RAF Lightnings over Africa (profiles)

[AnonymousDFB1]

Been lurking in this thread since it began, and I must say that is an entertaining little conflict you have going.

Well done Richard and all.

[Gekko_1]

Do you still have a website around

No Yves, I got rid of that a while ago. It was too expensive to keep going for what money I was making off the business. Next time I'll be selling via eBay and email.

Cheers

Richard.

[Gekko_1]

Been lurking in this thread since it began, and I must say that is an entertaining little conflict you have going.

Well done Richard and all.

Thanks Mish, I'm very curious to read what you think of this next instalment!

[Gekko_1]

Harriet Cosgrove was a very determined young woman. At 30 years of age she had not only managed to push her way into a strictly male dominated environment, but acquire acceptance from her piers and excel even higher. Harriet had managed to get herself into her dream job, that was, flying helicopters. “Her” helicopter was a Westland Wessex HU5. Its name was Rupert, named after Rupert the bear, Harriet’s favourite teddy bear.

Many men in the RAF had tried to block Harriet’s rise to helicopter pilot. However one man was determined to help her get to where she wanted to go. That man was an SAS Warrant Officer by the name of Barney Weatherby. Weatherby and three of his men found themselves trapped by rising seas whilst on a training mission on the Welsh coast. The only way to rescue the men was by helicopter, and the only helicopter near by was being flown by a fresh young student pilot from the local flying school. Harriet managed to not only respond to the urgent call quickly, but found the three hyperthermic men extremely quickly and managed to steady her helicopter close enough to the treacherous coastal rocks and surging surf to enable the men to get aboard and back to safety. Weatherby said to Harriet that night that if she ever needed the favour returned just to let him know. She did. One RAF Officer in particular was always seemingly in the way of Harriet reaching her goal. She thought his treatment of her was utterly ridiculous and against everything the RAF stood for.

Upon hearing from Harriet about her plight Weatherby took matters into his own hands and went and had a little chat to the Officer in question. Suffice to say Harriet suffered no more hindrance in her attempts to become a helicopter pilot. Her career in the RAF was exemplarily.

Harriet’s reputation for getting the job done had spread to other services in the British Military, and when word went out for helicopters and crews to go down to Burkina Faso to act as Rescue and Recovery for downed British and Commonwealth pilots Harriet’s name came up over and over. The Royal Navy wanted her, and an exchange program was rushed into operation. Harriet was ecstatic! This would be the pinnacle of her career, this was what she’d always dreamed of. Women COULD do it and she’d bloody-well show all those piddle-weak male chauvinist pigs just how useful and effective a woman in a combat environment could be!

Harriet and her fellow helicopter pilots and rescue crews, plus Royal Marine Commando protectors were urgently rushed to Ouagadougou Airport by Hercules with the three HU5 Wessex helicopters and spares aboard three other Hercules that would be arriving the following day. Upon arrival at Ouagadougou Harriet couldn’t believe how oppressively hot it was. It was 37°C in the shade, with a hot dusty wind blowing sand and grit into her eyes, nostrils and mouth. This may be harder than she thought!

Four days later Harriet was starting to acclimatise to the heat, just. At least she wasn’t the only one. Both man and machine were finding the going tough in Burkina. Whilst standing next to Rupert watching field engineers fit sand filters and GPMG’s to him Harriet heard the roar of two F.6 Lightnings headed out for a combat sortie. Harriet found it strange that one of the Lightnings was painted in light blue-greys and the other was in subdued green-browns. Which would be better she thought? Then she heard a jet noise getting closer that wasn’t familiar to her. A sleek triangular shaped jet streaked past her at high speed. What was that? She’d never seen anything like it before.

“Oi Jimmy, what the ‘ell was that?” Harriet yelled in her Cornish accent.

“Draken my dear. Its one of those Danish jobbies helping our lads out in the North. Better get used to seeing them, apparently they are relentless, flying more combat missions than anybody else over her at the moment, or so I’m told.” said Jimmy, Harriet’s co-pilot.

Then, two more jets thundered down the main runway, heading North, into the fight. These she had seen before. They were Canadian Voodoos and looked particularly fierce in their light brown and sand camouflage scheme with obligatory Pumpkin grin to boot! It definitely was busy here at Burkina’s main air base, but apparently things were even busier further north in the Forward Operating Bases where she and her helicopters were headed. There she would be mixing with Australians, fellow Brits and the mysterious Danes. She was most looking forward to meeting some of these reportedly brave Danish Fighter Pilots and having a better look at their very fancy looking Drakens!

Two days later Rupert, Sarah and Jane were painted and ready for their blooding in the harsh combat environs of northern Burkina. The crews were fully briefed and knew well what was expected of them. At 07:00 all three Wessex helicopters were started-up and took off one after the other, headed for an FOB near a place called Djibo in northern Burkina Faso.

