Over & Out documentary narrated by Martin Shaw

emergency state to emergency state 250 miles report established little five is on course to want a rubber water for one to four RAF Coulter Shaw is one of Britain's most famous Air Bases born in the dark days of the Battle of Britain it is about to die by kovash all has seen sixty years and more of war and peace and life and death right mm [ __ ] first planes to land with Spitfires the last to leave will be Jaguars Coulter shawl in Norfolk has been home to the Jaguar for 32 years I've had the privilege of flying in the back seat at one of these amazing aircraft but that chance may not come again because the only fighter station to have remained in continuous operation since the Battle of Britain is about to close it may not have a future but it certainly has a past Douglas Bader was just one of the many legendary pilots who have flown from here and now young men from a very different generation are preparing for their final takeoff this is going alright show that okay there is something about flying and about operating these aircraft I still get a huge buzz from it I wouldn't wish for any other job right now this is the best job in the world when commander dick McCormack is the officer in charge of 41 squadron motto seek and destroy it's one of only two squadrons now left at Col too short I joined as a junior pilot two years ago it is something I've wanted to do all of my life really was about five years old I was just out of the pushchair I think this and we're at an airshow in the southwest and Cornwall Simone and I saw a little very planes fly past and I said to dad you know that I want to do that I want to do that flight left hand and Andy King is a squadrons youngest pilot he and the man they call the boss are preparing for an air combat sortie their aging Jaguars will be up against the world's newest warplane the typhoon air combat training is essentially dogfighting we don't expect to win at all this afternoon its 30-year old aircraft versus a brand new one so yes they should be enjoy the risk products taken especially am I've got friends up on typhoon and they make being the other jet I don't age so there is and the Jags and obviously an old aircraft now and if we could perhaps shoot down a a brand new typhoon that would be great but I don't it's going to happen here we go aerodrome Scotto Air Ministry notice slightly cleared he's understood that history has decided to construct an integral that's Scott oh well I never Mick Jennings is the station historian he has served at cultish hall for nine years when you look at Wembley Stadium today and wonder how on earth you know we managed to build a whole airfield in a year it was just incredible even whilst construction was underway aircraft started to operate from Col Kershaw you could virtually name every single fighter ace in World War two that has served at cold Ischl Douglas Bardem Johnny Johnson high-scoring Ally fighter pilot World War two Raymond bankster who went on to become a famous BBC commentator Bob Stanford tuck the list goes on and on and on it's just incredible to think of all these heroes and and that is using heroes in the correct context not in the context that people tend to use it very loosely today they were there and they flew from coal to shore morning gentlemen and lady all right coming down board then from last night Fox Bravo serviceable Fox echo hopefully going for the air test off the double engine change what this meetings all about is to see whether we can meet the flying program that's a parlor to produce the the previous day today majority of our jets are serviceable and good to go as for Juliet yeah after readjusting the air brake pot they did the pitch in your funks again but it's still failing so excel further investors - sometimes the jet lands in a pretty sorry state but it's all hands to the pump to see if we could meet a blind program and lastly what we call the battle rhythm throughout the day the next two weeks is very much tinged with sadness as we as we draw towards the end not only we're trying to meet a busy busy flying program we've got great practices - almost every day over the next two weeks let's go for the big one then general salute preset herbs in one of the hangars the temperature is already rising with the arrival of instructors from the raf regiment suga go spot-on so slow oops Shh right switch all at the end there we can get them up to standard it's just a matter of shouting at them until they sort of decide that they'll do what it needs to be done but look right now the final parades are only a fortnight away the squadron's motto may be seek and destroy that the instructors have their own slogan drill them till they drop there's some people slow on this side it'd be an ageing fools day then I can say definitely that it will be the finest parade that culturals ever seen stand easy keep relaxed take your hats off gets mad your head it's sick trillion comfortable and makes you very very hot like dressing up as a scuba diver to flying an airplane since rejecting to the sea without this suit been and few minutes really to get picked up I couldn't possibly admit to liking games emergency okay these are out G trousers I says you pull g-force the blood runs from your head to your feet and this gives us something to push against so we can keep our blood pressure quite high and keep the blood in our heads rather than cooling in our feet like a fish get ready yes we all enjoyed flying the airplanes please common to most areas really is something that it's in the blood sand we live the Jaguar it's an old aircraft it has no autopilot no fly-by-wire nothing and that modern Jets have really it's a demanding aircraft to fly which means that a lot of your concentration if you like is is put into actually flying the aircraft rather than looking out the window and trying to put together a picture of what's happening in the airspace it's 30 year old single-seat aeroplane which still scares me to death every time I get in it level 5 I have you departure instructions on ready to cover medical departing at enforceable climbing from level 2 41 11 6 1 1 1 and then 3 15 7 0 this 4:05 12 we certainly built an affection up with that with the aircraft with with the pilots it certainly