RAF Ahlhorn

RAF Ahlhorn, 2^nd A.T.A.F

By Norman Spence.

On the 23.1.1953, I made my first flight on 96 Sqn., RAF Ahlhorn, a sector recce with Mike Isherwood-Bennett, in WM150 (METEOR NF11)

We took off at 1117 hrs. and were airborne for exactly 1 hour. There had been little or no flying prior to this date because of bad weather conditions, primarily snow. Three days later I was airborne again, with my normal pilot Pete Driscoll, and again we flew a sector recce, getting airborne at 0950 hrs., in WM182 and landing at 1100 hrs.

Two days later, 28.1.1953, we took off in WM149, at 0950 hrs., to carry out M.P.I.s with our playmate, Val Harder and his navigator, Don Busby. Several other pairs, including aircraft from 256 Squadron, took off ahead of us and Pete and I were last to get airborne.

Weather conditions were poor, but within the limits that could be flown by Pete, Val and the other pilots on 96 and our partners at Ahlhorn, 256 Sqn. Apart from the Squadron Commanders, Flight Commanders and a few experienced pilots like Mike, who had Master Green Cards, the others had only White Cards and could not fly if the cloud base was below 1,000 ft. Something obviously went wrong with the Met forecast that morning, because within moments of getting airborne, Ahlhorn A.T.C. aborted all sorties, because the weather had closed in and the cloud base had fallen to 700 ft., and instructed us to divert to Oldenburg

Met had really got it wrong, because not only was the weather "Harry Clampers" at base - we also experienced the most horrendous icing I have ever seen, with the ice on the leading edges growing at a rate of knots before our eyes

We were diverted to Oldenburg because they had the luxury of G.C.A., which had not yet been installed at Ahlhorn. We all immediately came under control of A.T.C. Oldenburg and formed a queue, with Val and Don next to last and Pete and I behind

There appeared to be a problem with the aircraft flown by Kiwi Graves and his navigator, Ron Lawrence, from 256. A.T.C. Oldenburg thought that Kiwi's compass was u/s and gave him priority. By the time it was our turn, with everyone else having landed, Oldenburg didn't seem to know where we really were, although we were identified as being over Osnabruck at one point. I was later to find out that Joe Croshaw, our Flight Commander, had criticised Pete for not descending below the cloud base to make visual contact, but considering that the cloud base was 700 ft. or less, and the safety height in the Osnabruck area was 1500 ft., it would have been a pretty stupid thing to do!

The penny hadn't dropped with Oldenburg that it wasn't Kiwi Graves' compass that was u/s - it was ours! Eventually, they lost us completely, and we were over Holland . A.T.C. at the Dutch Air Force base at Twente took over control, but they experienced difficulties, lost us, and control was handed over to the Dutch at Leeuwarden . Shortly after Leeuwarden took over we ran out of fuel and, surprise, surprise - the engines went out!

Pete sent out a Mayday and we started to wend our way down! As we did so, the last we heard on the RT was a slanging match between the Controllers at Twente and Leeuwarden , with each blaming the other for our predicament!

GLOSTER METEOR NF11

We left the two Controllers to sort it out between themselves and continued our descent. By now there was no cloud below us and visibility was perfect - that being so, I thought there was little excuse for Pete to shortly demolish twelve of the few trees that grew in Holland !

Still continuing our descent, we followed the usual procedures, but instead of releasing my parachute harness, in my cackhanded way, I unfastened my safety harness!! I yelled to Pete to "Hang on!" - Well, there wasn't a lot he could do, was there? - so I moved with a certain amount of alacrity, and re-fastened it again.

We jettisoned the drop-tanks then the canopy, passed under some power lines, clobbered the aforementioned trees and then I looked ahead - To port a house was coming up, to starboard another; I could not see directly in front, of course, because the view was blocked by the radar in front of me, but over the radar and ahead, was an embankment about 100 ft. high - and for all I knew, more houses between us and the embankment. Anyway, as Pete put the aircraft down, I braced myself, and on initial impact, I chipped my left kneecap on the Mk.10 Tilt switch. We stopped short before the houses and there were none immediately in front of us, however, before the aeroplane came to a complete halt, we both leapt out. Unfortunately, we both leapt at exactly the same time, with Pete veering to the left, and me to the right. Consequently we collided and sent each other flying! Picking ourselves up, we continued our dive for a nearby ditch. We thought there might be some residual fuel in the tanks, or that there might be fumes that could ignite. This possibility was reinforced when we heard a hissing from the aircraft. Gingerly poking our heads above the top of the ditch to take a look, we felt complete idiots when we realised that the hissing was from the oxygen supply which was still switched on! Our flight had lasted 1hr.45mins.

