The Russian Knights depart UK - never to return - Tony Cunnane's Life and Times

After the flypasts over Balmoral, all the aircraft recovered to RAF Leuchars for yet another press conference. On Saturday there were public displays for the At Home days at RAF Leuchars and RAF Finningley and then it was time to wind down and really relax for the first time in five days. At parties in the Officers' and Sergeants' Messes more speeches were made, gifts exchanged, and hand aerobatics performed as the relative performance of Russian and British aircraft were discussed with passionate fervour.

At one stage, when dinner had been cleared away but we were all still seated, more or less, a Russian colonel came across the room and squeezed in to sit alongside me. I had never met him before so I assumed he was one of the many officers who were travelling on the Ilyushin support aircraft. He certainly knew who I was because I'd just made a short speech, expertly translated into Russian by an RAF officer who was an official A1 interpreter, explaining how I had delivered General Antoshkin's gift to the Queen Mother.

"Hello Major Cunnane," the Colonel said affably in good 'north Atlantic' English but using the Russian equivalent of my squadron leader rank and making no attempt to whisper. "You used to fly Victor tankers from Marham and Leuchars." It was a statement not a question.

Although I was taken aback by his forthright approach, I managed to refrain from giving him the satisfaction of asking how he knew, so I simply said yes.

"We met many years ago flying in the Faroes-Iceland gap, although maybe you did not know it," he continued, obviously enjoying having the ascendancy over me and knowing full well that I had no idea what he was going to tell me. "You were on Operation Dragonfly. I never imagined that we would meet as friends. I was the captain of a TU-95 bomber, what NATO calls a Bear, and your Victor tanker was refuelling a singleton Lightning from Leuchars before he came looking for me." He paused, then continued slyly, "….but the Lightning pilot never found us." He then mentioned some details of an incident that had occurred on one particular sortie I had flown and that convinced me that either he had been in the TU-95 as he claimed, or he had taken the trouble to read about the incident in a Soviet Air Force report.

It was just as well we had not invited the Defence Intelligence Staff to the party! We had no opportunity to continue our conversation because he was summoned back to the General's table. I regret that I cannot remember the colonel's name; I am not even sure he told me his name. Just for the record, no classified information passed between us and I never saw the colonel again.

During the course of the Russian Knights' visit, eight senior RAF officers were lucky enough to fly in the two-seat Su-27UB. On the final day of the visit there were flights for eight of the Russians in Jaguars and Tornado GR1s flown in to Scampton especially for the purpose. The Russians made no secret of the fact that they were very disappointed not to be offered sorties in a Tornado F3 or a Harrier. I never found out what excuse the RAF gave.

The farewells were emotional - just as the Red Arrows farewell to Kiev had been. The Russians seemed genuinely reluctant to leave. They were seen off by most of the Station's personnel either lining the dispersal or watching from outside the hangers. One final flypast of all six aircraft and the Russian Knights disappeared climbing steeply into the low stratus. The noise of the Sukhois could be heard for several more minutes: memories of their visit will last far longer. Sadly, some of the pilots would never be seen again in the UK.

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