In 1974, whilst on 44 Sqn, RAF Waddington was tasked with participation in Exercise ‘Skywatch’, and my radar, Wg Cdr King, our Sqn Cdr, was to be the Detachment Commander. The Exercise was to be televised ‘live’ on BBC on 21st June with Raymond Baxter commentating, and was to cover all aspects of the RAF from training through to the front line. The Vulcans were to be based at RAF Wittering, and initially the BBC required all aircraft types to take off from there, so for us that meant a 4 aircraft scramble from the ORP. Then later in the programme, amongst other demonstrations of firepower, they wished to show a Vulcan dropping 21 x 1,000lb retarded bombs on Salisbury Plain.

Naturally enough having the ‘Boss’ on my crew, he wanted to not only lead the scramble, but also to drop the bombs on Larkhill Range, Salisbury Plain. Not knowing what the British Summer weather was going to be like in June, following a mild spell in early April, the decision was taken to carry out a practice drop on West Freugh Range of 21 x 1,000lb ballistic bombs on 3rd April, followed by a practice drop of 21 x 1,000lb inert bombs on Larkhill Range on 8th April.

Both of these practices were in XM607, and little did we know at the time that, in the same month 8 years later, 44 Sqn would again be using XM607 to drop 21 x 1,000lb bombs, this time on the runway at Port Stanley airfield. Then on 9th April, my crew dropped 21 x 1,000lb retarded bombs in XM599 on Larkhill Range, which was pre-recorded by the BBC, and used in June for the ‘Skywatch’ programme. At RAF Wittering, my crew flew in XM652 and we carried out 3 practice scrambles, on 19th and 20th June, prior to the actual on 21st June. Of course, during the live programme on the evening, the public thought that we flew from Wittering down to Salisbury Plain to drop the bombs, whereas instead we flew around at high level for 1hr 25mins before landing back at Wittering. As it turned out the weather on 21st June was glorious, with nil wind and excellent visibility.

Vulcan XM599 dropping 21 x 1000 lb bombs on Larkhill.