Detachment to Rhodesia in 1959...

[petermcleland]

As I mentioned in another post, we were never allowed to arm our aircraft in Kenya, so we needed to go elsewhere for our armament practice. In 1959 we had a detachment to Thorne Hill, Rhodesia just for that purpose. The Rhodesian Air Force were kind enough to allow us to use their Vampire T11s for our dual instruction and as a qualified PGI (Pilot Gunnery Instructor), I did some of that as well. It was a busy time and I didn't get to take many photos but this post is to show those few that I did take.


The armourers need to brief and practice as much as the pilots and here they are under the aircraft doing just that...The gun doors are off and you can see them lying inverted, one each side of the aircraft. We are at Thorne Hill now and preparing for our air to ground firing.


This is the armed line and you can see some red flags in front of "Live" aircraft. I'm not quite sure what lives in the sandbagged emplacement but it is probably ammo.


Here is one of the Rhodesian Air Force Vampire T11s with a Rhodesian pilot about to check out Terry Hill (one of our chaps)...Terry is in the left seat.


This shot was taken more towards the end of the detachment...We are now using the serious ammunition, HE and SAPI belted two and two...No more counting holes in targets with this stuff...you just blow it to bits! We also use all four guns and you can see three BFMs (Belt Feed Mechanisms) there on the ground and some belted ammo lying on the wing.


This is a shot of Kutanga Range, where we did our firing...There is a row of precision targets for practice "Ball" rounds and a big area beyond that to set up things to be destroyed.


We did do a bit of touring around on the trip as well, but I can't understand how I got here to Blantyre...I have no such trip in my logbook...Maybe I came in that Dakota!


Don't know where this is, but it could be a place called Chileka...Mystery solved by Leif...This is Salisbury (Chileka is another name for Blantyre).


This is at Livingstone where we visited Victoria Falls (Pics of that not yet scanned).


I had trouble getting out of Livingstone as my cartridge starter got fouled and had to be serviced. The others have departed and these chaps are trying to get me away. You can see two guys up on the fuselage working on the starter...They got me away eventually and Paddy Thompson the engineer officer asked me to do a beat up before setting course. I was delighted to oblige and I remember having to roll rapidly to nearly 90 degrees bank in order to not clip that mast you can see in the left of this picture. Paddy said the airmen cheered and clapped and seemed to enjoy the spectacle.

I never got my Venom back to Nairobi...My logbook records that I got airborne for only 35 minutes from N'Dola and something went wrong that forced me to return. I can't remember what it was, but it was unfixable and I had to leave WR431 at N'Dola and fly back to Nairobi with the ground crews in the transport aircraft. I did have the presence of mind to carefully remove the lovely aircraft clock from the cockpit before abandoning my Venom and my son has it still.

All our Venoms were now reaching the end of their fatigue life and were fitted with "G Count Meters" to tick away their remaining flights...They were all soon to be cut up and scrapped and the squadron was soon to depart in a Britannia for England to pick up our new shiny Hunter FGA9s.

Venom WR431 was considered not worth recovering from N'Dola and I guess she is still there!

[DispatchDragon]

Peter

I have one request - Will you autgraph by copy of your memoirs when
you publish please???

Thanks for the wonderful photos and narrative

Not sure what it was called back in your day but twenty years later
it was Blantyre-Chileka International and we (IAS) operated in and out'
of Malawi quite frequently - I do remember the tower was the same though

Leif

[petermcleland]

Not sure what it was called back in your day but twenty years later
it was Blantyre-Chileka International and we (IAS) operated in and out'
of Malawi quite frequently - I do remember the tower was the same though

Thanks Leif,

That clears one mystery so I did fly into Blantyre with one of those Venoms...I entered it in my logbook as Livingstone to Chileka...I see I went from there to Salisbury, so I guess the pic of me standing by Venom is at Salisbury, not Chileka.

[Robin]

Really great pictures Peter. I'm really enjoying reding about them.

Thank you.

[Reheat]

Peter,

Please keep posting as many as you can. Really wonderful captures of moments in times we don't get to appreciate much these days.

Alex

[Filonian]

Great pictures Peter.

I was at Blantyre, late '74 as I recall, and remember a Dakota taking off whilst I was waiting to clear customs. Take off? Must have been well loaded because the pilot just retracted the gear and staggered up slowly and off into the distance.

Graham

[speedbird591]

These pictures are amazing, Peter. There is something very dynamic about them. They make you feel as though you are in the scene rather than just being an observer. So unusual for pictures of that time.

Thank you for sharing them with us and also the memories that they trigger. I'm enjoying them immensely.

[airboatr]

real good stuff Peter
Keep them comming in
I second the request of a autographed photo
Joe

[Moses03]

Fantastic Peter. Keep it coming.


Moses

[TobyV]

Peter,

Slightly off topic, but what was that one like to fly, as a combat aircraft? I dont know what if any actual conflicts you may have been involved in, but of the various paircraft you flew for the RAF what would you have most trusted (or not trusted!) in a combat situation?

Toby