╨╧рб▒с>■  _a■   ^                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                ье┴s ┐Ajbjb└ └ %Ккkкk=      ]ЦЦЦЦЦЦЦ "ПъJJJJJJJJLNNNNNN,yЇm▓zЦJJJJJz▓ЦЦJJJ▓▓▓JRЦJЦJLк6р6ЦЦЦЦJL▓Ъ▓LЦЦL> яo╗ЬL Chapter XVIII - "V-Force" and Suez War is much too serious to be left to the military. Georges Clemenчeau No 214 (FMS) Squadron was reactivated in March, 1956, at Marham, Norfolk, equipped with the latest jet bomber, the Valiant B1, and became one of the founding squadrons of Britain's new V-Force. At its inauguration, the Squadron had only three aircraft on charge, but this was increased to six at the end of the month. The nominal roll was 39 officers including flying personnel, and seven airmen aircrew, under the command of Wg Cdr L.H. Trent, VC, DFC. John Spear, the navigator who served with 214 in Kenya during 1954 on Lincolns, was one of the airmen aircrew. He recalls, "I was one of the few non-commissioned navigators allowed into this near 'Empire' at that period of time. Once we had twelve squadron leaders on the unit, which was another experience." John was later commissioned and his pilot, another old member of 214, was none other than J.G. Wynne, DFC, who is mentioned earlier in these pages, when he flew back alone to the UK in a B-17. Johnny Wynne was now a squadron leader and became a flight commander under Wf Cdr Trent. Both pilot and navigator were crewed together for the next three and a half years, and saw plenty of overseas service, including the Suez campaign. Marham received royal visitors on April 21, 1956, when the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret arrived on the base. They were shown over Valiant WZ395 by Station Commander Gp Cpt L.M. Hodges DSO, OBE, DFC, and Wg Cdr L.H. Trent VC, DFC. Two days later there was a visit of a different sort when Marshal Bulganin and Nikita Krushchev of the Soviet Union came to assess the RAF's latest bombers. A fly-past of four aircraft was arranged and then the Soviet leaders inspected aircrew of the Squadron in a static display. Training was carried on throughout May, and Sqn Ldr H.B. Lymna DSO, DFC, DFM, was sent on detachment to Luga, Malta. On June 26th, two Valiants were sent from the UK to Libya to take part in exercise Thunderhead. One Valiant was from No 543 Squadron and the other from 214, piloted by Sqn Ldr J.A.G. Slessor, son of Air Marshal Sir John Slessor KCB, DSO, MC. Operating from RAF Idris, Libya, the Valiants carried out mock attacks on countries in southern Europe and the Mediterannean area to test the radar defences of NATO in that sector. Detachments overseas eventually became almost routine, and Valiants logged an impressive number of firsts in later months, such as the first non-stop flight from Loring air base, Maine, U.S.A. to Marham on September 1st, in six hours 15 minutes. Before this event, the Squadron was visited by Her Majesty the Queen when she came to Marham on July 23rd. The Squadron arranged a spectacular fly-past in her honour. On September 24, 1956, Sqn Ldr Slessor, Sqn Ldr Petrie, Flt Lt Coventry and crews departed for Luqa, Malta, as the start of a build-up to put pressure on Colonel Nasser of Egypt. Later, four squadrons of Valiants would be based there, Nos 138, 148, 207 and 214. Sqn Ldr Garstin, then at Marham, says, "With the possibility of an outbreak of hostilities with Egypt, and consequent attacks by MiG jets, we were concerned with the breakdown of our tail warning device, Orange Putter. However, someone had the bright idea of fitting small motorcycle mirrors onto the direct vision panels on each side of the cockpit to give a limited rear view. Halfords in Kings Lynn did a roaring trade that month." It was also around this time that Brian Wardle joined 214 from a base in Germany. He writes: "My association with the Squadron began under rather inauspicious circumstances, from my point of view. After spending two years in Germany with an Army AOP squadron, servicing Auster 7s, I was posted to Marham and confronted with, to my eyes, the enormous Valiant B Mk 1. On reflection, this was not an unusual RAF Admin cock-up. However, a quick, would you believe one week(?), conversion course at Gaydon brought me up to date. "In October, 1956, I was established with B flight at Marham, having, as a J/T acting corporal engineer fitter, partial responsibility for about four million pounds worth of aeroplanes. When one is young, responsibility rests very easily. During October we became aware of the Suez problem through the media, and realised that at some time in the near future we could be giving Nasser a bit of a thump, although the RAF did not appear to us to be showing any sense of urgency. Quite the contrary, most of us seemed either to be on leave or making immediate plans for leave. This, however, was soon changed as recall telegrams were despatched and numerous wives and mothers had hysterics. "Everyone seemed to arrive back at camp for a late evening departure from Squadron dispersal, aboard a Shackleton Mk 1, for a somewhat fraught trip to Malta. This was the vanguard of the Squadron's groundcrew, being flown out to Luqa to await the arrival of the Valiants from Marham. I must detail some of my impressions of this trip. Twenty