Covers the period from birth on the 1st July 1934 to the end of RAF career in 1989.
LJB enlisted as a "Boy Entrant" (Airframe mechanic) in September 1949 and retired as a Flight Sergeant (Aircraft Fitter Airframe) on the 1st July 1989 having served thirty nine and a half years.
From BRIGANDS to "V" BOMBERS
LJ Braithwaite BEM LSGCM & Clasp RAF Retd.
1st July 1934 - 1st July 1989
The author "Lawrence James Braithwaite was born 1st July 1934 in the village of Near Sawrey about halfway between Hawkshead and the Ferry across Windermere in the Lake District.
What more could one want than to be born into such idyllic surroundings. He attended Hawkshead school and left at the age of 15yrs to join the RAF as a "Boy Entrant" and signed the dotted line on 27th September 1949.
Having trained as an Airframe Mechanic over a period of 18 months was then posted to RAF Leeming to work on "Bristol Brigand & Buckmaster" aircraft.
After a while a Fitters Course was offered and away to RAF St Athan went young Lawrence. Six months later (Now a Junior Technician) he was posted back to the Brigands, which by now had moved to RAF Colerne.
The next move was to RAF Celle in December 1953 to serve with 16 Sqdn and stayed there for 3yrs, returning to RAF Coningsby which turned out to be a stay of some 10yrs. By now Coningsby was equipped with Vulcan B Mk2, Phase 2 aircraft. A posting notice appeared saying "Go to RCAF Goose Bay" but before you go you are to complete "Victor" (all marks) and Valiant courses at RAF Gaydon.
July 1964 saw the start of a memorable year and ten days on "The Goose" The 10th July1965 saw a posting to RAF Wattisham, which didn't last long!
Having been considered medically unfit for aircrew on joining in 49 and again for Air-Eng. duties on C130's now was the time to go flying. All the requisite qualifications were held and the application to become a Vulcan Crew Chief was submitted. Success at last. A nine-month course was completed followed by a posting to RAF Waddington. This was home for six memorable years.
There then followed what was possibly the "Plum Posting" within the RAF to Offutt AFB near Omaha, Nebraska, USA. for a period of three years.
The next posting was to RAF Cranwell and that lasted until 5th April 1982 when a rapid departure to RAF Marham was made. Flight Sergeant LJB was gainfully employed in various departments and jobs until 1st October 1986 when a "Last Tour of duty" posting to RAF Waddington was granted.
It was not the Waddington of old! But it sufficed to see out the end of a forty years of service. This period saw the demise of the AEW Nimrod program and the introduction of works services in preparation for the Boeing E3D, AWAC.
Demob day was the 1st July 1989. Farewell to the lifestyle and to the many friends over the years.
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS.
The first day of July, it was a hot summer and hay time was in full swing. Mrs Heelis (Beatrix Potter) said to my future mother "Don't be silly woman it can't be coming because the District Nurse is on holiday". She was our landlord. So what! Arrive I did.
Mrs Heelis was not amused, she didn't like children and said, had she known Mam was pregnant she wouldn't have rented them the cottage and told mum so!
Dad was haymaking not knowing what was going on at home. He arrived looking a right pickle, my Mam's dad, Mr Charles Simpson of the Market Hall, Ambleside had given dad a pair of suit trousers that didn't fit him and dad had cut off the legs and made them into shorts, which were under his overalls. Anyway it was that hot he took off his overalls and walked home through the village in his shorts, suspenders holding up his socks and boots on "Not a pretty sight". But he's my dad!
Whilst dad was at work, some days Mam would push me in my pram to Ambleside and back again in time to get dad's dinner ready.
What unknown forces had brought my parents back to the Homeland of our Viking ancestors that I may be born in their land? The land of HAUKR, HARALD and TO'KA. Centred on La'tra-Bjarg (Latterbarrow) and Kleif (Claif Heights) bordered on the East by ONUNDAR MYRE (Windermere) and to the West by EYS THVEITVATR (Esthwaite Water).
My father was born at "STONESTAR" in the Duddon Valley in 1910 and his father in Appleby in 1876 and yet before him his father was born at Witherslack the first son of Robert and Sarah. Yeoman Farmer at "High Yeat" What made the family move such long distances in those days may never be known. But they were mostly farmers and latterly gamekeepers for the big landowners. This meant they would move between estates as required.
I had a wonderful time in my youth; the country was for exploring, the lakes and tarns for swimming and fishing. What more could one have wished for. Unfortunately I have no memories of Sawrey or Windermere and only scarce memories of my existence until school time so I have had to rely on what Mam and dad have told me. I do remember the fact that there was a war on. One really couldn't escape that fact as Dad was an Air Raid Warden, and we all had respirators. My first one had a funny flap on its nose and it made you look like Donald Duck. Also, across the opposite side of the lake they were building a large factory and I was to learn later that they would be building Sunderland Flying Boats there. But of course we didn't talk about it. I could see all that went on at Calgarth, as that was the name of the estate on which it was built. Finally the first Sunderland was brought out onto the slipway. After some considerable number of days it suddenly appeared on the water, it wasn't long then before it was airborne and more were to follow, but the first one is the one that sticks in your memory.
