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Victor Gate Guard to be Given Away

 

The Victor K2 Gate Guard at RAF Marham is costing too much to keep in shape and is being given away...  Below is the address of  the Eastern Daily Press article with details. If you have any ideas - or a big garden and a large trailer, please let me know.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/raf-marham-offering-free-victor-jet-1-6504843

The info comes via Eric and Audrey Anstead and Nobby Clarke's wife Jenny. Thanks, Bill

These three evocative shots come from John Brown, who writes:

 

"...  about the demise of the gate guardian at Marham?  They had a farewell tour last Saturday and I took the enclosed pictures.  All rather sad.

John"

 

 

 

MOD's Robert Davies has written the following to all Squadron Associations:                                                             20.08.2025 

 

Dear All,

 

Attached is a letter from Group Captain Matt Barker, the Commandant of No 6 Flying Training School,  inviting current and retired Qualified Service Pilots; airline pilots (ex- Qualified Service Pilots) and civilian pilots, with sufficient hours and experience, to consider getting involved with Air Experience Flying .  Essentially, we are asking for your help to publicise our recruiting campaign through your association’s correspondence, newsletters and meetings.  Air Experience Flying, as a proven method of recruitment, is currently a growth industry and if any of your members would be interested in this hugely rewarding Service flying we should be very grateful if you could connect them with the application details provided in the attached letter.

 

 Regards, Bob

 

The mentioned letter appears below

Dear Bill,

The Black Buck 1 fortieth anniversary was celebrated over the weekend 30th April / 1st May 2022 at RAF Waddington. Rounding up the Victor troops was Bob Tuxford, Flight Commander No. 55 Sqn and Captain of “White 2” representing Marham, and Air Cdre Simon Baldwin, former Officer Commanding No. 44 (Rhodesia) Sqn representing Waddington. The whole weekend was a great success, and it was wonderful to ‘make contact’ with all the Tanker participants once again. 

With most people staying at the Damons Hotel in Lincoln, I planned a Friday night rendezvous at the hotel for those who wanted to make a long weekend of it. I am very pleased to say that a whole formation of personnel turned up for Happy Hour - kick starting the weekend in classic style. Amongst those renewing acquaintances, some for the first time in forty years, were Bob & Eileen Tuxford, Alan & Alison Bowman, Martin & Wendy Todd, Bill & Liz Lloyd, Badger & Midge Brooks, Andy & Julie Barrett, Paul & Sharon Mulcahy, Glynn & Theresa Rees, Tony & Margaret Beetlestone, Tony & Rose Angell, Taff and Angela Bland, Tony & Sarah Inglebrecht, Gary & Sue Weightman and a few others flying solo - Steve Biglands, Mike Wood, Dick Evans, Dave Barradell, Norm Christie, Simon Hamilton and Terry Anning.

Saturday afternoon began with a series of events on the base, which gave us an opportunity to meet up with many other faces from the past. Dick Russel was there, courtesy of his son Guy who did the driving, as was Jeremy Price similarly assisted by his son Jonathon. One of our former ground crew, David Bragg and his wife Pamela, took the opportunity to hand out to the veterans knitted scarves in South Atlantic Medal ribbon colours. David informed us that a 5th generation Falkland Islander called Sarah had taken it upon herself with her knitting group to make and distribute to all those involved in the return of the Falkland Islands these beautiful scarves, all numbered individually. Other former ground crew engineers who joined us over the weekend included Rob & Andrea Parlett, Brian Barker & Ms Kate Stacey and Steve & Christine Parker.

In the evening, we all assembled in one of Waddington’s hangars for a Black-Tie dinner. Twenty-six Victor and 25 Vulcan veterans along with their wives made up half of the richly decorated tables spread across the hangar floor. Seated at the top table was the Station Commander Gp Capt Lorriman-Hughes and his wife, together with invited guests, and the BB40 Organising Committee members. Making up the honoured guests at the top table was the former Station Commander Gp Capt John Laycock who, alongside Simon Baldwin, master-minded RAF Waddington’s preparation for war back in 1982.  Alongside the six Victor Tanker tables was a similar number of Vulcan tables. Seated with Martin Withers’ group was the author of ‘Vulcan 607’ - Rowland White and his wife Lucy. ‘Monty’ Montgomery and John Reeve headed up two more of the ’Tin Triangle’ contingents together with some of their crew members. We all dined under the shadow of the famous Vulcan Bomber - XM607 - Martin Withers’ mount during the first Black Buck raid. Only partially painted, she will receive her full 1982 livery over the course of the next few weeks. 