of us squatted along the fuselage floor amid wires, boxes, control cable, etc., which, it occurred to me, could be jammed at any time by a misplaced or clumsy RAF boot. The engine noise initially was almost unbearable, but tended to lessen as our senses numbed. The crew had obviously done quite a number of trips recently under some pressure and did not inspire much confidence, as they did their duties continually yawning. By now the insidious cold was spreading through our bodies and it was a relief when at last the cabin door was opened and the warm, scented air wafted in. Things seemed very well organised at RAF Luqa. We were quickly billeted in a high-rise block. Bed! And after, back to the airfield to receive the Squadron aircraft arriving from the UK. These were quickly serviced and refuelled; also bombed up for any eventuality. "Our only way of keeping up to date with news of the crisis was via the newspaper, Times of Malta, which gave the Suez 'do' a detailed coverage, plus plenty of photographs. As ground crew, we had quite a hectic time at first, keeping the aircraft serviceable. But as the crisis passed, the delights of Valletta drew us lads like a magnet. What a cosmopolitan lot Ц French Paras, Navy, Brown Jobs, Foreign Legion Ц all shapes and sizes and all down the Gut. That was quite an experience for an innocent lad!" In 1957, Brian was detached to Akotiri, Cyprus, another spot where trouble was brewing. Of this episode he writes, "We, in 214, had a trip to Cyprus, where our presence plus that of the U.S. 6th Fleet had some influence on the world stage. I believe it was all because of Lebanon, as usual. Funny thing is, all these years after, the situation is very much the same." To understand the reason for the Suez crisis one must go back to October, 1954, when the Egyptian Government abrogated the Anglo-Egyptian treaty under which the RAF was ceded bases in the Canal Zone until 1956 with the possibility of extending the date by negotiation. In July, 1955, the RAF started withdrawing from its bases, and this was completed in April, 1956, when Abu Sueir was evacuated. There, months later, on July 26, 1956, the Egyptian Government, in breach of the treaty, announced the nationalisation of the Suez Canal, and to protect British interests, Army, Navy and Air Force units were concentrated in Malta and Cyprus. For a long period, tension had been building up along the Israeli-Egyptian border, with Israel mobilising her forces on October 27th. Then, on the 29th, she launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt, declaring that this step was necessary to forestall an act of aggression by the Egyptian army. Action by the British and French Governments swiftly followed. On October 30, they issued an ultimatum, calling on both sides to cease hostilities; to withdraw their troops to a point ten miles either side of the Suez Canal and allow the occupation by Anglo-French forces of Port Said, Ismalia and Suez. All these objectives, of course, were in Egyptian territory. Israel accepted the ultimatum but Egypt rejected it, and at 1615 hours the following day, Valiants and Canberras commenced the attack against Egypt's airfields. In view of the speed at which these events took place, there is little doubt that the British, French and Israeli Governments were acting in concert. The British and French looked to protect their interests in the Canal Zone and the Israelis to secure their borders by striking a timely blow against their arch-enemy, Colonel Nasser. Egypt was building up a formidable strike force with Soviet aid, and had vowed to destroy the State of Israel; a state, incidentally, that Nasser refused to recognise. At Marham during October there had been a long standby but no one knew the reason, except that Wing Commander Trent guessed it was connected with Suez. Finally, orders came through to fly to Malta. John Spear received a personal visit from the CO, who said, "The balloon has gone up, and be ready to fly out to Luqa." Roy Monk, the Corporal engineer fitter, reports, "One minute we were standing on the dispersal, the next we were being loaded into a Mark 1 Shackleton like sardines. Flying over France we got caught in a storm and lightning hit us. We made an emergency landing at Marseille, then on to Istres and finally Malta." Whilst Roy was on his way, John Spear had already landed and in a very short space of time was hustled into the briefing. He writes, "The Squadron was fully briefed, targetted and gooly chitted, though the briefing ended with these words: 'This is the sort of briefing and timing you should expect if we should be called into action'. Still there was no official acknowledgement of any definite commitment. I had never before, even during the war, seen so many air and ground crew crowding round a radio at every news bulletin, trying to hear something definite. I had done a tour in Egypt from 1946 to '48, and knew all the bases quite well. I could quite happily accept that being briefed to bomb them was either a spoof or one of those quirks of fate." Wing Commander Trent, VC, DFC, had a similar story to tell: "It is interesting to note that in spite of every endeavour, it was impossible to discover, throughout