians (do they still run most of the commerce in Africa?), and we had a local chef called George. So,
every morning it was - Bonjuwer George, ders erfs and some jambon with some toast and encore de buerre. George
was very proud of his Brown Windsor soup which we called Betsiboko soup after the nearby river which it resembled.
The local kids really loved us as we bought sweets with our flying ration money, and scattered them behind our
Land Rover on the drive back from flying to cries of "Anglais, Anglais" from the multitudes if kids.
We only flew a couple of times a week, so life was pretty good with lots of time to get out into the bush.
The flying was about the most boring I can ever remember. We took off from Majunga on the West coast of Malagasy,
and headed straight out until we hit the tanker lanes, which were quite some sight. There were empty tankers going
North and loaded ones going South in two continuous streams with a few miles between them. Anyway, we latched onto
the laden stream and took the details of every South bound ship, along with photos of particular ships in which
our Government was interested. And this went on for hour after hour until we came to the RN frigate on station
off Beira.
Relief all round at this point as this marked the end of identifying tankers, transmitting all the details, and
waiting for a message to go back and get more details on a ship we had left behind some time before. We normally
dropped some mail containers to the navy, who must have been even more bored than us. We usually played some simple
tactical games with the frigate, its helicopter and an imaginary sub, then it was a straight line for Majunga at
our best speed (about 130 knots) to spread a bit of happiness among the kids.
Don't Assume, Check as the Navigators' Union Used To say
Writing the above reminded me of one detachment to Majunga when we flew from BK to Majunga by Britannia. I can't remember how many stops we made or where, but we did stop off at Bahrain or Masirah to refuel and slip the crew. The new crew were raring to go and we all leapt on board after refuelling only to be told that there was a problem. So off we went, the 210 Sqn crew 3 to play uckers in one room and over 20 groundcrew to another room to play brag probably. Then to much shouting and chivvying the aircraft was declared serviceable and the Brit crew were anxious to get off, no doubt with their crew duty hours in mind. You've probably guessed what happened next. Yes there we were in the whispering giant climbing to the heavens when it was found that the complete replacement groundcrew team had been left behind presumably still playing brag. The Brit captain came down the back fuming and crew 3 did it's usual 'nothing to do with me chief' act. He decided to carry on to Majunga as he made it clear that it was not his problem to mollycoddle kipper fleet groundcrew. That was not of course the opinion of the detachment commander at Majunga who sent the aircraft and crew straight back (after dropping us off of course). Another blighted captain's career. On the same flight some of our guys made some sandwiches for the flight deck crew to help pass the time. Unfortunately they were sent back as they still had the crusts on, thus confirming our opinion of the limp wristed passenger carrying truckies.
Ferrying a Shack from St Mawgan to Changi
A very scratch crew stopping at all stations east to Changi and back
I was on 210 Sqn Crew 3 at Ballykelly on what was laughingly called the Nimrod Holding flight. In the
last few weeks running up to moving across the Irish Sea to St Mawgan for the 3 month Nimrod mk1 short course,
we were informed that we had to ferry a 205 Sqn Shack out to Changi in the early New Year just a few days after
we actually moved across, and then bring another Shack back for a major servicing at Kemble. I was deep into buying
my first house in St Merryn near Padstow, so I asked my second nav to do all the planning (good practice
for him you see).
I had sent in the diplomatic clearance request to HQ18Gp which was our
normal route modified because it was the time for the Hajh pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and the airway from Luxor
to Wejh on route to Jeddah was one way against us. I had a loud argument with the Sqn Ldr Nav2 who seemed to think
that our normal route was the standard route and we would stick to that. He actually told me to "wind my neck
in" when I didn't agree, and as an experienced first nav I was a bit put out by this treatment. Needless to
say he enjoyed telling me that the standard route had come back approved by the Air Attache.
For some reason I can't remember, our usual captain couldn't fly with us so we had a stand in well known to
us. Then it was found that my second nav had left his passport in his deep sea luggage coming from BK. Now we were
part of 42 Sqn and our new CO wouldn't let the second nav go without his passport, so a 42 Sqn first nav joined
me. I also collected all the route planning envelopes from my old second nav, and almost without taking a breath
after getting off the boat, we were off to Cyprus.
Now, as it happened, St Mawgan had the latest middle east nav charts, but not the latest en route documents. No problem I thought, I'll pick one up at Akrotiri. Wrong, they didn't have one either, but hey, we were all operational guys, although goodness knows what sort of crew category we were.
I remember the wonderful saunter down the airway along the Nile with beautiful scenery and little to do but look out of the window. As we approached Luxor the NDB didn't appear to be working. The (out of date) en route supplement confirmed that the frequency was correct and that it should be serviceable, but we had visual on Luxor so no problema. It was beginning to get darker as we started on the leg across the Red Sea to Wejh. ATC seemed quite happy until we were some way across when they suddenly realised that we were going the wrong way up their one way airway. There was an awful lot of shouting which ended in our turning round and flying back to Luxor (now below cloud) in the dark, still without the NDB. I subsequently found that the (current) chart showed an NDB frequency change, but who looks at the chart when you've just checked the book.
From Luxor we turned south down an unplanned route with dark high ground on our left between us and the Red Sea. So naturally, I thought that the old topo should be consulted. Now my second nav had the idea to make a strip map for the route by cutting and pasting the topos for the route with a few inches of map on either side. Well, that wasn't going to help as we were now on an unplanned route, and it was with a heavy heart that I searched in vain for the offcuts of map, which were presumably in a dustbin at BK. The Captain was not amused but nil desperandum, we decided to dodge between two dark shapes and get on the Red Sea coast where we would at least feel safe. So we cruised down the beach until we hit the airway going across the Red Sea and landed safely at Jeddah.
The flights through Bahrain, Masirah, and Gan haven't made any lasting impressions except for taking an astro noon fix on the way to Gan, and the wonderful beer and very large plate of chips we had after landing.
From Gan, the Captain decided that we would fly over Sumatra instead of the normal route at low altitude around the northern tip. Big error. The 205 Sqn CO went berserk when we arrived as there was a local order to save the engines by staying at low altitude. It was night time as we arrived over Singapore and we were still on airways heading for Changi when the Captain suddenly shouted that he had the airfield and started turning and descending. I rushed up front bellowing that we were still on airways and that he was looking at Paya Lebar the international airport.
The stopover at Singapore and the ferry flights back have left no impression at all, so I guess that we were all a bit subdued and glad to get back to sit behind a desk at the Nimrod OCU.
Exercise Bersatu Perdu or how not to organise a combined operation
I was on a Sharjah detachment in 1969 with 206 Sqn and we were detached to Masirah to provide SAR cover for exercise Bersatu Perdu (I think that was how it was spelt). This was a Singapore reinforcement exercise with Phantoms flying en masse from UK out to Singapore with many refuellings. Our job was to fly out into the Indian Ocean using the star reporting points (Sirius, Deneb, etc) as our route to cover anyone who fell from the skies.
We all thought that it was strange when the tanker crews also at Masirah briefed separately from our crew. Our operation orders came from HQ18Gp and I think that someone came out on a jolly to brief us. So we prepared our trip with virtually no contact with the tanker crews. Then off we went early in the morning to drone our way our over the oggin to be at the halfway point for the Tooms when they flew over us. All was very quiet for ages until we heard some very weak Toom/Tanker chat which we of course expected to get louder as they passed over us. Strangely the chat died out and we swanned along in peace and quiet. It was only later that we found out that we had been sent out along the wrong route and were nowhere near the Tooms/Tankers at any time. We learnt about HQ18Gp from that.