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The Newsletter of202 Squadron Association

Spring 2012Number 29

I told you that spring weather in Lossiemouth is great

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The President

As I write, this year’s reunion is but a month away andI’m really looking forward to it. The efforts of the folksup at Lossiemouth mean that the Reunion dinner is goingto be the best ever, with a true Scottish flavour. I have toconfess that I became a little despondent at first, since,despite the almost unanimous vote at last year’s AGM togo to Lossiemouth for this one and the earlyannouncement of a date for planning purposes, almost 20members who regularly come to our reunions, and mightbe considered “usual suspects”, found that they couldn’tmake it. However, since then, things have looked up,we’ve attracted a number of new members, who aregoing to risk travelling to the wilds of Scotland and, theway things are going, we stand to have a recordattendance at the dinner. That, coupled with the otherevents we’ve arranged, should make it a memorableweekend.

Some of you may remember, way back when we first gotour Association going, that I said that we should not havesame old committee, beavering away in the backgroundyear after year, and that we should ring the changes fromtime to time. But, sadly, apart from the odd change ofrole within the Committee, it’s still largely the same team.I’m pleased to say however that a few members have

“volunteered” their services of late and we should have

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them join the Committee at the AGM on 28th April.Which means I can start thinking about letting somebodyelse take the reins of Reunion organisation. I’mhoping/intending that the one in 2013 should be my lastas organiser. To which end it would be nice to have anidea of where we should go as early as possible – thedecision will be taken at the AGM in April, but, if you’renot going to be there, you could let me havesuggestions (reasonable ones!) by e-mail(chadwick@which.net) or telephone 01242 584996before then.In ComradeshipPete Chadwick_____________________________________________

This was picked up from The GoldfishClub’s winter newsletter.

Charles Sydney Alfred Withers who lived inPeterborough died on 5th September 2022.Charles was the flight engineer on a 202 SquadronCatalina engaged on convoy escort duties in connectionwith the North African Landings on 12 November 1942.During the take-off, prior to commencing the sortie, theaircraft had bounced which had knocked a hole in thebottom of the fuselage. After the sortie, they landed inAlgiceras Bay but, in spite of inflating a dinghy in thefuselage to help with flotation, the aircraft began to sink.Charles escaped through the engineer’s window andspent an hour in the sea before being rescued by an ASRlaunch from Gibraltar.

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Dear Hugh,

Thank you for Mucky Duck NO 27. You asked for anyinformation about XP345.

This Whirlwind X was at CFS, Ternhill in 1965. I flewmy first ever helicopter sortie in the aircraft. The sortiewas for 1 hour with Flt Lt Ian Richardson, who was myinstructor. We did 2 engine-offs and 6 landings – thatwas on 29th April 1965.345 and I coincided next on 16th June for an hour’srevision before my mid-course check. The instructorthen, for the revision, was F/O Forsythe; we did 5 EOsand 10 landings! Next 345 helped me through my IRTwith Flt lt Farringdon for 45 minutes on 17th Augustduring which we completed one QGH and one GCA.Finally I flew 345 on my penultimate trip at Tern Hill –2 hours 05 minutes on 25th August with F/O GeoffLeeming.345 and I then parted company, as I left UK soonafterwards to join 110(H) Squadron at Seletar, (which,for youngsters is in Singapore).

Unfortunately I have no photos of XP345 and I didn’tfly the aircraft again as our paths didn’t cross on 202.

Thanks, Hugh, for your efforts with the magazine andplease give my regards to all at the reunion. I doubtvery much whether anyone remembers me now, but I

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wish the Association all the best (and all its members!)

Yours sincerely,

Dave Carey

News From the Frontline

October 2011 to April 2012 certainly brought with itthe unexpected. Having cast my eyes over recentyears’ Form 540s, there has been a definitestraying from the norm for the winter season. Firstlythough, I feel it important to mention the mostrecent changes to the squadron line up.There has been a dramatic change in personnelrelating to those holding key squadron appoint-ments, not least the departing of OC 202 Sqn, WgCdr Mackmin to HQ Air and the arrival of Wg CdrJarvis as her replacement. Other movements haveincluded Sqn Ldr Clarke, OC A Flt, handing over thereins to Sqn Ldr Frayling following her return to theSARF after 5 years in Air Command. In addition toa number of internal moves and the odd bit ofreshuffling here and there, we have also lost acouple of 202 Sqn stalwarts to retirement. MACRForsyth of the Sqn Tg Team and MACR Haywardfrom D Flt both received a healthy send off. Mostnotably Mr. H being publicly ‘enamised’ by A Flt onhis 202 Grand Tour Extravaganza.

