Improvised airfield with RE8s and pilots

[Olham 164]

This picture has a touch to me, as it shows a very improvised life in a field near the crates.

I could imagine very well to be there with them, somehow.

 

 

[Hauksbee 103]

This picture has a touch to me, as it shows a very improvised life in a field near the crates.

I could imagine very well to be there with them, somehow.

...lest anyone feel the Air War was glamorous! You could spend the day getting shot at, freezing your extremities off, watching your buddies die, but you had a nice safe base to return to, with clean sheets, a hot meal and a cold beer...which I'm sure is just out of camera range. (LOL)

[Olham 164]

Yes, Hauksbee - it reminds me of my army days. When we had a three day manoeuver, we lived from

hard dried everlast-cakes and canned food. I remember the attempt to warm up a can of Ravioli in

tomatoe sauce, on a very small Esbit cooker. I had no pot; the can is full, so you can't stir; and so the

upper third layer of Ravioli was cold, the middle layer quite good, and the bottom layer was burnt.

 

On a field base like in the picture, they could really make you wish to fly the next sortie - it couldn't

get much worse anyway.

[Creaghorn 10]

hmm. canned ravioli i like cold the best . tastes lot better than hot.

[Bullethead 12]

I suspect these guys are living in tents at best, because of the haphazard way the supplies are just being dumped beside the road. Structures to protect the gear are always built before structures for the comfort of the troops.

 

Still, it's not too bad a place to be. It's adjacent to an improved road so supplies can arrive fairly easily and the troops can get to a village without too much trouble. The weather seems nice and the ground appears dry enough to lie down on for a nap. In fact, the whole scene appears quite relaxed and nonchalant, given that most guys are just sitting or lying around despite there being trucks to unload. I suspect this is due to the telephone lines being down, so HQ can't easily nag the squadron into doing anything, another benefit of living here.

 

And PS: don't call me a bomber pilot. I was young; I was just experimenting

[Olham 164]

Okay; so can we hope now to see pics of your great deeds as a fighter pilot here soon, Sir?

 

And: I knew you would like the place shown in the pic, and almost imagine to feel at home there, soldier.

[Bullethead 12]

Okay; so can we hope now to see pics of your great deeds as a fighter pilot here soon, Sir?

 

This reminds me of a joke.....

 

These tourists were visiting some picturesque European village nestled in beautiful hills. They climbed one of the hills to look down and observe the village and its surroundings in all their glory, and while up there they noticed an old man, clad in the traditional costume of the local villagers, sitting on a rock. He was staring down at the village and looked very sad, so they asked him what was the matter. So he said....

 

"You see all those houses in the village, all the pretty houses? I built some of them with my own hands. But do they call me a carpenter? No.

 

"Inside all those houses are cabinets of the finest joinery, which took me all my life to master. But do they call me a cabinetmaker? No.

 

"And besides that, the houses are full of furniture. Made of the most beautiful woods, finished in the most lovely colors. The villagers now and again sell a piece on eBay for a huge profit. With my own hands I made that stuff, my life's work. But do they call me a furnituremaker? No.

 

"But you shag just 1 goat......."

[Baldric 42]

@BH-- lol

 

I wonder if it was a temporary field to use, say, their primary field having been bombed out? I imagine a couple of nights of sleeping under the wings, or curled up in the ditch.

[Bullethead 12]

I wonder if it was a temporary field to use, say, their primary field having been bombed out? I imagine a couple of nights of sleeping under the wings, or curled up in the ditch.

 

I'm thinking this has more the look of a squadron that's moving forward following advancing troops. Perhaps it was taken during the latter part of 1918. I figure the Germans cut the telephone lines on their way out of here.

[Hasse Wind 46]

I think the living conditions on that field were much better than what the guys living in the trenches were used to. No matter how dangerous missions they had to fly, at least the pilots could spend their nights and free time in relative safety compared to the frontline men. Poor bloody infantry... (When I was in the army, we artillery guys almost always had it easier than the infantry - they had a lot of foot marches, while we had our trucks to move the heavy pieces.)

[JimAttrill 24]

That could have been my old squadron which used RE8s until the end of the war.

 

And as the first Nato Harrier squadron operating off grass in 1970 the scene was not much different, though the planes were newer. Same old tents, etc. The advantage we had over the fixed squadrons it that we could 'lose' all sorts of tools, equipment and stuff and nobody even asked where it went because it was in a wood in Germany somewhere.

[Olham 164]

Wow - you were in a Harrier squad., Jim?

What was the old WW1 squadron's name or number?

[Hauksbee 103]

Yes, Hauksbee - it reminds me of my army days. When we had a three day manoeuver, we lived from

hard dried everlast-cakes and canned food. I remember the attempt to warm up a can of Ravioli in

tomatoe sauce, on a very small Esbit cooker. I had no pot; the can is full, so you can't stir; and so the

upper third layer of Ravioli was cold, the middle layer quite good, and the bottom layer was burnt.