 Throughout the evening, we were serenaded by a Royal Air Force Band with a selection of familiar background music. The programme got under way with a welcome video presented by Dan Snow MBE. Dr Ben Jones, the senior lecturer in Naval History at Portsmouth University, then gave an overview of the Falkland Islands Conflict, and this was followed by an address from the Station Commander. Concluding the after dinner speeches was an address by Simon Baldwin who spoke of the preparations for war at RAF Waddington, followed by personal memories from Martin Withers, the Captain of Vulcan XM607 during Operation Black Buck 1. In a touching moment to conclude the dinner, Dick Russell was presented with a 90th birthday cake, which of course followed some 40 years after the very night of BB1 during which Dick celebrated (if that’s the right word) his 50th birthday. We all gave him a rousing chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’, something he received with great aplomb.

The weekend’s celebrations continued with a service of remembrance at the nearby International Bomber Command Centre on the Sunday morning. ACM Sir Michael and Lady Graydon graced us with their presence and unlike the Falklands Service at the National Arboretum, the weather at the Lincoln IBCC was kind to us for the outside service. A sole trumpeter from the Band of the Royal Air Force College sounded the Last Post alongside the impressive Spire standing as tall as the wingspan of the Avro Lancaster. A Pipe Major resplendent in full highland dress played a lament to conclude a very appropriate commemorative service. 

 The whole weekend was a wonderful occasion, marking a very significant anniversary in all our lives, and I would like to thank Wg Cdr Lisa Mullineux and her organising committee at RAF Waddington for making the Black Buck 40th an event to remember.

 

Bob

 

Bob has sent photos of this event, which are in the Member section 

Bob Tuxford  wrote a book a couple of years back about his experiences in the Tanker World,  called Contact!  This includes  Bob's take on the Blackbuck Falklands raids involving great numbers of Victor Tankers and one Vulcan bomber.

Copies are available online and through the Publishers, Grub Street.

News items from the past - these Items have been transferred from the What's New section 

 

Video: Blue Spear - the Movie, filmed and produced way back is now on line in our Videos Section. Enjoy and don't take it too seriously! Project was led by SAC Pete Burns, who had connections to TV video makers and the 55 Sqn Cdr is played by Simon Harris, who later became Air Cdre. so it did him no harm... The sound has faded a bit over the years.

 

Projects: We have a new page called Projects where renovation and re-run items will be presented. Presently we have:

Information and an appeal from Barry Masefield  - about the renovation project for the Victor simulator and also

Up to date information - also an appeal from the website of the Imperial War Museum about the renovation of XH 648 at Duxford.

Regarding the latter - I have tried to get Duxford to agree to having the 55 tail badge restored but they want to restore it as a 57 ship, as it originally was, when a bomber.

 

Squadron History:   Gary West, has sent a large file of typewritten documents, which is a compilation of the Squadron history from 1916 to 1986, by A. Butterworth.

The document is  well worth a read. Within the History section there are now sub pages for the Chapters of this document.

Also, as the pages are rather slow to load, the whole document (over 250 pages) is available on Google Drive in pdf format, for viewing or downloading.

There are links to do this in the History section and in the  Links Section, which take you directly to the 55 Sqn History 1916 - 1986  file on Google drive.

 

 

Brooklands Event:

100 years since Alcock and Brown's historic first non-stop flight across the North Atlantic - and 50 years since the commemorative Daily Mail Air Race in which 55 Sqn Victor Tanker crews were very much involved.

To celebrate the occasion, the staff at Brooklands Museum organised on 8.May 2019 a  reception for participants in the Daily Mail event in 1969 (itself the 50th anniversary of the famous crossing.)  We managed to contact a few worthies from 55 Squadron, who had been involved in the event and all duly turned up at 08:00 on a rainy cold day in time for breakfast with other past participants from various categories - and a visit to the reconstructed Vimy and the Harrier in which Lecky Thompson made his (many times refueled) crossing.  While there, we of course visited the other fine exhibits at the Museum - including a Vickers Vanguard, which member Gary West had landed there a good few years back on the shortened runway. The brakes are still hot...

Colin Griffiths has made some good shots of the event and these are now posted under Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race  along with recollections by Keith Evans and Colin Seymour in the Tanker Stories section.

 

Also in May 2019, Bob Tuxford writes;

"I shall be powering XM715 down Bruntingthorpe's runway as usual at the May bank holiday Cold War Jets meeting, with Mike Beer in the back to keep an eye on the electrics and hydraulics!"  This will be on 26th May - and for those wanting more, again on 25th August.

See his report of last year's run below.

