RAF Cottesmore, June 5th 2009 and XV Squadron Association members are arriving for the group’s annual dinner and get-together. Membership of the Squadron Association is open to anyone of any rank who has served with XV at any time, with Associate Memberships open to family members which, for the second consecutive year, is how yours truly comes to be in attendance.
My Father was in one of the last groups called for National Service and joined the RAF in 1958. After ‘square bashing’ he was posted to RAF Cottesmore to serve on XV Squadron as an instrument technician on their new Victor B1 bombers, so new in fact that they didn’t even arrive at the station until after he did! Enjoying the experience so much that he decided to extend his service beyond the statutory two years, he served with XV until 1961 before finally being de-mobbed in 1962. Despite retaining a passion for aviation that clearly rubbed off on me, he didn’t learn about the Association until two years ago when, having made contact with one of the aircrew he remembered from the Squadron, he joined and attended his first annual dinner, held at RAF Cottesmore.
I subsequently joined the Association and attended my first event with him last year when the venue was RAF Brampton, with Cottesmore unavailable for operational reasons. It was a fascinating and entertaining event with the anecdotes flowing as fast as the drinks! Members were there from many different eras and it was a privilege to talk to men who had flown not just Victor, but Canberra, Buccaneer, Stirling, Lancaster and of course Tornado. Current Squadron members delivered a superb presentation on the GR.4 with video footage of training exercises and operational weapons delivery. It was a real treat and you could clearly see the pride on the members' faces, recognition that XV remains in good hands and is still one of the best.
At last year’s dinner I sat next to Bruce George, he had been with the Squadron on Victors at Cottesmore and was only too happy to regale me with stories from that time and tell me of life serving under charismatic then-Station Commander Johnnie Johnson. He then mentioned, almost as an aside, that he had flown more than 1000 hours on Meteors! It was that kind of night.
Back to this year’s event and RAF Cottesmore, the venue of choice of course for the Victor era members as they were all based here during their time with XV, and home to a raft of fond, and often highly amusing, memories for many of those in attendance.
After an afternoon presentation, appropriately on the subject of the Victor in service with XV, formal evening-wear is donned and after a drinks reception dinner is taken in the Mess. This year I was fortunate enough to be sitting with Squadron Historian Martyn Ford-Jones, which gave me a perfect opportunity to learn more about the Association and how it all began.
Squadron reunions or dinners became commonplace in the years following WWII he tells me, but for XV Squadron nothing was formalised until the late 1980s with the formation of the Mildenhall Register. The Register is a group for all those who served on XV, 90, 149 & 622 Bomber Squadrons at RAF Mildenhall during WWII and was conceived by former XV armourer Don Clarke. It was following this that the official XV Association was born as the umbrella group to bring together all those who have served on the Squadron at any location.
“There are more than eighty people here tonight” says Martyn, “and we have over 300 members all told, so it is certainly a well-supported Association. We just have to ensure that we continue to spread the word, especially with potential younger members from the Canberra and Tornado eras.”
For Air Commodore (Rtd) David Bywater, the Victor pilot my Dad remembered so well from his time at Cottesmore, the event is the annual highlight in a busy calendar of events. David deserves a book on his flying career, let alone a mention in a feature, for as well as flying Victors with XV he went on to graduate from the Empire Test Pilot School and test-flew Vulcan, and Victor, among many other types. David is currently a Vice-President of The Aircraft Owners Pilots Association, a director of the Royal International Tattoo, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a Liveryman of the Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators.
“This is the event of the year. There really aren’t any other occasions when we all get together and that is what makes it so important” he says.
It is also clear from talking to those in attendance that XV seems to hold a special place in the hearts of those who served for the Squadron.
“I honestly don’t really know why that is” David says, “but when we were on the Squadron here at Cottesmore it was a happy squadron that had just reformed with a new aircraft and at a new airfield. The attitude of the Squadron almost seems self-perpetuating and XV does have a reputation for being manned by a happy bunch of people.” Returning to Cottesmore is also important for David and all those who served on the Victors.
“It was an excellent time” he concedes. “The Squadron reformed on 1st September 1958 and I was crewed-up as co-pilot to then CO Wing Commander David Green. There was a lot of pressure with the role we were fulfilling as the Cold War was very much to the fore, but he was a hugely experienced WWII pilot, a career officer and one of life’s gentleman – a cracking boss.”
“Everything was new, it was an advanced aircraft for its time and we would go down to Handley Page at Radlett to collect aircraft direct from the production line which was fabulous, they even smelled like brand new aircraft with their fresh paint – like collecting a new car! After my time with XV I was streamed across to the world of test flying so I never actually flew on another operational squadron. I was also lucky enough to have been involved with Victor from almost the beginning of its life to pretty much the end, so it is a special aircraft for me and XV a special squadron.” Links with the current XV Squadron, or more correctly XV(R), the Tornado OCU at RAF Lossiemouth are of course of huge importance to events like this and the Association in general.
Wing Commander Mike Saunders, the current “Boss”, joined by Squadron Association Secretary Flt Lt Mark Allen, braved an eight and half hour journey by road from Lossiemouth to attend the event this year, bringing the new XV Squadron Standard with them along with all the squadron scrapbooks, giving everyone a unique insight in to the life of XV over the years.
“From my perspective, as the current Boss of XV, it is extremely important to ensure that my young officers are aware of the past. It’s a foolish man who doesn’t study history and that is why we retain close links, such as the Secretary being a current serving member of the Squadron, and attending the annual dinner.”
“Each year we also visit Odense (Denmark), Gellik (Belgium) and Vraux (France) to honour our past history and we respectfully parade the Squadron standard. It is humbling that XV is held in such a high regard by our hosts at these events and gives me as the Boss a great opportunity to involve more personnel from the Squadron, especially with it being so difficult for more of them to attend the annual dinner.”
Mike is extremely positive about the future of the Association and with great representation from many eras at this year’s event, especially from the Tornado and Canberra periods, has high hopes that membership and attendance will continue in good numbers. XV(R) itself will have a new Boss from 1st September when Mike’s tenure comes to an end. His replacement, Wing Commander Brian “Sumo” James, has already pledged his support for the Association and Mike himself has pledged to return as normal member!
