http://www.raffca.org.uk/php/index.php?page=the-lightning


I've not visited the FCA website for some time, and consequently have only recently read Kelvin Holmes' excellent piece on 'Controlling the Lightning'.  In fact, as a direct result I paid a visit last week to RAF Patrington (currently called Holmpton) and did the 'Bunker Tour' of the R3 - fascinating.  Anyone else done the visit?  Patrington was my first operational tour in 1972, straight from Bawdsey, and my colleagues included Kelvin, Bill Vant, Ian MacDonald, Pete Singleton, Bob Moore, Helen Hughes and many others.  Kelvin had mentioned aircrew on ground tours, and Bob Moore, ex Canberras, was one of those and had been on the Bawdsey course with me; I remember he wasn't vastly amused about the whole thing, but mellowed later!

I recall my instructors (to get us to operational standard) were FS Dave Price and WO (Mr) Levitt, both excellent controllers, of course.  Richard Jenner added quite a lot of flavour in his post following Kelvin's, referring to the F111s.  My own recollection of a particular scary event was when I was still under training, and the CC gave us out of the blue a virtually complete squadron of USAF F4s wanting PI's (presumably from Bentwaters or Woodbridge)! I exaggerate, but there were certainly 5, and they immediately asked for 90s, Alpha control using one of them as tgt and the other 4 fighters, but not together.  Of course I didn't have a clue how to set it up, but my instructor worked it out - he got me to split them into a singleton (tgt) and a 4-ship (ftrs) running parallel on the same heading, displaced about 25 miles with the ftrs in front by about 20 miles.  I then turned the first ftr in through 90 degrees, and lo and behold, he was on a good 90, tgt crossing ahead 4.  He almost immediately called Judy, and I repeated it at 1 minute intervals for the other 3; unbelievably they all worked!  I could never have repeated it, and luckily, when I qualified, I never had to.

It was most strange re-visiting our workplace after 35 years, seemingly so familiar but also very different.  The place where we spent a lot of our time (the rest room!) is now a briefing room and I struggled to remember it as it was.....didn't it have easy chairs, a few tables, coffee equipment, an aquarium and soothing scenery pictures (and, of course, the squawk box)?  Interestingly the tour guide pointed out to me the one common feature in all the R3 buildings - the officers rest room door handles were always solid brass!  I'd never noticed.   I also learned far more about the R3 than I'd known before; I had no idea, for example, that all the walls, roof and floor are of 10 ft thick reinforced concrete, and the whole building is resting on a bed of 20 ft deep shale!

I also tried to locate the Officers Mess, but sadly it seems to have gone, in what is now a mobile home park.  The MQs are still there, which reminded me of what in retrospect was a pretty crazy watch system we had; an 8-day cycle of morning/evening, then afternoon/night, with a sleeping day, then repeated with a 2 day break (unless, of course, there was an exercise called).
 
Going back to Kelvin’s Lightning story, I noticed  the pictures of him on the Fire Brigade console and also in the CC position; does anyone know the origin of these photos?  Photography down the hole as I recall wasn’t exactly encouraged in those days, so presumably they were for publicity purposes.

I left Patrington in late 73 I think, possibly early 74, for the ill fated West Drayton where we launched the Linesman project; not my favourite tour.  Next to Boulmer in 76, then Buchan in 78.  I changed Branch in 1980 to Engineer, leaving the service in 87.  All good times but FC have the strongest memories.  
My biggest regret....never flying in the Lightning (surely the best post war fighter we had).  I came very close when on APC detachment in Malta with 5 Sqn, but stangely the queue in front of me for a "burner climb" flight in the T-bird was all female, and I never made it.  However, I did later get a flight to Offutt, Nebraska in the bowels of a Vulcan!

Best wishes to all who were there.

Simon Pollock

Simon,
        thanks for your comments and good to see all those familiar names again.  Happy days but such a long time ago!  The bunker photos were taken as part of a recruitment campaign with ads appearing in the Sunday colour supplements and the like.
I would like to visit the Holmpton R3 but live a long way distant; in fact just a couple of miles from the Sopley R3 which a secure document storage facility (not open to visitors),
all the best
Kelvin

So there I was in shorts and T shirt cleaning my car on a Sunday morning when someone called that there was a phone call.  So I went in the Mess and took the call.  In came Black Jim and there I was improperly dressed: cost me a severe telling off and an extra Orderly Officer.  My reasoning that it could have been him on the phone did not wash. I still feel hard done by!  

I was wondering why I only recognised the odd name e.g. Paddy Gaw ( who used to teach poker on night shifts!!)  I also was a LAC fresh back from Christmas Island.  Then I looked more carefully at the dates.  I arrived in June 1959 and left in June 1960.  OOPS. Plez