 

 

The Member List - As of October, 74 names on the list  - In order to get more information onto this list, we have put the wording from the application forms in a "Who is Who?" immediately following the formal list. This is in pretty much the reverse order of applications - newest on top. In some cases it is basic info - in others there is a story. Good news is that quite a few of our ground crew Members are applying. Certainly one of the big plusses of being on 55 was the autonomous squadron system. It may not have saved money but it formed a big family and was probably more efficient just due to that atmosphere. Nice also to see that we are getting members from the 55 (R) Squadron days, so the family is increasing...

 

 

Tanker Stories section.

First a comprehensive look at an overseas exercise recalled by John Brown. This should jog some memories.

Then action! A Falkland Islands War bombing raid, Black Buck 1:

Bob Tuxford describes his experience as long distance final Victor tanker captain and

Dick Russell contributes his memories of being seconded as receiver expert to the Vulcan bomber during this raid.

Transatlantic Air Race stories also in here.

 

100 year 3. Battle of Ypres Anniversary - The 55 Squadron RFC crew of  2nd Lt William Bishop and  Lt Douglas Mackintosh was shot down in Belgium in October 1917.  There was  a memorial held there on 22. October 2017. Details under 55 in the First World War  Period Newspaper shown below.

 

Website address -  As well as 55assoc.com  the old 55squadronassociation.jimdo.com address still brings you to the same site.

 

Your email address - Has your email address changed from the one on the Member list? Please let us know!!

 

Mail Chimp Distribution List - If you are registered on our Member list, we send out multiple emails from time to time using the Mail Chimp distribution service. The mails will appear to come from [email protected] which is a valid address belonging to the webmaster. Quite possible these mails will land in your Junk folder at first.  We see that about 80% of the mails get opened, which means that 20% of you are missing out. You can trust our distribution service!

 

 

 

 

Frank Whittle's original W1 Jet engine at Cranwell

 

 

 

35 Yr. Anniversary - Black Buck 1

On the 30th April 1982, the RAF mounted an iconic operation under the codename 'BLACK BUCK 1’ from Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. The mission was to signal the first offensive air action against the Argentine Invasion forces which had occupied the Falkland Islands at the onset of the Falklands War. On Sunday 30th April 2017, Bruntingthorpe Airfield in Leicester, home of the Cold War Jets and Victor K2 XM715, hosted a 35th Anniversary of Black Buck 1 in celebration of one of the RAF’s most daring raids.

 

The weekend saw the largest gathering of Black Buck veterans since 1982. Amongst those invited to a reunion dinner on the Saturday evening was the former Air Officer Commanding of No.1 Group, Air Chief Marshall Sir Michael Knight KCB AFC. On the day of the anniversary, a group photo shoot of participating aircrew, operations and engineering staff was taken in front of XM715. Following this, three members of the original ‘WHITE 2’ Black Buck crew, Bob Tuxford, Glyn Rees and Mike Beer gave a taxi and high speed demonstration run in the Victor. Representing his father Ernie Wallis (Bob’s Navigator Radar during Black Buck 1), Tony Wallis had the privilege of riding along on this very special occasion. On the runway, the simulated take-off was abandoned and brought safely to a taxi speed using the impressive brake parachute and clam shell airbrakes at the rear fuselage – a sight guaranteed to get the cameras clicking by the assembled guests and ticket holders positioned near the end of the runway.

 

After taxiing the aircraft back to the dispersal area, the operating crew gave a presentation inside the adjacent Whittle building. Mike Beer opened proceedings with an overview of the build-up to Operation Corporate, the deployment of Marham’s tankers to the South Atlantic, and an insight into life for the aircrews on this remote volcanic island base. Three intelligence gathering MRR missions were undertaken within the first week of arrival on Ascension Island, and these sorties provided a valuable insight into what was to follow.

 

Bob Tuxford gave a detailed breakdown of the eventful Black Buck 1 mission. In a nod to the original briefing made on the open breezy airfield inside the flapping walls of the tent, Bob’s presentation was poignantly interrupted by his mischievous AEO shouting down a megaphone from the side lines. Fond memories came flooding back to the amused assembled veterans. Glyn Rees wrapped up the show with a few personal recollections of life on Ascension Island and the Falklands. Refuelling support for the Hercules and Nimrod aircraft was covered, along with his experiences with the wide body TriStar tanker and cargo aircraft which became the mainstay of the South Atlantic Air Bridge.

 

The whole event was an unbridled success, and thanks must go to the Walton family who generously support the Cold War Jets collection at Bruntingthorpe Airfield. Particular thanks must also go to Brendon Johnston, who can take the credit for the idea behind the whole event (and much of the airfield preparation), and to the band of volunteers who dedicate their time and efforts towards the preservation of Teasin’ Tina, Victor K2 XM715.

 

As written for FlyPast by Sqn Ldr Bob Tuxford AFC RAF

(Capt of ‘White 2’ Black Buck 1 crew)