the long period of stand-by at Marham, just who the future enemy was likely to be. Crew room diplomats and students of Middle East history were of the opinion that Fighter Command and Jordan would be arrayed against Bomber Command and Israel. Other well informed crew members had little doubt that we were standing by to assist Egypt against Israel. The looks and expressions of surprise can only be imagined when, within hours of landing at Luqa, all crews gathered in the Bomber Wing Operations briefing room for the first operational briefing, and the curtains were drawn aside to reveal Egyptian airfields to be the targets." Egypt was known to have a hundred MiG-15 fighters, and thirty Ilyushin 28 jet bombers, and these, with their parent airfields, were the primary targets for the first phase of the campaign. In these first attacks, everything possible was done to keep civilian casualties to a minimum. Pilots were instructed not to bomb camp areas, and no bombs were to be jettisoned live. Warnings of impending attacks to the Delta and Canal Zone airfields were sent out by Cyprus radio and repeated by Cairo several hours before the action took place. So our bomber crews were expecting a hot reception when they started their attacks. In the event, there was no reaction from the Egyptian defences and no black-out was enforced, the Delta was ablaze with light, and visual navigation proved to be quite easy. The first attacks were carried out at 40,000 feet, but as no opposition was experienced, later attacks were made from a lower altitude. The first raid on Egypt was flown by Sqn Ldr Garstin to Almaza airfield. He relates: "We took off with twelve 1000-lb bombs along a 2000 yard runway at the end of which was a domed church. Not really the best of places to fly from at night. Because we had little experience with the NSB, we bombed visually on flares dropped by Canberras which had flown out from Cyprus. As I remember, I was second in the stream, with Trevor War of No 207 Squadron leading. It was then that the little mirrors proved their worth, for Trevor's co-pilot saw four winking lights behind them. They made a steep turn and an Egyptian MiG went past, losing height, being unable to maintain the altitude. The only opposition we encountered was anti-aircraft fire, but well below our ceiling." John Spear, flying in Valiant WZ393, piloted by Ssn Ldr J.G. Wynne, DFC, made the attack on Abu Sueir, 214's old base of 1919. "This was an anti-climax," he recalls. "Our briefing was to aim for the runways but somehow our bombs hung up for a couple of seconds, and we missed our objective." The main aim of these night attacks was to crater the runways and intersections so that the EAF could not become airborne. Then during daylight, Fleet Air Arm fighters and French Navy fighter bombers could keep up the attacks. Most of the bombing by the Valiants was done on the nights of October 31 and November 1 and 2, when all main Egyptian bases were raided. On November 3, attacks were made on different objectives at Huckstep and El Agami, these being the last two targets in the six day campaign. Official sources stated that the operations against EAF airfields were successful in cratering runways and installations, also destroying large numbers of MiG-15s and IL-28 bombers on the ground. Those enemy aircraft surviving these attacks were largely destroyed by low level strikes from fighter-bombers on November 3. It was on this date that attacks were switched to tank parks at Huckstep, and to El Agami Island, where it was suspected that a submarine repair depot was located. Suez did little to enhance the reputation of Britain's V-Force. Insufficient planning was made by Bomber Command, but this was probably due to the lack of, and lateness of, information from their political masters. The Valiant's bombing aids were inadequate, and the bomb load carried by the entire bomber force was insufficient to neutralise one airfield. (The Falklands War of 1982 proved once again the difficulty of making an airfield inoperable, when Stanley's runway was repeatedly attacked by Vulcan and Harrier aircraft.) By the time of the ceasefire on the sixth day, three of the seven main airfields were still fully serviceable, a fourth was partly incapacitated with a shortened runway, and the fifth had received only three bombs, requiring only the filling in of the craters. As for Sqn Ldr Wynne's effort on Abu Sueir, the only damage was to a domestic site, due to the hang-up he experienced. With the ceasefire still holding between the Israelis and the Egyptians at the end of the six day war, and the lessening of tension in the Middle East, the five Valiants on detachment in Malta returned to Marham on December 18, and the Squadron continued with its peace-time role. 1956 Bombing raids by No 214 Squadron's Valiants: (Each carried twelve 1000 lb bombs) Oct 31 - Sqn Ldr J.H. Garstin, to Almaza. Oct 31 - SqnLdr J.G. Wynne, to Abu Sueir. Nov 1 - Wg Cdr L. Trent, to Kasfarit. Nov 1 - Flt Lt P.P. Coventry, to Kasfarit. Nov 3 - Sqn Ldr P.D. Petrie, to Huckstep Barracks. Nov 3 - Sqn Ldr R.W. Payne, to El Agami Island. Nov 3 - Sqn Ldr J.G. Wynne, to El Agami Island. 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