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| Place |
Date |
Time |
Summary of Events COMPILING OFFICER Fg.Off. P. Leigh-Lancaster |
REF. TO APPENDICES |
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| R.A.F. Jever |
1st
1955 |
September |
We only flew 13.15 hours today, four of our aircraft and pilots staying on the
ground at readiness under 2 Group's instructions for over an hour. These were to
intercept four Canadian Sabres raiding Jever, but the Canadians had landed at Jever
before our formation was even taxying. Most of the other flying was devoted to
high level battle formation. |
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2nd |
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In spite of a warm front and its associated warm sector weather, which stopped
flying in the late morning until the weather cleared in the afternoon, we completed
23 hours flying, most of which was again high level battle formation practice. |
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3rd |
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There was a rehearsal for the C-in-C.s parade this morning and Met. briefing
was not held until 09.00 hours. Although the Squadron does not normally fly on
Saturday mornings two aircraft flew two sorties each. After the first sorties the
same pilots remained in their cockpits while the other pilots refueled and pre-
flighted their aircraft. A flight achieved a turn round time of 18 minutes from
touch down to take off, and B flight took only one minute longer with their aircraft.
The Squadron stood down for the weekend at 13.00 hours.
Fg.Off. Page was married today. |
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5th |
Monday. |
Flying today consisted mostly of high level battle formation and quarter
attacks although the aerobatic team flew twice during the day.
A night flying programme was arranged and three Sabre dusk sorties were
completed. Also three squadron pilots were checked out for night in Vampire T.11s.
Flying ceased soon after 22.00 hours. |
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6th |
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Today the emphasis was on quarter attacks and cine work owing to a new order
that pilots must produce 150 feet of film each month. This was filled in with
high level battle formation practices. |
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7th |
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The first detail went off in pairs owing to minor unserviceability of two
aircraft. The second pair to land had to do so in close formation from a straight
approach the cloud base having lowered to 200 feet during the sortie. Flying
ceased thereafter. Although the cloud base had risen to 500 feet by lunch time
and it was intended to fly all day, a sports afternoon ,was held instead; during
which the Wing pilots football team lost 4 - 1 to Admin. Wing in a friendly game. |
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8th |
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The visibility was down to 2,000 yards early in the morning and as all
diversions were almost the same, the airfield state was red. Later Flt.Lt.Colvin
did a weather check but the weather was unfit, and it was not until midday when the
Squadron Commander did another weather check that one pair per Squadron was
allowed to fly, only to be recalled some 30 minutes later. The aim now is to
fly the team two trips a day to practice for the AOC in C.s air display. The team
has reached a very high standard and every sortie the Squadron pilots watch from the
hangar tower, note any faults and discuss them with the team after landing. |
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9th |
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Our early detail did not get airborne owing to visibility and pilots who
attended Met. briefing learned the airfield colour state had gone up to amber before
we were informed by telephone. Consequently for once we were not the first airborne
at Jever, having been beaten by two Hunters from 118 Squadron by a few seconds.
Most flying was devoted to pairs quarter attacks and the aerobatics team flew
two sorties, the second being part of a rehearsal for the AOC in C.s air display.
Squadron Leader Browne had undercarriage trouble and had to use his emergency in
the circuit but it did not affect his landing and the formation seemed to maintain
good formation in spite of this. |
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10th |
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The day started with a working blue rehearsal for the AOC in C.s parade, but
no flying time was wasted as the airfield colour state was red due to low stratus
during the period of the parade. However the 93rd were once again first airborne
at 9.55 with a cloud base of 300 feet and 3,000 yards visibility. One more pair
flew from the squadron before we stood down for the weekend at 13.00 hours. |
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12th |
Monday. |
Met. told us that the cloud base would come down to 700 - 800 feet during the
morning for about an hour while a cold front was passing, however the latter
developed a wave and throughout the day the cloud base varied from ground level
to 500 feet, only to clear in the very late afternoon. The early detail had to
come in on pairs landings from a controlled descent and the only other flying was
odd pairs doing weather checks, except for the aerobatic team on the last sortie
of the day |
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13th |
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A good Day's flying on the whole, the aerobatic team flying twice, and the total
hours flown being 28.15. Quarter attacks again were a major part of the flying
but judging from recent film we can well do with the practice. |
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14th |
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The airfield colour state was amber for the early detail and only a pair could
fly. So it remained for the rest of the morning - pairs only flying. We ceased
flying at midday but did not have a sports afternoon as there was plenty of work
to do getting the squadron up to scratch for the C in C. of 2nd A.T.A.F. inspection on
16th September. |
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15th |
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The day started with a Battle of Britain parade, which was followed by a Dress
Rehearsal for the C. in Cs parade tomorrow. Afterwards everyone returned to the
Squadron to get their jobs up to date for the inspection. There was no flying and
work ceased at 18.00 hours. |
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16th |
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The C. in C.s parade started at 10.00 hours and was over by 11.00 hours.
