On a grey afternoon in September 1958 I arrived (along with 681292 J/T Phil Jarman) at RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire. We reported to SHQ, picked up our arrival chits and proceeded to do the rounds for all the usual things. Got allocated a barrack block, bedding etc and eventually finished up in the Station Armoury to be greeted by the F/S (can't remember his name) and Sgt 'Darkie' Maycock.
The F/S looked at our chits and said, "Two ex-apprentices posted in on the same day! I expect you think you know everything?" To which we replied, "No Flight, we know nothing". "That's good" he replied, "because here we will teach you all you need to know". Anyway, after a chat we were instructed to complete our arrival chits and report back to the Armoury at 0800 the following day. Doing the arrival bit, there were glimpses across a murky airfield and shadowy shapes of Lincolns stood on the pans. There were also Canberra B.2s.
We completed our arrival, sorted out all our kit in the barrack block by which time it was time for tea and the first surprise - walking to the mess there were cars parked on the square. This was obviously not the holy ground aka Halton!
Dutifully at 0750 the following morning we reported to the Armoury and were immediately wheeled into the OC Arm's. Office to be greeted by S/Ldr Carr. He was an ex-NATO HQ officer and turned out to be an absolutely brilliant OC Arm. He explained the situation on base, the training programme and that his door was always open if we had any problems. We were then taken on a tour of the Armoury and other relevant parts of the weapons empire and then allocated to our respective jobs, mine being bomb beam servicing and Phil to the Seat Bay.
The situation on the base at the time was:
Three Squadrons of B.2 Canberras (9, 12 &139), which were being replaced with the B.6.
The Lincolns were just awaiting to go to the scrap yard and Squadrons 9 & 12 were involved in the Cyprus 'terrorist' war on a rotational basis. Because of the latter we had a lot of people detached in from Germany to fill the gaps.
The training scheme meant that you did around six weeks practical work in each section, supervised by (usually) a JNCO/SNCO. I say 'usually' because when I went to 9 Squadron for the practical 'on-aircraft' work I was allocated to a LAC (National Service) Armament Assistant by Sgt Bright (the Squadron Armament NCO) with the words "You stick with him lad, he knows all there is to know about the armament on this aircraft" And he did. So, over the next few months I went through the bomb beam, small arms, seat, fire extinguisher, release units, carrier, bomb prep and ground equipment bays, minor & major aircraft servicing, station flight and 9 Squadron.
In between times Phil and me got to know the local pubs (Binbrook village at the bottom of the hill, Louth, Market Rasen and Grimsby). Most of the local traveling was done on the back of Phil's bike, as I didn't have one at the time. The village pub was a walking job but it was a long haul back up that hill after a few pints!

The new aircraft were coming through at a rapid rate and in what seemed no time at all the three squadrons were fully equipped with B.6s. No.139 (Jamaica) Squadron was a pathfinder squadron and their aircraft were a slightly different fit to the standard B.6 (only two seats and different radars etc); they also had 20 aircraft on the squadron as against the standard 12 aircraft of 9 & 12.

Of interest, based with station flight's T.4s, we had a Sprite rocket motor equipped Canberra , which also had collectors on the tip tanks for collecting radioactive dust from the upper atmosphere. It was very impressive on take-off, and very noisy.

This rapid re-equipping caused a few problems for the aircrew as far as starting the engines was concerned. The B2 had a single breech starter for each engine and occasionally there would be a failure or 'slow burner' of the No 9 starter cartridge, which was no real problem. The B6 however had a triple breech starter and if you had a slow burner the aircrew were too quick to punch the start button again resulting in the gas from two cartridges blowing the starter turbine apart and sending hot pieces of starter turbine blades into the rear cockpit area. After a few of these incidents we managed to convince the pilots to wait for a few seconds before punching the start button again.

In the midst of all this I was sent to Biggin Hill for Aircrew selection. After an interesting few days I got to the final interview and they offered me Navigator. I said 'no thanks' and stated that I would rather be flying the aeroplane.
After some further discussion we agreed to disagree and that was the end of that as far as I was concerned.
Come November and I am on 9 Sqdn and it is time for the
'Sunspot' detachment to Malta for six weeks.

The Hastings duly arrives and we all load up (if you were lucky you got the rumble seat in one of the Canberras). Off down the runway and one of the engines catches fire so it's back to the dispersal, unload and wait for a replacement aircraft from Colerne. Eventually we get airborne and arrive some hours later in Luqa, well behind the Canberras. The ground crew are split into three shifts as we fly 24 hours a day. This was my first time out of the UK and, being the Med, I was expecting it to be warm and sunny. Wrong!! Warm it was, but very wet, it rained almost constantly for the six weeks and when it wasn't you were in bed recovering from your shift or a night out in Valetta on 'Screech'.
My impression of Malta was that it was a 'building site' and this was reinforced when I went back many years later for a holiday and it was still a building site.
We lost some aircraft on this detachment. LABS bombing was just coming in and, for those of you who don't know, this involved approaching the target at 500 ft at 450 knots and pulling up into a loop, eventually rolling off the top at around 7000 ft heading in the opposite direction, the bomb having been released automatically by the system gyros at the correct angle during the initial loop phase. Obviously, 'g' was a limiting factor here and a particular crew managed to pull the bomb doors off the aircraft over the range at El-Adem and severely stress the airframe, which, although they managed to get it back to Luqa, was declared Cat 5.

The second incident was on night flying. We occupied the dispersal behind No.39 (PR) Sqdn. dispersal. The taxiway ran parallel to the runway from the bomb dump end then turned left in front of 39's dispersal. 9 Sqdn's aircraft occupied the L-shaped section from where the taxiway turned left. This particular night there were three aircraft parked on the base of the 'L', imagine it on its side with the long arm at the top, short arm right. The crew of the landing Canberra were obviously confused by the lights and had lined up on the taxiway and not the runway. The touchdown was on the first Canberra on the dispersal that removed the fin and damaged the port wing. It also caused severe damage to the landing aircraft, which the pilot managed to keep flying until it crashed into some rocky ground on the other side of the road to Hal-far. Remarkably no one was injured in the accident.

End of detachment arrives and the sun shines! We load all the kit into the aircraft, hide all the cigarettes, watches etc in the usual places and prepare to leave on the Hastings next day. Problem! We have lost 3 aircraft and 12 seats so there are not enough seats on the Hastings and some people are going to have to find their own way home.
Phil and myself are two of the 'lucky' few nominated for this. First place we try is the RAF movements office and Air Traffic Control. No other RAF aircraft before Christmas, ATC send us to the civil terminal and we sweet talk our way on to a Transair Viscount going back to Gatwick. Just have time to get a signal off to Binbrook requesting transport from Gatwick to Binbrook and we're airborne in what can only be described as a Rolls-Royce. Dropped into Nice on the way and arrived at Gatwick only one day behind the Hastings.

After a long (RAF) coach trip we eventually arrive back at Binbrook at 9 in the evening, get our m/bikes out of store and set off back south for the weekend.
To be continued