Vulcans at Gan 1965 - Tony Cunnane's Life and Times

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It gradually became clear that plans were afoot at a high level in both HQ Bomber Command and Air Force HQ Far East to practice the reinforcement of the Far East by Victor and/or Vulcan bombers. There was little extra for us in Medium Bomber Ops to do since all our planning concerned the real thing should it ever be required. However, it was decided that we should move west to Gan as soon as the practice reinforcement was ordered because, as I mentioned on a previous page, once the bombers arrived at Gan, C-in-C Bomber Command relinquished command and control of the force. At Gan the Vulcan crews would have time for rest after the long flight from UK – they would have flown direct, at short notice, with only a refuelling stop en route.

I and my colleagues were flown from Changi to Gan in a specially tasked Britannia and we had only a few hours to wait before 8 Vulcan bombers arrived in quick succession. Looking back now (2010) I imagine few people knew that the Vulcans had left UK, let alone arrived in the Far East, such was the secrecy surrounding anything to do with the V Force in those heady days.

We gave a formal briefing to the 8 crews about operational matters and then we flew back to Singapore in the Commander-in-Chief’s personal Hastings. I believe, but cannot be certain because I did not write about operational matters in my personal diary, that the Vulcans flew back to their UK base from Gan without visiting Singapore. If so, it must have been very disappointing for the crews.

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Continue to the next page to see some pictures I took around the island