During the remainder of the morning the C. in C. Air Marshal Sir Harry Broadhurst,
K.C.B., K.B.E., D.S.O., D.F.C., A.F.C., inspected 93 Squadron's Barrack Block
and his comments were favourable. After lunch he inspected our line up of
aircraft and had a few words with almost every airman and officer on the Squadron.
Later he moved up to the Squadron tower - which had been laid out very well with
our unofficial Squadron histories and silver on display, to watch the Wing fly-past.
Flypast by the 3 Hunter Squadrons 4, 98 and 118 and the Sabres of 93 Sqn joining up to
form the figure one, making up No. 122 Wing for inspection by AOC-in-C Air Marshal
Sir Harry Broadhurst, K.C.B., K.B.E., D.S.O., D.F.C., A.F.C. - 16Sep55.
(Thanks to Peter Rose) [Photo not in original F540]..
The 93rds aerobatic team exhibited their prowess well, the cloud base allowing a
full display to take place although earlier it had seemed as if the weather would
cut the display down to a series of rolls and wing overs. Then after the
individual aerobatics 93 joined the Hunters as the 'one' in 122 Wing, and
finally ended with the best spaced box landing they have yet done.
A guest night was held which was attended by the A.O.C., Air Vice-Marshal
S.R. Ubee, C.B., A.F.C. and the C-in-C. They both made speeches. Also Fg.Off.
Ramsay the Squadron P.A.I. was dined out. |
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17th |
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Stand Down. |
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19th |
Monday |
Stand down on a signal received from 2nd T.A.F. |
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20th |
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Due to the bad weather: time spent in tidying up for the C-in-C; and
stand downs, the Squadron is below its target so with 8/8 blue and visibility
unlimited and with eight aircraft serviceable, today has seen the highest day's
flying for a long while. Each flight had four aircraft, and flew without stopping
throughout the day, lunch being sandwiches brought from the mess. With four
dusk sorties we reached a best-ever day's flying of 45.05 hours. |
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21st |
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The 'high pressure' which gave us the good weather yesterday gave us a thick
haze this morning - accordingly the first detail did not get airborne until
08.30 hours and the visibility did not improve beyond 3,000 yards all morning.
Nevertheless we managed to fly exactly 20 hours in all, so perhaps we may yet
reach our monthly target with 65 hours in the past two days. The Wing pilots
football team beat Administrative Wing 5 - 3 in a very good game, giving an
unbeaten record of two wins in the league. |
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22nd |
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Again more haze - the visibility at Jever being 3,000 yards, but the
diversions were doubtful and the first detail although airborne at 08.00 hours
punctually, was only a pair on a weather check. However full flying began with
a four at 08.35 hours, and although the flying effort was quite concentrated,
unserviceability of aircraft prevented us from doing as well as during the past
two days. Two dusk sorties and two night sorties were flown on Sabres. |
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23rd |
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We flew just 18 hours today consisting mostly of quarter attacks and battle
formations. The visibility all day was in the 3,000 yards order and several
pairs landings took place; the Squadron now having reached a high standard in
this practice. |
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24th |
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There was no flying this morning- the pilots listened to several interesting
lectures on the Hunter, its systems and emergencies; and the groundcrew worked
well on primaries and other servicing to have eight aircraft ready for an
exercise tomorrow. The Squadron stood down for the day at 12.00 hours. |
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25th |
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We hope to get a little more than eight hours on the exercise - which was
to be a 'bomber' stooge almost to England - but a warm front came in earlier than
was expected and everything was cancelled. This now leaves us over eighty hours
flying to do in four and a half days to reach the monthly target. Given
sympathetic weather we can do it quite easily. |
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26th |
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The good weather for which we had hoped did not arrive - instead a mild humid
south westerly gave us low stratus at 300 feet and a visibility of 2,000 yards,
and while the pilots listened to more lectures, seven serviceable aircraft were
on the ground.
