AIR 28/1343
ORB for RAF Coltishall, Jan 1956 to December 1960

notes by Paul Fuller

For August 1956 the Postings Out confirms that Flying Officer Fraser-Ker was "released from the service" - just as he claims. There is another reference to Fraser-Ker in February when "Flying Officer Fraser-Ker had a 'near miss' while carrying out a roller landing, shredding a tyre down to a fraction of the wheel locking ring. The aircraft stayed on the runway, and no further damage was sustained." David confirms that Fraser-Ker mentioned this incident in his interview with Dave and Andy.

The Strength of Officers was given as:

August 1956 saw high levels of leave taken which affected examinations.

Under "Medical" it states that "No flying accidents or other incidents of note occured during the month".

Group Captain J.C. Sisson, the Officer Commanding, had "no particular comment this month".

There had been a serious crash in June 1956 involving two USAF Captains Castlebury and J. White.

I found an interesting reference for February 1956. Flying took place on only 6 days due to the awful snow. However, the flying that took place was part of Ciano and Calculus and involved window dropping by Lincoln aircraft to hide mock attacks.

There was a fatal crash on 2 January 1956 when a Venom NF3 WX879 crashed killing Flying Officers Jarvis and Parsons.

At this time 7 of the Venom aircraft required their engines changing.

If I was of a conspiratorial mind I might make out that the visit by 4 high ranking USAF officers from Washington on September 27th was in response to the Lakenheath case - but in fact their visit was part of Operation Stronghold (which was mentioned in the other ORBs I read).