Ahh....Basic Training. You bring back memories, Olham. If we had thought far enough ahead to smuggle a delicious can of Ravioli, we would have warmed it up in our steel helmets.

[Maeran 20]

Wow - you were in a Harrier squad., Jim?

What was the old WW1 squadron's name or number?

 

Given the insignia; 4 Squadron. A rare survivor of many squadron reorganisations.

 

I appreciate its a little late, since you now have pots and pans, but you could have eaten the top few ravioli cold to give enough space to stir.

[Olham 164]

Maeran:...you could have eaten the top few ravioli cold to give enough space to stir.

 

NOW you're telling me. Well, my way, I had three variations of Ravioli in one go.

But that was a badly organised manoeuver. In another, I was given a driver, to drive to the Stabsbatallion,

cause we couldn't get a proper connection. Out of the decrypter device came only letter salad (I found there,

that the Staff Seargeant on the other radio had plugged the code settings of the previous day - he was SO

glad I had come round to save him).

Well, on the way back to my battery, we stopped at a butcher shop, and I bought cutlets for my three men

and me. In the evening, I fried them in our radio Unimog van, with thyme and garlic. The pan to put on the

Esbit cooker device, was so small, I could only do one cutlet at once. Now, it was striktly forbidden to cook

inside that radio cabin, and it had to happen (must have smelled good), that our Captain opened the door,

to see, if we had already received a fire order (crypted/decrypted order with lots of data).

There he stood in olive green, helmet on, gas mask bag at his side, looking like fool, and I was sure, I was

in for a punishment. But he sniffed and said: "What smells so good here?" I told him. "Can you do two more

for me, too?" he asked. I said, yes, I could, if I had more. And so he sent a dispatch rider to the nearest town

to bring some more cutlets; I ordered some Bratwurst in addition, and all turned out nicely.

[Bullethead 12]

When I was in the army, we artillery guys almost always had it easier than the infantry - they had a lot of foot marches, while we had our trucks to move the heavy pieces.

 

Good to meet another old cannoncocker. I and Olham also were in the artillery.

 

As I'm sure you know, us arty guys are smarter than grunts. At least we're smart enough to have trucks . Even so, my pack weighed about 200 pounds what with all the radio batteries and MG ammo I had to lug around, plus 2 MOPP suits and whatever else I wanted to wear or eat. Glad I never had to carry it more than a few hundred meters . Still, I wore out 4 pairs of boots in 3 months in Desert Storm.

 

I don't think my living conditions were any better than those of the grunts. I took my 1st shower of 1991 on 13 March. Prior to that, I got 5 gallons of water and a bucket every 1-2 weeks in which to wash myself and what was left of my uniform. It being about 38^F with at least a 15-knot wind blowing, that wasn't much fun. At least once a day, I tried to take my boots off for about 10 minutes and scrub them with baby wipes, and changed my socks every 2-3 days, turning them inside out in between. I lived in a hole in the ground which only had a roof if we were there more than a few hours. Usually we weren't so I had to dig a new hole usually every day, sometimes several times. And it rained about 2 out of every 3 days, and the rain was black with the products of burning oil wells.

 

Ahh....Basic Training. You bring back memories, Olham. If we had thought far enough ahead to smuggle a delicious can of Ravioli, we would have warmed it up in our steel helmets.

 

I joined up in early 80s, the last time that was possible for US troops. Within a few months, the canned C-rats were replaced by MREs, and a few months later the old tin WW2 helmets were replaced by the Kevlar "Fritzpots", so called because of their resemblance to German Stahlhelms. After that, we couldn't cook anything in our helmets like our fathers and grandfathers, which was somehow more depressing than just having to eating cold MREs.

[JimAttrill 24]

Wow - you were in a Harrier squad., Jim?

What was the old WW1 squadron's name or number?

 

Well, it was 4 squadron as you can tell by my sig on the left. I had wonderful fun in those days because we were the first squadron in Germany to use grass airfields. This also meant we were away from the powers that be and could almost do what we liked. I remember a wonderful time when I was sent to another RAF station in a completely dirty camouflaged Land Rover (unusual as most RAF transport was blue) with trailer with a liquid oxygen trailer on that, to get some LOX. We were wearing Army camouflage uniforms (in those days the RAF didn't wear that stuff), with no rank badges (the snipers will get you), and we had one RAF hat between the three of us. I was wearing a Norwegian AF hat, another guy had a Luftwaffe hat, but I borrowed the RAF beret to confront the RAF police. We at least had SLR rifles (same as the German Forces) which showed we were SERIOUS. The RAF Police at the gate wanted to know where we had come from, but apart from showing our ID documents I refused to say. This was because we were on the other side, so to speak. So as a P.O.W in WWII I would give my rank and serial no but refuse to say where I had come from. I also told them that if I didn't get my load of Liquid Oxygen they would be stuffed up by various high-ranking officers (without saying who they were).