To say that the FOB was basic would be an understatement. Living in tents in 40°C heat and having to fly complex rescue operations in one of the harshest places on the planet in helicopters that can sometimes be problematic all added up to being the most challenging task Harriet had ever had to face. By the time everything was put in its place and the new Wessex crews were briefed on current and upcoming combat operations it was well after midnight local time and all were quite exhausted by the days rigours. Minutes after Harriet’s head hit the pillow of her cot she was deep asleep.

The next morning Harriet was awoken by eight Australian Mirage jets screaming down the runway heading north to intercept Mali fighter aircraft headed their way. It was 5:25 am! Harriet got up, grabbed a cup of tea and some biscuits and headed out to where the rest of the lads were near the end of the runway. There was an endless rush of screaming jets thundering down towards them and climbing up into the orange African sun rise. To Harriet it actually looked beautiful, somewhat surreal. Here were Fighter Pilots heading off to fight some of the fiercest air to air combat missions since the Vietnam war in a place that was so strange and alien to anything Harriet had ever seen before.

Then the moment changed completely as sirens began to wail! People were running everywhere, Harriet was grabbed by Jimmy and off to the bunker they ran. In the confusion Harriet witnessed a Rapier Surface to Air Missile streak into the sky, then heard and enormous ‘boom’ as what tuned out to be a Mali MiG-17PM exploded above them sending metal part raining down all around. Wow, what an initiation to Djibo FOB! The pilot of the MiG was removed from the wreckage. He was dead; his body was torn to bits by shrapnel from the Rapier. He was a Ukrainian man in his early thirties, so his ID papers stated. His body would be flown back to Ouagadougou to be forwarded on to a Red Cross station in Ghana where it would be flown home for burial.

This incident affected Harriet more than she was prepared for. She would need her wits about her as she dealt with the complexities of an environment like Burkina. One day at a time she told herself, one day at a time.

As the Australian Mirages flew over head banking one after the other to align themselves up for landing, it was suddenly realised that there was various different shapes and sizes of torn metal on the runway! Quickly people began to understand the urgency of the situation and the Mirages were told to fly around again to give people on the ground time to clear the runway for them. But time they did not have, many of the Mirages were extremely low on fuel; some had pieces missing from the combat duels that had just taken place some 80 kilometres to the north. One Mirage was missing half of its fin. Just then a Draken was spotted far off in the distance, it was on fire!

Everybody who could, sprinted out to the runway, to try and pick-up as much of the debris of the MiG-17 as possible and get the runway clear for the jets to land. By the time the first Aussie Mirage hit the runway most of the debris had been moved out of the way. With all of the Aussie Mirages back in their dispersal bays preparations were made for the Draken to land. Djibo’s two fire trucks were ready halfway down the runway, where the arrestor gear would stop the Draken.

Apparently the pilot of the Draken didn’t want to eject out of the jet unless he absolutely had to. Keeping the Drakens operational in these conditions was difficult enough and every airframe there was put to good use. Luckily everything went well, the Draken came in for a textbook landing, the fire was quickly doused and the pilot got out unscathed. Which was something that could not be said for two of his fellow pilots, both of whom had just been killed in the fiercest air to air combat the Danish Air Force had ever flown in in their History! The runway was quickly cleared of the smoking Dragon and Sarah and Jane were prepared for take-off to recover the bodies of the two Danish pilots. The pilot of the Draken that had just come-in requested permission to go too, it was granted.

Harriet was not a part of that first mission for the Royal Navy rescue helicopters. She and Rupert were on alert for any ejected pilots that may be in need of rescuing. Nothing happened however. Sarah and Jane returned with the bodies of the Danish pilots. It was all quite a sombre day. There were to be many more to come.

Six days later Harriet woke-up in a confused and frightened state. Something wasn’t quite right. She woke Jimmy and told him how she felt. Jimmy had known Harriet for about three years and knew she wasn’t one for paranoia or things like that. Jimmy roused the rest of the lads from their sleep and told them to ready themselves for a mission. Nobody asked what was going-on; they just got on with it, that was except for Ian. Ian was the teams’ winger. Mornings were not his ‘cup of tea’. Packs were packed, weapons were readied, all to the chorus of Ian’s complaining. Nobody really cared; it was like part of the furniture. At least he was good at his job. Ian, being a Royal Marine Commando, was the first out of the helicopter on combat operations and first to make contact with any downed pilots and would get them out in one piece, no matter what.

Some of the Aussie ground crews saw all of the activity at the helicopter area and came over to offer any help. The crews of the various countries present at Djibo had become very close, assistance was readily given, nobody needed to ask. As the Aussies helped carry ammunition over to the helicopters two RAF Lightnings took off in full reheat, one went-up vertically, the other stayed low. It was the 3rd of July 1981.

That was it! Time to go, go, go! Shouted Harriet! Her gut feeling told her something was wrong. As the Wessex headed North the Aussies readied their Mirages for combat, as soon as they were ready they too took off for the unknown. Once the Danes realised the Aussies were readying one of their crew ran over to where the Aussie Mirages were.

“What is going on guys?” asked Christer, one of the Draken ground crew.

