AIR 28/1370
RAF Horsham St Faith, Operations Record Book (form 540) Jan 1956
to Jul 1963
Notes by Paul Fuller
74 Squadron's ORB report for August 1956 states:
"August has been a much better month for the
squadron, there being more fine weather than in July and the
month was good for flying throughout. 532.40 flying hours were
achieved."
"The month's flying consisted mainly of high level tactical
formation flying plus cine gun and dog fighting exercises and one
week was devoted to air to air firing producing the following
daily averages, 18.7 %, 24.7 %, 26 %, 26.7 %, 29 % and 14.6 %
giving an overall monthly average of 23.8 %. Attempts to use the
high level range were unsuccessful due to the lack of radar cover."
[Later on I found evidence of how much cine footage each pilot
was expected to collect in a month. There was an awful lot.]
The Officer Commanding was Group Captain J.H. Iremonger
"D" Flight 275 Squadron [flying helicopters] carried
out "Dawn to Dusk" exercises from 10th to 17th August,
inclusive. This is important (see below).
74 Squadron also flew "Dawn to Dusk" operations on 31st
and also took part in "three Rat and Terrier exercises and
two Ciano exercises during the month and night flying was also
done".
In September 1956 the ORB gives the following important
information (which I have photocopied):-
"Non-Operational Flights
Two flights were made in conjunction with Atomic Research to find
research balloons, both were successful with the aid of SARAH."
There was no mention of rogue research balloons in the August
entries but SARAH is mentioned again in the September entries :-
"Aircraft Serviceability
XG521 serviceability has not been as good as in previous months,
SARAH being completely unserviceable twice, requiring replacement
sets. The cyclic pitch stick caused a 24 hour unserviceability
and replacing contact breaker a further half day."
SARAH was a Search And Rescue And Homing device. D Flight
consisted of air sea rescue helicopters whose job was to respond
to emergencies, e.g. with injured seamen on ships, or missing
swimmers. Strangely 275 Squadron was not just located at Horsham
St Faiths - there were Search and Rescue helicopters at Leuchars
(in Scotland)
In June 1956 the ORB comments on lectures being given on Atomic
Power by lecturers from Cambridge Unviersity.
In March 1956 the whole of 74 and 275 Squadrons moved personnel
to Coltishall and everyone had to be bussed in. Things returned
to normal from March 21st. Whilst at Coltishall GCA exercises
took place. 16 radar operators were trained at Neatishead during
this period.
In October 1956 Horsham St Faiths experienced severe problems
with their radar systems . . .
"Following further complaints by this Section on the
behaviour of the CR/DF [Cathode Ray Direction Finder] on 153.72
mcs. calibration was carried out by No. 90 Group with a Varsity
aircraft flying at 15,000 feet between 2nd and 9th October. Plots
completed showed an average error of 12 and a half degrees, with
a mximum of 30 degrees, inconsistent with range, whilst several
'overhead' indications were plotted at some 15 miles range.
Further action now rests with No. 90 Group who consider that
anaprop [anomalous propagation] and Sporadic 'E' [???] are
contributory factors in these errors."
All RAF radar systems of this period had to be regularly
recalibrated and Colin Latham tells me that it was not always
possible for engineers to be found. It is possible that these
problems affected the identification of the target in the
Lakenheath case, but I think it more important that this
establishes that anomalous propagation effects were problems the
unit had to cope with.