Many years ago I was on exercise with the Army on Luneburg Heath, which is a very big training area near Hamburg. We were harbored in a small wood one night and I just could not get comfortable. The wood was freezing cold, much colder than the area outside the wood and it was airless. The next day I was very happy to pack up shop and move off to pastures new.
A few years ago I was talking to a Colonel in the Royal Military Police and mentioned this. He had heard the same story before and was beginning to think there may be some merit in it, because, Himmler (head of the SS) had taken cyanide when in British custody in 1945 and had been buried on the heath in a wood just like that one. The location had been kept secret to stop nutters digging the bastard up later.
The last flying Vulcan bomber will end its flying days very soon and the other day I saw it for the last time in its natural element. A very sad day it will be for me when it is grounded as it was a part of my life for many years. My first posting in the RAF had been to RAF Bawtry in south Yorkshire and the home of No 1 Group responsible for the V bombers of the time. We had four minutes to get them airborne and on their way to Russia. When that alarm went off and the Vulcans howled like wolves and rolled it made the hairs on the back of your neck rise and for a lad of 17 I can tell you it concentrated the mind. One time I was in the village shopping and the Vulcans at a nearby airfield scrambled. A whole squadron took off and nearly broke the windows in Bawtry the noise was terrific and boy did I run back to work. I can laugh about it now, for running back to work would have been a total waste of time had it been for real.. Inbound would have been a very big Russian nuclear missile just for us. I may as just as well have stayed in the town and had a pint.
I was then stationed in the middle east and during the Yom Kipur war we had four Vulcans deployed to us and the armed guards around the aircraft, which left no one in any doubt as to what they had on board. We owe them much for they kept the peace. I just hope we never have to go back to a four minute readiness. It is a shame however that we cannot sum up the engineering and collective will to replicate the massive investment in national survival it took to build, man and run not just the Vulcan, Victor and Valiants but all those wonderful aircraft that a once vibrant aircraft industry could design and build. I will never understand how Blair thought we could replace our premier post war place in heavy and advanced engineering by concentrating on the service industry. Look where it has got us. It is a full circle for the Vulcan is being grounded because we have no engineers capable of certifying it as fit for flight. They are all now too old.
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