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[w3526602]

Hi,

I was searching for a Bloodhound avatar  (don't ask why) and came across this ...

https://www.rafaberporth.org.uk/page24.html

it seems there is going to be a display at RAF Cosford on 12th September. No doubt, if you are interested, you will do your own research.

My connection? According to my discharge book, I was in SOLE charge of vehicle servicability at the 33Sqn (RAF) missile site at RAAF Butterworth, Malaya .... a short ferry ride from Penang.

SOLE charge? Nobody told me. There was just me as a Junior Technician (later Corporal), and my SAC sidekick. Yes, there was a Sergeant in the office, but he was a driver (Ministry approved examiner, but he said he couldn't tesr

Barbara outside the UK). About half a dozen clapped out S2 diesels, about half a dozen Lance side loading fork trucks adapted to man-handle the Bloodhounds, a Bedford RL 4x4,  the CO's Standard Vanguard, and eventually a brand new Mini (which was bagged by the CO).

Guess when they found out that a Lancer fork-truck, loaded with a missile, was too wide to go through the hanger doors? Oops!

The biggest cobra in Malaya was found in our oil store. 15ft. I only met a 5ft cobra, being held down by a frantic bloke with a broom who though it was only a water snake. A spade was fetched, the cobra was "despached", and the spectators wandered away.

Me and my sidekick were chatting, looked down, found a snake wriggling between us.  One can't half jump backwards when provoked. A couple of squirts with a CTC extinguisher sent Mr Snook to heaven.

602

[Porkscratching]

So are they going to let one off then..? 

[w3526602]

Hi Porkscratching,

Our testing was carried out at Weapons place in Aberporth, West Wales ... one hell of a roar as "something" disappears over the horizon almost as soon as it's fired (Rockets for take off.  Once "spent", the rockets fall off and the ram jets take over once it's up to speed. I understand that the missile stays where it is until it's built up power, and then the shear-bolts suddenly release it). It must be a shock for holiday makers who are unaware that such things happen. Has anybody here been passing on Test Day?

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[w3526602]

Hi,

Video of take of and kill at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAvUZNqTZGw

602

[w3526602]

Hi yet again,

0 - 60mph time for a Bloodhound? I couldn't find that ... but eat your heart out ....

http://www.bmpg.org.uk/like_a_bat_out_of_hell.html

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[Porkscratching]

Hi,


Video of take of and kill at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAvUZNqTZGw

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"Right lads, I want a volunteer to fly round the block..'ere you'll do..." 

[mistericeman]

Landrovers and missiles.... What's not to like.

[w3526602]

Hi,

The Bloodhound weighed 4 tons, including a 1 ton war-head ... or so I was informed.

One day, me, and my mucker were called out to the launching pads at RAAF Butterworth.  Our sergeant came along to watch. A side-loading fork truck had burst a hose to one of it's stabilising jacks. I shoved my wooden tool box under the fork truck's skirt, and Sarge signaled the fork-truck driver to wind his load out, to drop it onto a trailer ....; as you do. 

Sarge signalled the fork-driver to wind it out. As the C of G changed, my tool box collapsed. Sarge was directly underneath the missile. He put his hands up ... as you do ... and luckily, everything was only just past the tipping point. So there he was, holding a Bloodhound (booted and spured, ready to fly) above his head, screaming at the fork driver to "WIND IT IN". He should have known that the driver would only follow hand signals  :-)

Actually, there was no real danger, as the warhead was HE, which needs to be detonated to explode (Note ... our instructions, should we ever come across a burning Atomic bomb in a crashed aircraft, were to P on the flames. HE will burn, but not explode unless detonated. The Nuke bit will not explode, unless surrounded by simultaneously exploding HE charges. I'll take their word for it, and am happy to be corrected.

602

PS. We have probably all watched the TV program DOWN UNDER.

Sarge was a Ministry approved UK Driving Test Examiner. The Ozzies called him in to test all new arrivals at Butterworth, if they were to drive RAAF vehicles. One day he had to test a Brit who had emigrated to Oz ... and was promptly called up for National Service. He was lucky ... he could easily have been posted to Vietnam. Be warned!