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All valuable training for our Winchmen. Theretirement of MACR Larke of E Flt was short livedas he returned on a career extension for a further 2years, a big welcome back!

Winter came thick and fast for the Flts with the firstheavy dumping of snow appearing in November.In contrast to the previous couple of winters, thiswas to prove to be the only substantial snow for theseason. That said, there was still a fair smatteringof mountain jobs as a result. One in particularinvolved a scramble to some lost walkers on thesouthern flanks of Ben Nevis at midnight. Threewalkers were extracted from above the snow linewithin the vicinity of the notorious Surgeon’s Gulleyarea before being delivered to an awaitingLochaber MRT. Dressed in trainers and plasticmacs with a daysack between them, Lochaber MRThad labelled it as one of the mostill-prepared expeditions they hadever seen!

The post-Christmas rush to thehills by those wanting to try outtheir new Christmas presents didnot seem to bring with it its usualspate of accidents. As the monthsprogressed, SAROPS becamefewer and fewer. March alonesaw D Flt with only 8 jobs and Leconfield with only

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two. This has, however, allowed time to catch upwith essential cross training with other emergencyservices. Exercises were carried out by all Flts withMRTs, Police and RNLI. In October the Sqn had anEmergency Services Training day and in March DFlt played host to a Pre-Hospital Care Course(PHECC). Set by the British Association for Immedi-ate Care and organised by MACR Tripp, the threeday course involved instruction and examining onall aspects of emergency care in the pre-hospitalsetting including medical, obstetric and paediatricsas well as trauma emergencies and incident man-agement. Attended by 202 Sqn members and alsoMRT, those who passed the course were awardeda civilian PHEC qualification and certificate. Thecourse was deemed a great success. Still on thetheme of SAROPs, the end of the reporting periodsaw two of the three flights combining their effortsin support of the stricken Elgin Platform located150 miles to the east of Aberdeen. Reports of theElgin Gas Platform having ‘blown its head’ stirredup reminders of the Piper Alpha disaster of 1988.Without the availability of Nimrod to provide onscene command and control, the crew fromBoulmer, being first on scene, assumed the role ofcoordinating the evacuation. A task not to envy; atone point there were a total of 7 helicopter assetson task including Coastguard and the oil industry’sown contracted aircraft.

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A second aircraft and crew were mustered at D Fltbut were stood down from task as the evacuation ofapproximately 240 personnel progressed wellleaving only a skeleton crew of 19 on board. Thegas head is still leaking.

Other events for the period have seen Sgt Bethellof E Flt deploy to Afghanistan to service the SARFcommitment to MERT. This has been the secondsuch deployment of 202 Winchmen in recentmonths where their paramedic skills are addingtremendous value and saving the lives of thoseinjured and who require immediate care betweenpoint of extraction and hospital. As part of theircontinuing professional development the Winch-men regularly participate on shifts at local hospitals.The experience gained and techniques practiced intheatre have all promoted the capability of ourwinchmen to the extent that Sgt Bradshaw of D Flt,on his return from Afghanistan, had to demonstrateto a Consultant at Kirkwall Accident andEmergency how to employ a technique using anEZ-IO drill. This procedure involves drilling into thebone of the casualty to provide immediate vascularaccess.

E Flt, in spite of their recent lack of jobs, have hadthe opportunity to conduct joint training with theother three services. Leconfield were tasked onescort duty for AAC Apaches deploying to HMS

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Illustrious on exercise. Whilst on task the crewmanaged to conduct deck landing training, all goodstuff for the currencies!

FS Gibson of A Flt received a SARF Commander’sCommendation. Two people had become trappedby fast flowing water in a vehicle in the river Redein central Northumberland. Heavy rains over theprevious week had led to flooding and the vehiclein question had been overwhelmed whilst attempt-ing to ford the river. With the volume of fast flowingwater making operating conditions extremelydifficult, FS Gibson was unable to effectively stropthe casualty and elected to use a physical griptechnique to rapidly remove the casualty fromdanger and extract to a safe location.

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The Squadron is working extremely hard at themoment. Despite best efforts, and withunforeseen events taking their toll, there have beenoccasions when the shift plots have had to declareto a three man crew. That said, resolve is as strongas ever, and with the excellent output from ourresident SKIOS engineering team (frequentlyachieving 100% 1st cab serviceability) the task isstill being achieved with excellent results with thecrews of 202 Squadron remaining semper vigilantes.