is a fun relationship ma'am when they taxi pass we normally way to the aircraft we get away FAC it's a camaraderie way but I think what it goes back to was was from the Battle of Britain when a boy sees his taxi back out some of them might not come back so it was a all the best wife while you're waiting there you're thinking what am I doing here where did I ever join up once you start your engines you've got that much to do you haven't got time to think about it your best means of Defence was aggression that's hack you'd never think of an individual anywhere is an aircraft if he hits an aircraft you you were on the aircraft on the sky you weren't coming killing somebody not a very happy sight willing crafting of blown up in the sky thinking poor buggers they'd have been clobbered but you could never relate that the same thing can happen to you Tommy Riley flew Spitfires and hurricanes into battle from cultish all his closest friend died as they attacked German v2 rocket sites in Holland John manly had been married for just two weeks tom was his best man Jerry got very crafty and they used to put a camera flash up from 2,500 of two or five six thousand feet so as I solid can a wall of flak III was forced and I got a couple of shells through the wing but didn't stop me from flying nothing with my engine but John got hit in the engine and he had a shell at the back of his fuse and I was a so John got one was really clobbered he tried to claim all four see and managed to get up to about 4,000 feet and he tried to ban out but he couldn't get out you know he spun down and went into inverted spin and when ends and Orsi so he he went straight down left about on the south and then they'll attract out the coast toward so it's not Yarmouth and then turning dick McCormack and Andy King rehearsing for a very different kind of comfort are returning to colca shaw their dogfight with the typhoons ended as expected in swift defeat mccormick fought in the first Gulf War I think the real thing will always be something that is a step beyond if you like you think got this this is this is real this is real and I am going to get shorter they were quiet polite inserting clear these sources were about an hour ten or so interation I'll call them as being five minutes of abject worry as you went through anti-aircraft artillery and back up again and parted mouth worried and then 30 40 minutes of transit owned by you and time to wrap so it was an emotional curve if you like throughout the salty this is called colossal end of the line it's the end of an era of culture whether this is the flight line at cultish all looking over towards 41 squadron and it's just a typical day on the flight line with ground crew work on the airplanes pilots doing their walk-around inspection to know they're all just going about their business like dick McCormack Mike Rondo is with 41 squadron at Coulter Shaw they flew together in the Gulf War today the former fighter pilot is one of Britain's top aviation artists it does take me back and then I remember going in that door there into the 41 squadron fly office some for years and years and I spent 12 years going into that door and it's not exactly a ghost town yet there aren't tumbleweeds blowing across the the concrete but it's a Neary's it would be an eerie feeling to see it completely empty 14 years after leaving the RAF Mike Rondo is back at cultish Shaw and reunited with his old aircraft x-ray Zulu 375 scrapped two years ago it's been saved and restored I had unshakeable faith that I would come home unscathed I never had any doubt you can't make mistakes but those who did came back pretty white-faced absolutely you know frightening were so silly that you make a mistake when people are shooting at you with real bullets then it certainly focuses the mind we had access to the same media that people around the world had so during the period when there was a lot of media coverage about the mistreatment of prisoners then that certainly focused my mind about how determined or how I don't want to use the term bloodthirsty but we certainly became you know quite keen to do that do they do the missions properly and get the bombs on target every time the airplane came back from a mission where it dropped bombs the ground crew would paint a little bomb symbol on it first one it dropped four thousand-pound bombs and so it went on these are cluster bombs times two and this is rocket pods so it was just a very old wartime tradition crash staccato short our module majesty state to emergency state to Jaguar 41 squadron r/t failure 20 miles to PFA Stewart about a Jaguar from 41 squadron has suffered a complete communications failure and is returning to base fast but what we're going to do is is manner for an emergency state which is just to get the the fire trucks and the medical personnel already so God forbid anything happens that there and they can react within seconds all right state to go around quite one squadron RT failure anybody I've got a kind of shutout be advised emergency aircraft table Scott tell monocultures are be wise the middle T aircraft now five miles farms collected crash booster follow him back here the estimate let's stay where they are come on a commercial turf you can hold your position and they're full of the airport bucket is no termination aircraft landed safely and and broadcast right well form Terrax top - that's a nice straight line between two ends now it's only four days to the final parades the drill instructors are doing what comes naturally putting people in their place so much I see you beat that right with God your white banner again there are three accent drills you at five o'clock it's in seven tonight happy the instructors are now becoming a little impatient uh sir we might have a small problem can you do a favor because give the shelter six and forty one cuz I'm getting pissed off with them I just did and we'll stand still look left right there we look like night between 5:00 and 7:00 I know we can do some extra drag it's required left right left right left right you can't underestimate what culture shall mean now is the time if you like to shed a few tears and I'll be perfectly honest about that I suppose with our head in the sand we all hope that the Jaguars have gone away on