[w3526602]

Hey,

I've got me an avatar.

Thankyou!

602

PS. AVGAS is petrol (120 octane?) for piston aircraft. AVTER is jet fuel. AVTAG is parafin. I've probably got the last two mixed. Forgive me ... it has been 52 years since demob.

Where does AVATAR fit, in the scale of things?

[mistericeman]

Some nice footage of Butterworth (including some series action)

https://youtu.be/rB2h3Np5CZg

[Genem]

Tonka spent much of her military service with the Army equivalent of Bloodhound, the Thunderbird missile system with 39 ( Heavy) Air Defence Regt in Germany.

I understand the warhead was essentially a lot of chain wrapped around a pile of explosive and a radar proximity fuse. If it all worked correctly the target aircraft found itself flying into an expanding cloud of shrapnel.

[w3526602]

Hi Mister Iceman.

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, for that link It brings back memories, though I suspect it was filmed before I arrived there in 1965.

The Australians at that time were flying F86 Sabres (ex-Korean War), and visiting pilots were not allowed to show off in their superior aircraft. Shortly before i left. July 1967, they took delivery of Desault Mysteres (sp?). Their CO whiled away"the best part of a good while", skidding his new toy, sideways, at ground level, above the runway, with a vertical climb at each end.

No, I'm wrong! One day "something" flew very low over our SAM headquarters building. going like a bat out of hell. It turned out to have been an RAF Supermarine Swift in the process of breaking the UK to Singapore record. I wish we'd known he was coming.

I've also heard that a Vulcan once landed at Butterworth. Could have been Romany Rose's dad? I wonder if that did a fast take-off?
One day, a helicopter )Iriquois

All the shops in the film were on Penang (shorts not allowed in town, and torso must be covered, and no flip-flops.

One day Barbara saw our dog (Taffy) standing up, inspecting what was on the kitchen table. She waved her foot at him, and managed to kick the table, dislocating her little tow. A neighbour drove her to the medical centre at the RAAF hostel, only a couple of miles away.   Once everything was put back in place, she was left to make her own way home. No money for a taxi ... wearing nothing but a shorty nightie and flip-flops.   

Our Land Rovers were painted Drab-Olive, cos we were in Malaya. The challenge was to persuade Clothing Stores to give us Jungle Green towels, which should only have been issued to the Rock Apes (RAF Regiment) Sadly, they all rottet away many years ago

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[w3526602]

Hi,

See ... http://www.bloodhoundmkii.org.uk/images/33/33_1.jpg

That should be a photograph of the 33sqn RAF SAM site at RAAF Butterworth, just across the channel from Penang. I don't know when it was taken, but probably after 1965.

If you can see any vehicles, they were probably "mine" up until July 1967.

Butterworth is now occupied by the Malaysian Air Force.

602

[w3526602]

Ha again,

... and here are some shots of the Lancer side-loading fork-trucks fitted with the special "boom" for handling the Bloodhounds.

https://www.rafaberporth.org.uk/page13.html

The truck would park along side the missile, and the "boom" could be move in and out sideways, allowing the missile to be lifted, then pulled  over the truck's load bed. Once in the air, the missile could be moved sideways, up and down, and back and fore. Memory is vague about whether the suspended missile could be made to pitch and yaw, but I think it could.  Have I got the terminology correct?

The drivers cab was over the left-hand front wheel, while the engine was over the left-hand rear wheel. I forget the terminology for the transmission....shove it into gear, and press the loud pedal. No clutch.

On one occasion, I jambed the throttle pedal down with a screwdriver, walked to the back of the truck, and used another screw-driver to activate the remote starter solenoid. It was ... ahem ... in gear, wasn't it? I will let you visulise four tons of driverless truck chugging it's way across the workshop, with Yours Truly trying to climb into the cab, using the now rotating front wheel as a ladder. I'm here, so I must have been successful ... but I still wake up screaming. 

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[w3526602]

Hi,

It was wonderful working in the tropics wearing nothing but a beret, socks rolled down over your boots, and a a pair of shorts. It was   advisable not to "go commando" if one's shorts had be tailored too severely.    Thankfully, the RAF were no longer issued with "Drawers - Empire"

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