David Punchard

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I have just received my copy of the latest edition of theMucky Duck and was pleased to see the reproduction ofthe montage of the Squadron's aircraft which was pre-sented to the Squadron at the Valley reunion in theSpring. Magnificent though the painting undoubtedly is,the artist could only work from the material availableto him and , unfortunately , the Halifax depicted is inac-curate on two points:- by the time 202 replaced 518Squadron in October 1946 the war in the Atlantic hadcome to its happy conclusion and the traditional Coast-al Command livery (white with battleship grey uppersurfaces ) was not being applied to new aircraft comingoff the production lines - the Mark 6Ms issued earlierin the year to 518 to replace the 3Ms were produced inBomber Command livery ( black with camouflage up-per surfaces ) which they retained in squadron service.Secondly, the 3Ms and 6Ms were built without mid-upper turrets . The second and third photos in the web-site section on meteorological aircraft show Mk6s inthe colours in which I flew in them and without themid-upper turrets. The coloured picture of a Halifax onthe website is of a Mk3B in the daylight tactical mark-ings of 4 Group, Bomber Command (vertical yellowstripes on the tail). I make these points not to nit-pickbut hoping that historical accuracy ought to be estab-lished in the squadron records while those of us whohad the honour of serving in the squadron in those faroff days are still able to contribute. Best wishesMike Kendall

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Ian Stephenson has received somecorrespondence from Janet Yelland the daughter ofNorman Hewins, who was a radar mechanic on thesquadron from 1946 to 1948. That is the era of theHalifax at Aldergrove.

I have now managed to obtain the photographsfrom my father; some have the accompanyingstories below. He was a keen photographer andalways had his Brownie camera to

My father did a Radar Mechanicscourse at Yatesbury before beingposted to Aldergrove in 1946.The crashed Halifax wasa shock for my dad as hejust serviced its radar.The plane flopped off therunway on landing andstopped about 150 yardsfrom the billets. Dad wasinside his billet and itwas quite scary as it wascoming straight towardshim.

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The 202 Squadron crest is visible on this one

A Squadron inspection at Belfast Harbour in the late1940s. Our member is in the front rank.

The Admiral doesn’t look too happy.

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As our membership sets out with great trepidation for theNorthern Unknown Land and bearing in mind the lack ofNavigators in the modern RAF, I feel that I must reassurethe more nervous souls that, having reached Lossie-mouth, you will not trip over the Arctic Circle for nearlyanother 600 miles.

While I had need to visit Lossiemouth on a few occasionsin my civilian job, my logbook tells me that my only visitwith 202 Squadron was in August 1963 when it was stilla Royal Naval Air Station; HMS Fulmar.The task was to transport a senior Admiral (Sir CharlesMaddon if memory serves) and his entourage to the USNavy base at Keflavik in Iceland. The trip was declaredto be a VIP flight so, as well as having to fly in best bluebib and tucker, we had to land exactly on the stated time.Anyway the wind was kind to us and we were well aheadof time approaching Iceland and had to slow down. In thelast stage of the flight, the US Navy gave us a fighterescort. By this time we were creeping along at about 150knots, which is the speed at which the fighters wereprone to falling out of the sky. After a few attempts atformation they gave up in disgust and went away to playwith themselves.

We learned that they were practicing flying at low speedto accompany us outbound.That this never happened was regrettable, because on theway home without a VIP timetable we set off around 230knots and we could have had the lovely spectacle of aHastings pulling away from a flight of Starfighters.

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202 Squadron’s aircrews areknown for carrying outdemanding, skillful work inthe air for the good of theService and the safety andsecurity of the Nation

In the Cold War days the highlytrained and experiencedsignallers and AirMeteorological Observers of202 Squadron also carried outskilled work for the defence ofthe free world

_____________________________________________Full reports on finance and membership will beavailable at the AGM but tasters are:Cash in our accountsamounts to £4885 andrecent outgoings includeweb site hosting fee and aRemembrance Day wreath

Membership now standsat 141 with a fewreminders to go out. Wehave 5 new members: 1from Aldergrove and 4from chopper days

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The curfew sounds the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd w

inds slowly o’er the lea,

The Seaking homew

ard plods his weary w

ay,A

nd leaves the world to darkness and to m

e