Pete went to one of the houses to phone for help while I stood guard over the aeroplane. At the first house, Pete knocked - Someone answered the door, took one look at him and promptly shut the door in his face! He had better luck at the next house, and was able to phone the police.

The Chief of Police from Zwolle , accompanied by a number of his officers arrived, followed swiftly by a large number of Dutch Army personnel.

The Chief of Police drove us to the Army base near Zwolle , where the Colonel had us driven in his car to the Dutch Air Force Station at Leeuwarden . There we were greeted by the Station Commander, who turned out to be a friend of our own Station Commander, Gp.Capt.Piers Kelly. He phoned PK and after a brief chat put Pete on the phone to explain what had happened.

Norman and Pete With the man from the "Ministry" in the CO's office at Leeuwarden

We were then taken to the Mess, where we were kitted out in Dutch uniforms before being taken to the Bar. The loan of the uniforms was necessary because the way we were dressed under our flying suits - the heating system in the NF11 was activated automatically when the pressurisation system was switched on, with no means of controlling the temperature and it was normally too hot. Consequently, Pete had no shirt under his flying suit and I had neither shirt nor trousers.

Once in the Bar, we were joined by a large number of pilots from the base, who promptly started to fill us with Bols Gin and meatballs. After - who knows how many of both? -

Someone suggested we should all go out on the town ( Zwolle ). This was thought to be a good idea, so we changed our Dutch uniforms for "civvies", which some people were kind enough to lend us, and off we set for Zwolle - in an ambulance!

We thought the ambulance was an odd form of conveyance, but were grateful later on, as it turned out - but not for any medical reasons.

We had a hilarious and eventful night out and whilst we were enjoying ourselves in what we thought was harmless manner, there were obviously other people who didn't appreciate our hilarity - We failed to take the management seriously in two night-clubs when they asked us to leave, but realised they were serious in both places when the police arrived, and courteously of course, also asked us to leave. Being officers and gentlemen we left - also courteously, of course! It was after leaving the second night club that we appreciated our transport and gratefully took advantage of the offer of the beds in the ambulance whilst the rest of the party stood like sardines, which was probably just as well as they probably wouldn't have been able to keep upright otherwise!

The following morning, we had a farewell meeting with the Station Commander, an R.A.F. Liaison Officer and someone from the Dutch Government. We had our photograph taken for the Station Photo Album, which contained photo's of Churchill, Eisenhower, Price Bernhard and other notables - Pete and I thought it highly amusing that we were going to appear with that lot, but I don't know what they would have thought!

Eventually, an Anson from R.A.F. Jever arrived for us and off we set. The Station Commander at Jever was Gp.Capt. Powell-Sheddon, who had been our Wing Co. Flying at Ahlhorn and he had instructed the Anson to land at Jever first. When we taxied in after landing he was there to greet us on the apron and immediately took us off to the Mess - and the Bar, where he rapidly returned us to the state we had been in the previous night!

Somewhat later that day we arrived back at Ahlhorn, feeling rather tired and emotional, as they say in Private Eye!

Nearly four months later, on 18^th May 1953, Pete and I were involved in another incident-

We took off at 1115hrs. that day for G.C.I.s, and as we were rolling, A.T.C. yelled to us to abort - as we had an engine on fire! Unfortunately we were committed, and had to get airborne. Pete shut down the engine, turned and started the procedure for landing. Having a full fuel load we were overweight and therefore had to jettison the drop-tanks, which Pete did on the airfield and then landed.

It turned out that an oil filler cap had been left off during servicing and this was what had caused the problem.

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Aircraft Graphics Courtesy of Air of Authority Website

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