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I did my bit 75-77. Crash outs once a month to some unknown area on Soltau. Saying unknown but Willy with his bratwurst wagon always seemed to turn up ringing his bell driving through the cammed up tanks etc.
We knew he was Stasi or something.
'76 was the scariest one as we bombed up with live not practice ammo. Had a few rear ends twitching. Went to a totally different place for the crash out and Willy didn't find us. We think the local police pulled him over on his way.
What amongst you ex cold warriors were your thoughts?
We always practiced a retreat back across the Weser and into the bog lands of Holland. All bridges had live charges on and just needed detonators connecting.

Not quite sure of the topic:
Thoughts on how the Cold War went, might have gone if it had gone hot then, whether it will be back on, or how it might go this time?

Not quite sure of the topic:
Thoughts on how the Cold War went, might have gone if it had gone hot then, whether it will be back on, or how it might go this time?

Just wondering what other people on here who served in BAOR thought what would have been the outcome if the Russians had come.

Have you read 'Chieftains' by Bob Forrest-Webb?
https://www.amazon.com/Chieftains-Mr-Bo ... 1468180959

Pretty much like that, I reckon.

My BAOR experience is limited to being told in October 1989 that we now had a Central Europe secondary Air Defence role. The briefer informed us that things were much better than the days of the "Twenty Minuters", and we could now expect to live for Twenty Four minutes. He wasn't kidding. Deep Joy.

Plus, a close colleague's dad had been Deputy CO 1st Armoured. Lots of interesting stories there. Apparently, the complete master back-up plan when the Sovs broke through the Fulda Gap was "The Brits will think of Something"

I thought that the Canberra's of 2 TAF were going to blast a path with their 'tactical' nukes, through E. Germany and Poland, so that the V-Bombers with their 'strategic' nukes could fly through the gaps and bomb the USSR.

Or was there another plan?

Well, mine was to head to a remote part of Iceland once it all got silly, having bravely earned a few Red Stars under the cockpit until then

My plan was to grab my rather attractive corporal in the General Office and shag her rigid. If the Russkies had broken through I don’t think I would have been too worried about the looming court martial

My liver couldn't take another cold war.

I'll drink to that

First posting after Boy Entrant training in 1961 was RAF Driffield, Thor missile base. Interesting times in October 1962 when everyone was rather on edge. I was posted to RAF Sharjah in April 1963 and thus missed the very bad winter which the UK endured.

I worked in 2 Armoured divisions air cell, so went out on all the exercises, both CP and FT Ex's. I know how things ended because it always ended the same way.
I don't suppose it's any secret now, that there were always loud bangs on the Eastern side of various rivers.

I was posted from the V-Force at Marham to Akrotiri, right in the middle of the Cuban Crises!

I arrived in Cyprus on 14th Oct 1962.

ricardian wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:56 pm

I was posted to RAF Sharjah in April 1963 and thus missed the very bad winter which the UK endured.

I assume the winter you refer to was 1963/4. MY first winter as a liney on Vulcans at RAF Finningley. Although an OCU, the aircraft and ground crews were very much part of Bomber Commands inventory. We would get aircrews up from Waddo whenever a Mickey Finn or Mickey was called. These being code names for "Get ready to bomb the Soviets immediately, like now", which invariably meant the station went into lockdown, and we went onto 12 hour shifts. QRA and ORP being names that come to mind, especially for lineys.

Alison
PS. Ric, followed you to Sharjah, arriving there December '65. Staying for a year and a bit.

Ric, followed you to Sharjah, arriving there December '65. Staying for a year and a bit.


And, in turn, I followed Alison from Finningley to Sharjah in early 67

Then went back to Finningley before moving with 1 (B)GSU to Scampton in late 68.

ian16th wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:05 pm

I thought that the Canberra's of 2 TAF were going to blast a path with their 'tactical' nukes, through E. Germany and Poland, so that the V-Bombers with their 'strategic' nukes could fly through the gaps and bomb the USSR.

Or was there another plan?

Sorry for resurrecting the thread but just want to tell you the plan.

The High Level plan, pre 1964, had at least some aircraft routing northern France, Switzerland, Austria. I found topos in the Vault in 1967.

Post 64 all aircraft routed north. A few would head for northern Norway and northern Sweden and Finland. The main force would funnel over southern Norway and then southern Sweden before penetrating through 2-3 weak points.

Thank you.
Just north of Oslo and Stockholm, then through all those mid-Baltic Islands, then across the forests starting around Pskov? You'd only have to cross 4 roads in the 400nm between the Gulf of Finland and the Moscow ring road

I really wanted to comment on Chieftains. I bought it in 2016 but don't think I read it all. Now a fair bit it in, clearly he knows green but demonstrates typical ignorance of air.

Why does he invent a fictitious RAF aircraft? Why would Su15 interceptor fire AAM at the ground, or even dive at Mach 2?

Fox, indeed once through the coastal defences the Pripet Marshes were wide open. Worst case was 8-8 blue, winter over snow. The routing plan had a degree of cunning.

Imagine a straight line path heading for not a lot. An observer at the start would report a bomber at time X doing 350k. A short time later an observer at the next point, say 35 miles down track would observe the bomber about 3 minutes later. The next observer might have to wait 6 minutes.

What was happening was different bombers would enter and leave on a predetermined plan.

Many thanks again.

The same kind of air errors occur in Team Yankee, by Harold Coyle, a US version of a tanker's view of WW3.

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL53331W/Team_Yankee

Both these books were early 1980s, I think, and it was Red Storm Rising (1986) which changed the game for the level of technical detail in military novels. We expect this level of accuracy now but it wasn't seen as the main point before RRS. I think Chieftains and Team Yankee are better books than RRS in giving the feeling of being a tanker, which both authors did do extensive research on. As for aeroplanes; pointy thing pitches up over the ridgeline, drops small black thing, your mate or you blows up. There was f-all they could do about it, other than get the camo right before he turned up. Which aircraft is dropping what isn't important to them. Doesn't even matter which side it's on, they still hide and hope. This was certainly the attitude of the UK tankers I spoke to, and I agree they had other things to do which could have an effect rather than worry about hairyplanes which they couldn't do anything about. The Rapier guys did know, but the tankers didn't.

That was one reason why we planned to fly out high and hopefully laterally displaced from the Red bombers inbound. We didn't trust you either.

A submariner treats anything that can't submerge as a target. ASW crews treat anything that can as a target. RN treats anything that flies as a target.