Blackman Tony - V Force Boys

V FORCE BOYS

Flight Testing to Win

(Autobiography paperback)

ISBN 978-0-9553856-4-3

Published Blackman Associates 2005

Vulcan Test Pilot

ISBN 978-1-906502-30-0

Published Grub Street 2007

Tony Blackman Test Pilot

ISBN 978-1-908117-32-8

Published Grub Street 2009

Nimrod Rise and Fall

ISBN 978-1-909166-02-8

Published Grub Street 2011

Victor Boys

with Garry OKeefe

ISBN 978-1-908117-45-8

Published Grub Street 2012

Vulcan Boys

ISBN 978-1-909808-08-9

Published Grub Street 2014

Valiant Boys

with Anthony Wright

ISBN 978-1-909808-21-8

Published Grub Street 2014

A Flight Too Far

ISBN 978-0-955385-63-6

Published Blackman Associates

The Final Flight

ISBN 978-0-955385-60-5

Published Blackman Associates

The Right Choice

ISBN 978-0-955385-62-9

Published Blackman Associates

Flight to St Antony

ISBN 978-0-955385-66-7

Published Blackman Associates

Now You See It

ISBN 978-0-955385-67-4

Published Blackman Associates

Dire Strait

ISBN 978-0-955385-68-1

Published Blackman Associates

Java Waters Run Deep

ISBN 978-0-955385-69-8

Published Blackman Associates

ALL NEW REMINISCENCES BY AIR AND GROUND CREWS OPERATING THE VALIANT, VULCAN AND VICTOR IN THE COLD WAR AND BEYOND

GRUB STREET | LONDON

Published by

Grub Street

4 Rainham Close

London SW11 6SS

Copyright Grub Street 2017

Copyright text Tony Blackman 2017, Anthony Wright 2017

A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library

ISBN-13: 9-781-910690-38-3

eISBN-13: 9-781-911621-52-2

Mobi ISBN-13: 9-781-911621-52-2

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Design by Daniele Roa

To all the operators, aircrew and ground crew, who helped to make all the V Force aircraft an effective deterrent during the years of the Cold War and beyond.

When Anthony and I finished Valiant Boys we were aware that we had missed some good contributions from operating crews for all the three V bombers and that we already had a couple of excellent articles we had not been able to use for various reasons. So this book fills in these gaps and covers not only the very serious issues which made the V Force so effective but also includes some lighter tales which the authors may or may not regret. The book just would not have been possible without Anthony contacting all the authors who contributed to this book and encouraging them to rake up their memories, long gone by, and to put pen to paper. Not only that but Anthony himself added a very splendid chapter revealing some interesting events, some of which are unlikely to figure in the annals of the Royal Air Force!

There are over twenty-five contributors to this book ranging from sizeable chapters to a few short stories. The first two chapters on training by Nigel Baldwin and navigation by Norman Bonnor apply to all three V bombers; they are both updated contributions of versions published in specialist publications. The other chapters are ordered by Valiant, Vulcan and Victor though Spike Milligan operated in all the types.

John Mustons account of dropping the final and largest H-Bomb from the Valiant is very special and remembering that the first aircraft of the V Force went out of service fifty years ago, we have been very fortunate to have contributions on Valiant tanking and also from Tony Yule giving us the lighter side of squadron life.

On the Vulcan we have an AEOs story and Jim Vinales is back again giving us a gripping account of successfully baling out of the aircraft. We also have some stories capped by Anthony Wrights memories including a very memorable dining in night.

On the Victor Dick Russell has given us his early history before he became a famous tanker instructor and operator; his memories are supplemented by Gary West and also by Peter Sharps vivid description of what it is really like putting out a landing gear fire. There are some descriptions of lone rangers and a chapter on a friendly fire incident which luckily did not result in any damage. Then we have Mike Keitchs account of handling nuclear weapons and we finish with a crew chief on 617 Squadron. Finally, there is an addendum with Monty Montgomery explaining the confusion over the correct name for Black Buck 1.

The photographs are of course an intrinsic part of the book and hopefully we have acknowledged all the ones that we have received and there are some in the public domain. We apologise if we have used some that we have not acknowledged.

Anthony Wright and I would like to thank all the contributors to this book and to our publisher John Davies of Grub Street. We feel very privileged to have been able to put this book together.

Tony Blackman and Anthony Wright, May 2017

This book is about the three V bombers which were built to guard the United Kingdom during the Cold War. Like the earlier individual V bomber books, this one has been written by operators of the aircraft so that we have first-hand accounts of what it was really like to defend the UK in that period.

Two of the chapters are slightly different from previous books. The first by Norman Bonnor explains how all the three aircraft types navigated to their targets. Such is the speed of advancing technology that it seems incredible today that all the aircraft had to navigate during the Cold War were some very early analogue computers, a sextant for looking at the stars, a drift and ground speed device and a very poor compass; no GPS, not even the earlier Transit or Omega systems. We have put this detailed chapter in this book because it is important that the equipment should be described, that the challenges facing the navigators should be appreciated and the way they solved the problems should be recorded.

The other very important and unusual chapter in this book is the detailed description of the nuclear armament that was used, the way the bombs were handled and the complete safety that was applied at all times. Having said that, Mike Keitch tells some very amusing and challenging stories of how he, as a junior NCO, had to move the weapons not only across the airfields but also across the country. Again it is important that these facts should be recorded and not left to historians to write third-party accounts.

As in the previous books one cannot help but be impressed reading of the long hours spent by the crews, ground as well as flight, sitting in or by their aircraft at the readiness platforms waiting to be scrambled to start a third world war. Thankfully it never happened but might well have done if the crews had not been there, waiting. The tedium was relieved by lone rangers flying to the United States, to the Mediterranean and to the Far East.

There are also two chapters on the early days of flight refuelling, one with the Valiant and the other with the Victors K1 and K2. The chapters are a reminder that the UK was very early amongst the worlds air forces developing air-to-air refuelling. Finally, there is the story of a Falklands friendly fire incident which shows how easily things can go wrong in a wartime situation; interestingly it has been very straightforward getting the stories from the Victors that were being fired on but next to impossible getting firsthand accounts from the naval guys who launched the missiles!