detachment as they have for years and they're going to come back but sadly is not going to be the case when I walk down onto the aircraft hands and you think yeah it is the end of an era I personally start to think about the Spitfires and hurricanes and the mosquitoes and the Beaufighters because I'm fascinated with that era and I can in the quiet when there's nobody around I can actually see these guys running out from the hangars climbing in for the aircraft and going off so yeah it is very very hard everybody wants the real fighter panel trans animal like was like playing the Premier League that was a glamor jump well answer they don't want to forget it okay Curtis price of horse I've come across it in this younger generation few Peterson auto finish with now a touch got history you know forget exactly we don't want to forget it well I don't know forget it I did ACC sauces altogether yeah so ACC time we got away with it no look he Riley that was the one who Club at three times I've gone down fleet I'm one survived three crash landings you know so I was a lucky one johnny was he went for a band who else I'll be green he went for a burn but if you roll George my you ever well maybe he's a ton of them as I mentioned there are great other chaps we all own a terrific doesn't gratitude anyway brings back memories know so many other difficult times Joan Osborne Walker was nineteen when she arrived at Colby shop in the tiny cemetery at the end of the runway young men she knew and enemies she did not are buried side by side it was shocking to begin with it's dreadful the saintly young member just going out and getting killed by not some you just had to get on with things to be honest our generation was brought up not to show emotion it was considered a bad form also we were taught to keep our feelings to ourselves it would be a jolly crowd table for breakfast in the morning and the dining rooms and then later on a day they'd be empty spaces you know some of them just didn't come back on the land or in the air or on the deep blue sea I don't care no matter where you're everything to me we didn't know what the future was going to bring and it was really only through Churchill speeches such kept us going I mean we really did spur us on never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few all our hearts go out to the fighter pilots whose brilliant action free see with our own eyes every wireless set it's like a coal then everybody crowded round them and listened I mean an absolute silence to everybody said it really inspired everybody I grew up very quickly we all did we all didn't we were all very naive when we arrived but we soon grew up I was a different person when I left there nearly three years later I can tell you Andy King won't be marching in the final parades he will be keeping step in a different formation a fly passed by nine jag us it's a difficult and potentially dangerous maneuver because culturals closing then there we wanted you know put on a good show on a date so what I'm getting together here and a little war book we call in which is just a document we take into the jet and this is perhaps the most important one the breakout maneuver if something's wrong with the aircraft is something that's really going to affect you then you've really got to keep your cool and remember that there are eight other aircraft around you for example if we're in a right-hand turn and number three had an engine failure if he just pulled away there's a chance he could take out six one and two so you could potentially kill the guys in his aircraft once like an emergency in one jet could lead to five catastrophic emergencies and the rest after today dick McCormick the boss of 41 squadron will swap flying but a desk job at the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall this is a mergers day it's a combination of 66 years of history stretching back to just before battle Britain and there has been continuous operational flying at cultural ever since it is a very odd feeling to be leaving this environment and going into something new I have been told by the erotic mining one group that if I don't want to give it up now is possibly a good time to leave and yet bought that idea but maybe he's right you are doing three fly pass here at Norwich and Coningsby all has been approved panicking is I think one of our brightest prospects and I think he would do stunningly well in the future people like him the young people will go on and will fly maybe another basis men on the aircraft but they will take with a piece of cultural they will take people as in his history so culture may be gone but its capability is is long from finished 66 years after those first Spitfires the parade marks the end of flying at RAF Coulter shop today the only flying so far is on the ground hats are taking off in the high winds handing over the standard of 41 squadron to its new home at RAF Coningsby is the final act ah squadron stand oh I'm sure we were many of us will have a lump in our throat and I certainly where were we we hand over the stand of the 41 squadron and we walk away from it as a bunch of individuals 41 fighter squadron I charge you to God and honor it I will do so for dick McCormack the diamond 9 fly past is a poignant reminder that his days as a fast jet pilot are all but open I feel pretty upset yeah that's the best better it in a word really I prefer not have done that but these things happen so moves on the good thing is that the squadron is not going to disband and disappear entirely so it is going to carry on and move on in an elephant so I'm happy about that but I don't think any school and commander watch marches off a parade to go after handing every standard it feels tickly good about so yeah I've had better days right I'm gonna have that now that's my squadron pennant this is the Kalani officers pennant and I'm not the commanding officer anymore but it's mine so I'm gonna take it cultish all has been home to 74 squadrons since the Battle of Britain but this is the end it's over and out forever never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few

Channel: MS greenheart

Views: 74,364

Keywords: over&out

Id: MorPrLc_vog

Length: 29min 10sec (1750 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 14 2010