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An unexpected sortie.

On November 19th, 1956, during the Hungarian riots, I was sent to RAF Wildenrath for a scheduled trip as a crew member of Lincoln bomber RF448 on a special mission. My duty was to be an Observer as I was still considered to be up to date with aircraft recognition, and official knowledge of my good long-range sight must have also been a consideration. This flight was conducted partly under wraps.
I had earlier had to hand in the bulk of my flying equipment but still had my flying suit, and thick personal flying clothing: shirts, anorak, gloves, and Sabre boots. Gone were my G-suit, hard 'bone dome' helmet and its inner helmet and oxygen mask. I took what I had with me for this sortie and dressed accordingly in the crew room. I was loaned a helmet and mask and issued with a parachute harness and a removable chest parachute.
During briefing it was explained to me that the sortie was primarily one of radar and R/T jamming during a regular Exercise Guest.1 Our route was never announced, for it was the task of the GCIs and fighters to find us despite the jamming. The secondary objective, which was only hinted at, was to fly close to the East-West frontier and to monitor Eastern Bloc reactions to our activities. When I asked how close we were going to the border I received an evasive reply, and at the same time my role as Observer was strongly emphasised. Our crew, as I remember it, were Pilot, Flight Engineer, Navigator, nose Observer in the forward or Bombaimer's position, myself as mid-upper Observer (looking out through the astrodome), another Observer in the tail turret, and a civilian 'Boffin' who had a position towards the aft of the fuselage, near the mid-upper gunner's position, where he was surrounded by a mass of electrical equipment, oscilloscopes and radios.2 We were introduced to him but were told neither his name nor his airborne duties.
On climbing aboard we took up our crew positions and hung our parachutes in the assigned positions in the fuselage. The intercom was checked, and start-up procedure commenced. Each Merlin was fired up in sequence and, after a pause and clearance being given from the Tower, we taxied close to the end of the runway. There, as in my Oxford days, each engine was run up in turn to test for any magdrop. All were OK. Clearance for take-off was given and we turned on to the runway. I, in the meantime, had taken up my allotted take-off and landing position sitting atop the main spar, bracing myself with my hands as best I could. Our skipper opened up the Merlins against the brakes. The sound was deafeningly thrillingly beautiful, the whole airframe shaking like some wild beast raring to go. Then we were rolling. Soon the ground dropped below, and we turned on to an easterly heading. I judged this from the position of the sun as we climbed through, and above, a cloud layer.
A few minutes later we took up our observer positions. For my part I stood with my head in the astrodome so that I could see out and have a 360° circle of vision of everything above the horizontal. The skipper throttled back and the noise level reduced as we settled down to level flight. My first impression on looking out in the
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1 Exercise Guest was a fairly regular monthly routine during which the countermeasures for dealing with radio and radar jamming could be practised. These exercises appear fairly frequently in my Fighter Controller's Log Book.
2 Astrodome : A perspex dome on top of the fuselage, to the rear of the main spar, and used for astro-navigation, from which place a navigator could use his sextant to take star shots.
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