 

Oh what a wonderful day that was! As, like all other technical people I hated the RAF Police I had a lovely time refusing to answer their questions.

 

Such is life. We also loved doing these trips because we could stop at the occasional bar and have a drink or two, and use their toilet facilities which were much better than those we had in the camp.

 

I think I have mentioned that at one place we used the cut-outs in the trees as used by Luftwaffe fighters in 1944/5. This meant we could hide our Harriers withour cutting down any trees which is not allowed in Germany.

Edited September 8, 2009 by JimAttrill

[Olham 164]

Yeah, those memories... I wouldn't want to do those army days again, but on the other hand,

I wouldn't miss them.

 

Here's asmall page about 4 Squadron:

 

http://www.hmforces.co.uk/nfs/hmforces/attachment_images/0001/7028/DN-SD-01-04908_crop380w.JPEG%3F1249316259&imgrefurl=http://www.hmforces.co.uk/education/articles/1004-raf-training-groups-guide-4&usg=__ggoxNzvQEM2bjt4njq_J9vZEJVc=&h=250&w=380&sz=20&hl=de&start=7&tbnid=6zauI3j_Z3lbkM:&tbnh=81&tbnw=123&prev=/images%3Fq%3D4%2BSquadron%2BWW1%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Dde%26sa%3DG

Edited September 8, 2009 by Olham

[hood 2]

Good God,the site is full of drop-shorts.Were there no infanteers in yout armies?Surely some of you must have marched at some time.

Let's hear it for the footsloggers.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

Just got a chance to read through this thread and look at the photo. Great stuff!

 

hood, I marched when I was in the USAF, ironically enough. Marched my friggin' legs off as a matter of fact: From the barracks to the PC field, from the PC field to the air field, from the air field to the mess hall, from the mess hall back to the barracks. And then we got to pull "special duty". But we didn't have to march when we were actually flying, which is one reason why I volunteered for every recce flight I could.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

 

[hood 2]

Just got a chance to read through this thread and look at the photo. Great stuff!

 

hood, I marched when I was in the USAF, ironically enough. Marched my friggin' legs off as a matter of fact: From the barracks to the PC field, from the PC field to the air field, from the air field to the mess hall, from the mess hall back to the barracks. And then we got to pull "special duty". But we didn't have to march when we were actually flying, which is one reason why I volunteered for every recce flight I could.

 

Cheers!

 

 

Good for you RAF Louvert.You must have racked up quite a few hours.You sound a very wise man.Strange isn't it, all that marching in training, whilst in action we walked [or ran].Much more relaxing.Cheers

[Siggi 10]

Good God,the site is full of drop-shorts.Were there no infanteers in yout armies?Surely some of you must have marched at some time.

Let's hear it for the footsloggers.

 

Queens Own infantry and FFL ex-slogger here. I passed all three sheets in the British army and could have been anything (except para, I was too tall), but I chose infantry because I thought it would be the most fun. The captain in charge of selection even made me go away and think about it for another week because he said it would be such a waste. Damn he was so right.

[carrick58 23]

If you add an aspfualt strip, turn the mud into dirt ( reddish color) and add trees with bunkers and Tents under them U have my old place. I was with a helicopter company in the RVN which was scout (OH6As) and Comand and control (UHIC and H models Hueys) We used c-4 (off mines) to warm the C rations and then add taco or hot suace to make them eatable. The Arty boys took to long to fire support whenever we got hit so the men of 1st of the corba gunships used to run out and crank the snakes under fire Brave Men ( foolish?) they called themselves the Blue Max ( ARA 20th flying Arty 2nd Bde, 1st Air Cav Div.) I always opped for the deepest hole, but I remember them.

[hood 2]

Queens Own infantry and FFL ex-slogger here. I passed all three sheets in the British army and could have been anything (except para, I was too tall), but I chose infantry because I thought it would be the most fun. The captain in charge of selection even made me go away and think about it for another week because he said it would be such a waste. Damn he was so right.

We all make our mistakes don't we Siggi?Queens Own, eh?I had a mate who served as a subaltern with them in WW2.And very proud of them he was too. He didn't consider my mob [Aust.Imperial Force] were real soldiers at all.

[Hasse Wind 46]

 

I don't think my living conditions were any better than those of the grunts.

 

 

I'm sure they weren't, there being a war and all that. All my experiences are from peace time manoeuvers, so it goes without saying things were MUCH easier for us. But I really appreciated the trucks we had, though we probably suffered more than the grunts in wintertime, sitting on the back of the trucks in freezing conditions, and not having enough room to move our limbs much. But I prefer cold weather to terrible heat - I almost can't understand how people are able to live in places like Iraq!

 

By the way, what kind of guns did your unit have? I had the pleasure of operating a Soviet 152mm howitzer, model 1955. It was an excellent weapon, reliable in the worst of conditions, and good for rapid concentration of fire. The Russians have always known how to build powerful guns!