Once they had got the system organised the flying boats began to be moored over our side of the lake in Wray Bay. Boats were not allowed on the lake in those days but we used to swim out to the Sunderland's and on some occasions used the floats as diving platforms until the patrol came and chased us off with dire threats ringing in our ears.
Really speaking if it hadn't been for the refugees that came into the area we wouldn't, as kids, known there was a war on.
Grandpa Braithwaite was a Special Constable at this time, with his knowledge of the area, being a gamekeeper at Grisedale; he was a very useful person to have around. The Hall had been converted into a German Prisoner of War Camp. On many occasions I saw, towards the end of the war, Senior German Officers walking with their armed escorts of English soldiers going along the top of Hawkshead Moor past the "top gate" to High Barn.
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Chapter 5, page 44
We are lucky on the Vulcan force to have 6th & 7th seats. A very loose description really. They are in fact modifications to the platforms on which the Nav Rad stands to take Astro Shots with his sextant. Because of the design of the a/c there are two sextant mountings, one either side of the canopy, hence two platforms. On these were mounted shallow but strong plywood boxes in which to stow u/c locks, pitot head covers etc. They also doubled the area. At the fw’d end a detachable seat back could be attached to the pilots floor support structure, this was complete with upholstery and shoulder straps, whilst the lap straps were bolted to the structure. For take off and landing one sat on ones dinghy pack with your parachute on. Your feet in behind either the NAV RAD’s or AEO’s seat dependant on whether you were No6 or No7. This meant that for anyone over five and a half feet tall their knees were under their chin and the chance of strapping in were a bit remote to say the least.
No 6 always sat on the Stbd side. The official order for abandoning the a/c in an emergency was: - Nav Rad, No6, No7 AEO then Nav Plotter out thro’ the bottom down the door followed by the Co-pilot and finally the Captain. The last two of course went out on their “Bang Seats” thro’ the hole where the canopy used to be. All things being equal! However in reality, No6, If he were an ASC would go first. His first task was to manually push the door-opening handle into the emergency position to ensure that the door would not blow closed in the event of a total electrical failure. The second task was to, if it had not already happened when the door opened, was to jettison the entrance ladder which is mounted on the door thereby enabling the rear crew to slide down the door and thus escape. It also made room for the Nav Rad to get out of his seat. A point worth mentioning here is that each of the five rear crew had their own umbilical cord. This contained: - oxygen hose, intercom mic/tel leads, a static line which deployed your chute on exit and on which was mounted a switch that in the event of an emergency activated a Blue “Crew Gone” indicator lamp on the captains instrument panel. When he had the requisite number of blue lights lit he then knew that he and the Co-pilot could get out. With five people all booted and spurred, plus all the necessary kit, life down the back could be rather hectic and to some claustrophobic. If, as had to happen on occasions, the Nav Rad had to take Astro shots from where you were sitting then things could get quite mixed up. Having two passenger seats available was good news all round, it enabled a new ASC to accompany an “old hand” on his first ranger which was good for the nerves of the new boy and less anxiety for the Captain and crew.
So on April 17th 1967. XA 910 with Flt Lt Brian Petit and crew, C/T Johnny Walker in 6th seat and yours truly in the 7th lifted off from Waddington on a 4hr and 50min flight to Goose Bay.
(A bit quicker than my posting journey!) It really was a momentous occasion for me, all the training theory finally fell into place as all the instruments and controls responded to their various inputs. One small heart stopping moment occurred as we lifted into the air. It was a very humid day and the last thing I expected to see was clouds of moisture pouring from all the cabin conditioning outlets, to the extent that you couldn’t see across the cabin (6ft) First instinct was “my god it’s smoke, we have a problem” PHEW!
After a 4hr-50min's flight XA 910 landed serviceable, she flew her planned three sorties plus the return flight to Waddington without a defect. In fact XA 910 was turned round (serviced) when we landed on April 24th and returned to Goose the following day with a new crew. She completed FOUR Goose rangers on the trot comprising 20 take offs, 20 landings and 70+ hrs of transit, high and low level flying. Then someone in his wisdom decided that the old lady was overdue some warm weather and sent her off to Luqua (Malta). It was then that she must have decided that was just what the doctor ordered. She suffered a split main u/c jack. Which caused her crew chief on that occasion a lot of hard work. I was to fly in XA910 on one more occasion and that was to be the last flight of her flying career on the 17th November 1967. This too was a memorable flight.
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Reviews for "From Brigands to V Bombers"
Reviewed by Linda Greaves
2/12/2017
Hi, I'm desperate to find a copy of "From Brigands to V Bombers" by Lynne Janine Braithwaite (AKA Lawrence James Braithwaite).
My Dad was also a "Boy Entrant" as an Airframe mechanic at the same time and same place. At 83 he's doing a lot of reminiscing. I would dearly like to find a copy of the book, a PDF or something for him. I see there are 'excerpts' available, so assume the whole book must be accessible somehow or other. I've tried lots of ways (internet, old book dealers, British Library even scoured charity shops) for a number of years, but to no avail. My dear old dad has recently been diagnosed with the what looks like the beginning of the end. So this is a renewed push to make him happy. Hoping someone out there can help. Kind regards Linda, eldest daughter of Jeffery Jack Jones.
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