“Dunno mate, one of the chicks who flies them Wessex reckons she’s got a gut feeling something is about to go tits-up. So, good enough, we thought and we’re going up too.” replied Darrel, one of the 75 Squadron armament fitters.

“OK guys, we’ll get ready too!” Christer ran off circling two fingers above his head as he ran back to the Drakens pen. Then all hell broke loose amongst the Danes. Adrenalin was high, revenge was on their minds. Today the Mali Air Force would suffer from the Dragons fire!

Flt Lt Damian Thoughnton's Lightning F.6 with one Il-28 Beagle and two MiG-17PM kills.

cheers

Richard.

Edited July 6, 2008 by Gekko_1

[Antoine]

Also, Richard, you should think about writing a book, or even a comic strips!!

You should contact this guy, who is also a well known French modeller.

[Tiger41]

Hi Richard i just read the latest chapter fantastic the whole helo story with the RM commandos was great and i loved the character very cool i am glad you like the idea of the RM commandos. The paint scheme of the Voodoos is wild are we going to see a pic of the wild scheme you dreamed up the Voodoos

[AnonymousDFB1]

Okay this is getting really interesting.

[Ian]

Keeps getting better and betterer, Rich.

Ian

[damian]

All good ideas Yves. Bringing South Africa into it and even Rhodesia could be a strong possibility. Imagine SAAF and RN Buccaneers working along side each other?!

What about a coalition of South Africa and Rhodesia? They form a join task force under the Southern African Defence Treaty (SADT). SAAF Buccs and Mirage F-1AZs for colse support duty and Mirage IIIs and Mirage F-1CZs for top cover? Also throw in a squadron of SAAF AC-47s for "truck plinking".

On the ground side you'd have one of the worlds finest terrestrial forces at the time in the form of the SA Army and her Koevoet battalions.

Just more thoughts to for you to play with Richard

D

Edited July 6, 2008 by damian

[hatchet]

Great writing again Richard and thanks for bringing Denmark into the story properly!

[Tiger41]

Hi all Richard the Danes entry was great well done i cant wait to read the entry of the CAF Voodoos and very cool camo scheme, the Voodoos were used for the air defence of Canada in Norad, we used F104G Starfighters in europe and by that time in the story we were slowly retiring them and making the the F18 hornet our new fighter to replace the Voodoos and the Starfighters entirely. The Danes are going to give who ever shot there friends are major butt whopping, loso what are you arming the caf voodoos with i know missles what kind of missles. this story is turning out to very cool

[hatchet]

Just got another idea for a Weasel. If we say that we still got our Huns, in '78 there would have been 13 - 18 (T)F-100Fs in the RDAF. Like the USAF did for Wild Weasel I, some of those could have been modified into SEAD aircraft

[Tiger41]

Just got another idea for a Weasel. If we say that we still got our Huns, in '78 there would have been 13 - 18 (T)F-100Fs in the RDAF. Like the USAF did for Wild Weasel I, some of those could have been modified into SEAD aircraft

Fantasic idea i forgot about the the 2 seat hun f would make a great Wild Weasel 1

[Gekko_1]

Hi guys,

sorry I've been absent for a while. My wife and I received some bad news, seems the Landlord wants us out of his house so he can gut it, fix it up and re-rent it out at a higher rent. He's done the exact same thing to a family just down the road from us too! Anyway, so we have five weeks to find somewhere else to live and we have just discovered that rents here in South Australia have risen 70% in the past 18 months!

So, because of this unfortunate turn of events my "creative" side has gone "off-line" and we are madly looking for somewhere for us and our three children and cat to live. So please bare with me until we can get ourselves sorted out in another place as things are a bit stressed here at Gekko Central at the moment.

In the mean time I did manage to sneak this one in.

Richard.

Edited July 19, 2008 by Gekko_1

[hatchet]

Again a great Frightening Richard!

Sorry to hear about your house mate. Hopefully the damn thing caves in while being renovated (without harming anyone)! Good luck with finding a new place to live

[damian]

Good luck with find a place to stay Richard, all of us can wait for your profiles. Family first!

D

[AnonymousDFB1]

Good luck with the home hunting Richard

[Gekko_1]

Thanks guys!

In the mean time, here's another one!

note Flogger and Fencer kills!

Richard.

[keefr22]

Another two great profiles there Richard! But some things are even more important than Frightenings (yes, really!), so very best of luck in finding somewhere good for your family & cat to live real soon!

Take care

Keef

[Gekko_1]

Cheers Keef!

.........and now, time for some Soviet revenge!

note Canberra and SHAR kills! Naughty Vlad!

Richard.

[Gekko_1]

Here's Vladimir's wing man Vasily.

note two Lightning kills!

Richard.

[Radish]

Just beautiful!!!

[keefr22]

Here's Vladimir's wing man Vasily.

note two Lightning kills!

Richard.

Unconfirmed though??!!

Excellent work again Richard, great stuff!!

Keef

[Gekko_1]

Here's what one of the Niger MiG-21's looks like.

note Bucc and Canberra kills

Cheers

Richard.

[Antoine]

Really, really good work here.