slightly bumpy conditions was that of seeing the wings flexing, and the fuselage twisting enough to put the tailplane out of alignment, first one way, then another. Fascinating as this was, I had to ignore it and concentrate on scanning the sky for aircraft. Periodically we checked the intercom but for at least an hour there was nothing to report except for either the nose or tail observer calling the sighting of a transport aircraft well below. Then I spotted fighters, 9 o'clock high, but they were minding their own business, trailing non-persistent contrails in the blue. The skipper told me to keep my eye on them. We were heading south at the time. Then more fighters appeared, too far off for identification but they had swept wings. These were nearer and not trailing. On my calling these the skipper opened the throttles and we banked hard to starboard. The tail observer caught sight of them, two of them, single-engined, head on to him, descending towards us, but got no positive identification. We went into a dive, engines now screaming, and I lost sight of them, the tailplane, then cloud, obscuring my view. When I saw them again they had turned away. Both the tail observer and I thought they may have been Migs but neither of us could be 100% sure as we could not make out the position of their tailplanes. We certainly didn't want them to be any closer for positive identification! Pulling out of the dive, and using the excess speed, we climbed again before settling back into a cruise at what I judged to be about 8-10,000 feet. Then we went into cloud for a while and could rest our eyes. Before coming back into clear air our Boffin called to say that he had some good information, but only he knew what he meant.
We stooged around a while longer, changing course fairly frequently, occasionally ducking in and out of cloud. I called "Aircraft 6 o'clock, level". The rear observed called "I've got 'em. Closing fast". Then I called "Two more fighters at 7 o'clock. Closing rapidly. Look like Hunters". "Roger. Hold on", replied the skipper as we immediately dived hard to port. His prompt action must have taken both pairs of fighters (they were all Hunters) by surprise, for they lost us. Better still, we lost them before they closed to within firing range. Levelling off at much lower altitude we stooged about again. Then, suddenly, we were bounced by two Meteors which came out of cloud. None of us saw them until too late. To them, we must have been dead meat. These Meteors then turned and formated on us just long enough for us to exchange traditional and impolite hand signals before they climbed away. Our sortie was now as good as over.
Debriefing was minimal and our Boffin was not present. When I asked for the pilot's name and time airborne so as to enter them into my Log Book I was at first very firmly told "Don't", then they relented and I was able to record that the Skipper was Flt.Lt. Goodenough, and the time airborne as 2 hours and 10 minutes.
I can not say with absolute certainty that I had seen Russian aircraft, neither can I say that we had actually crossed the frontier. My view of the ground, looking out of the top of the fuselage, was limited and, in any case, I was not familiar with the topographical features of the eastern side of the British Zone, seldom having previously flown in that area. I do have the impression though, that not only were we flying as part of Exercise Guest, but that our activities also aroused more than a little curiosity on the other side of the frontier.
On returning to Borgentreich I discovered from the watches that there had been considerable radar and R/T jamming that day, and that the centre of jamming had passed over the local area.
It is only now, 50 years later, that I have seen fit to mention this flight.
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