It cleared by 11.00 hours and we flew throughout the rest of the day obtaining
26 hours Sabre flying time. In the evening seven pilots were checked out by
the Squadron and Flight Commanders at night flying in Vampire T.11s. |
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27th |
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93 Squadron were on Battle flight, only four sorties being flown from the
hangar. From battle flight, however, seven operations were flown, aircraft
investigated being two B.45s and a Thunderstreak. The G.C.I. control was not
too good at first but improved towards the end of the day. In addition to 4
dusk sorties the first three night sorties in Sabres were flown by the Squadron
and Flight Commanders. |
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28th |
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Owing to sports afternoon we flew only four operations on Battle Flight.
Except above 30,000 feet when we were mostly in the dark, G.C.I.s height finding
was excellent, often being exact at heights between 10,000 and 25,000 feet. We
did several practice interceptions which for the most part led to being in good
positions for 'straight-in' quarter attacks. In the afternoon the Wing pilots
football team lost 5 - 4 to 98 Squadron, the equalising goal being scores a split
second after the whistle for full-time. |
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29th |
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Five operations were flown on Battle Flight. On the whole G.C.I. control
was poor resulting in only two interceptions; the first being on a Hunter which
ended in a tail chase as the Hunter was travelling at just over 0.9 mach; the
second was on a Tornado. After this four Dutch Meteors were intercepted
visually before Battle Flight returned to base.
The Squadron passed its monthly flying target during the third operation. |
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30th |
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As we had reached our target Battle Flight flew only three missions -
two fours and a pair - during the morning. On the first G.C.I. was unserviceable
and the only interception was another pair of Sabres on Battle Flight. The
second mission lost a pair - No. 4 having to return to base with engine surge,
his leader accompanying him - but later intercepted a Tornado visually, and a
Canberra was attacked on the last trip. |
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Hours Flown Operational Type.
Day night
Hours Sorties Hours Sorties
Sabre Mk.4 356.15 515 12.50 18
Total Hours flown for month = 369.5. Total Sorties for month = 533
Training Type - Vampire T.11 Day, Hours - 29.50. Night - 25.40.
Total hours flown - 55.30.
Total Hours for the Month - 424.35.
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Personnel |
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1st |
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Fg.Off. Leigh-Lancaster returned from being sick with tonsillitis. |
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20th |
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Fg.Offs. Bell and Chadwick set off for Spain on three weeks leave. |
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21st |
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Flt.Lt. Hayes returned from three weeks leave in Italy. |
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22nd |
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Fg.Off. Ramsay left the Squadron at the end of his tour. |
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23rd |
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Fg.Off. Page returned from 3 weeks U.K. leave during which he was married. |
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29th |
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Fg.Off. Hickman left for a two day Moral Leadership course at Cologne. |
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OPERATIONAL
Poor weather coupled with rehearsals and preparations for the Commander - in -
Chief's Inspection during the first two weeks of the month curtailed flying to
some extent. However over 200 hours were flown in the remaining period and the
Squadron monthly target was comfortably met with 365 Sabre hours.
September marks the sixth successive month in which the flying target has
been achieved - thus giving a total of 2362 Sabre hours flown since 1st April
and an average of just over 20 operational hours per pilot per month during these
six months. The generally fine weather has been a great help plus the fact that
the smaller 14 U.E. Squadron can maintain better serviceability as closer
co-operation, co-ordination and control is easier.
Night flying checks, dusk and night sorties on operational type were carried
out on every available night. All except four pilots are cleared for Sabre dusk
flying now. In general a fairly well balanced month's training was carried out -
the last week of which was concerned with Battle Flight duties. |
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ADMINISTRATIVE
The main event of the month was the Commander-in-Chief's Inspection on
16th September 1955, so the first half of the month was occupied in the "Annual
Spring Clean", flying and drill rehearsals. The Squadron with its aerobatic
four, filled in between the mass fly past of the Hunter Squadrons.
Towards the end of the month a delegation of Members of Parliament visited
the station and were shown a "Battle Flight Scramble" by the Squadron. They talked
to many of the men.
The expected re-equipment to Hunter aircraft now appears imminent, equipment
pack ups have been arriving and some ground crew have been given a fair amount
of training with A.S.F. in Technical Wing.
Signed DFM Browne
(D.F.M. BROWNE)
Squadron Leader
Officer Commanding
No. 93 Squadron
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