They Spread Their Wings (33 page)

Flying as AEO in Victor SR Mk2 XM715, Alan Summerson was part of the crew, captained by Sqn Ldr ‘Red’ Harrington, with ACM Sir Wallace Kyle AOC-in-C Bomber Command on board as co-pilot, that made a non-stop flight from Piarco in Trinidad to Wyton on 20 February 1967. The flight of 3,896 miles, made in seven hours and thirty minutes at an average speed of 592mph, was an unofficial speed record. This was the culmination of a short association with ACM Sir Wallace Kyle that began when his hand-picked crew from No 543 Squadron – with Sqn Ldr ‘Red’ Harrington in command and Alan as AEO – were airborne from Wyton on 19 September 1966 in XL193 to give the AOC-in-C his first taste of handling a Victor bomber. It was in preparation for the AOC’s whistle-stop visits first to Offutt USAF base in Nebraska and then to Malta. This trip set off on 4 October in XH672 with the same crew taking ACM Kyle via Goose Bay to Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, returning on the 9th direct to the UK, where bad weather caused a diversion to Lossiemouth, finally recovering to Wyton on the 10th. On the 13th the AOC and his crew were off again, this time out to Luqa in Malta and returning the next day to Wyton. It was February 1967 before the AOC-in-C used the same crew for another short tour of US bases. ACM Kyle brushed up on the Victor with a flight to Leuchars in XM715 on 7 February; they then set off on 13 February via Goose Bay to Maxwell AFB, Alabama, then Carswell AFB, Texas, and thence to Piarco in Trinidad, where they arrived on 17 February. It was from here that they departed on 20 February for the record flight back to Wyton.

Now flying regularly in Sqn Ldr Harrington’s crew, Alan began another overseas trip on 5 May 1967 in XH674 out to RAF Muharraq in Bahrain and spent a couple of days on an aerial photo detail before returning to Wyton via Luqa on 10 May. June 1967 was spent flying training sorties over the UK in preparation for carrying out an aerial survey of Denmark for mapping purposes. For some unknown reason Denmark had not been mapped accurately and its government financed the RAF to carry out on its behalf a comprehensive aerial photo survey in July 1967. Under an RAF code name of Fair Focus, Sqn Ldr ‘Red’ Harrington’s crew made three six-hour sorties in Victor SR2, XL165, over Denmark on 13, 17 and 23 July, and made a further fourteen sorties, lasting between four and six hours each, under the banner of Fair Focus up to the end of that September.

During June 1968 ACM Sir Wallace Kyle called once more for ‘his’ crew to carry him out to inspect some of his Middle East ‘patch’ and to visit Australia. The routine was slightly different from before: Sqn Ldr Harrington, Alan and the usual crew accompanied ACM Kyle to Leuchars and back on 6 June in SR2 XL718 while he re-familiarised himself with the handling of the Victor. The AOC-in-C then made his way out to the Middle East independently before meeting up with Red Harrington and the crew at Tengah, Singapore. Harrington captained a B2R, XL188, from RAF Wittering on 11 June via Akrotiri, Muharraq and Gan to Tengah. On the 19th, ACM Kyle took the co-pilot’s seat and off they went to visit Pearce RAAF air base just north of Perth, returning to Tengah with the AOC on the 25th.

Flt Lt Alan Summerson (third from left) with No 543 Squadron. He was AEO in ACM Sir Wallace Kyle’s (right) crew after the record flight in Victor XM718 from Trinidad to Wyton in September 1967. Sqn Ldr Harrington is second from the right. (Sybil Summerson)

Alan Summerson’s logbook entries relating to ACM Sir Wallace Kyle’s tour of South East Asia and Australia in June 1968. (Sybil Summerson)

Handley Page Victor K2, XL188 of No 55 Squadron Marham. Alan Summerson flew as AEO in this aircraft when, as a B2R version, it was used by ACM Sir Wallace Kyle on his Far East and Australia tour in June 1968. (Author’s Collection)

Alan was involved in more aerial surveying later in 1968 when No 543 photographed Libya that November. His last major long-distance flight came in February 1969 when Sqn Ldr Harrington and crew took SR2, XH674, three-quarters of the way round the world then back again. The Victor left Wyton on 18 February 1969 and routed: Goose Bay; McClellan AFB, near Sacramento, California; Hickam AFB, Honolulu; Wake Island; Anderson AFB on Guam (crossing the International Date Line); and finally reaching Tengah, Singapore, on the 25th. Then, after a few days’ rest, the crew of XH674 turned round and went back the same way, re-crossing the date line and landing at RAF Wyton on 6 March.

In 1973, now with the rank of squadron leader, Alan’s last posting was to No 55, the Victor air-refuelling squadron at RAF Marham in Norfolk, where he spent the last two years of his service as senior operations officer; essentially a ground-based post, it was one that also made him available to fly and instruct if required. He and his wife Sybil had made their home near Stamford and he commuted daily to Marham – a long drive but he still loved driving and it allowed him to observe the wildlife of the countryside through which he motored. From his youth he had had a keen interest in wildlife, and birds in particular, and it was his ambition to pursue a career in wildlife conservation when he retired from the RAF.

Highly regarded as an expert in his air electronics field, Sqn Ldr Alan Summerson MID* retired in January 1975 after an RAF career spanning almost forty years, during which he had logged 7,768 flying hours from biplanes to V-bombers. Sadly his retirement was short-lived, as he died suddenly of natural causes in 1976, just a few days before his fifty-seventh birthday. Memories of Alan’s gallant service in the RAF were revived with pride when, in 2009, Cllr Bryan Robinson made an eloquent plea to members of Donington Parish Council during a debate about naming streets in a new housing development in Alan’s home town. So persuasive was Cllr Robinson’s case that it was unanimously decided to name one of the new streets Summerson Close. The street name sign was unveiled in April 2012, a fitting tribute indeed to Alan ‘Zoom’ Summerson’s memory and to his extraordinary flying career.

What was it like to go on ‘ops’ to the maelstrom that RAF bomber crews euphemistically called ‘Happy Valley’? Lincolnshire man Arthur Edgley had more reason than most to remember his last op there. It will be recalled that earlier we heard of Alan Summerson’s evasion experiences at the beginning of hostilities, but now we will hear how it was done at the height of the air war over Germany itself.

Arthur, who preferred to be called ‘Joe’ during his RAF service, was born in the village of Gedney Dawsmere in south Lincolnshire, where he grew up within sight and sound of the Holbeach Marsh bombing and gunnery range and the former RAF station at Sutton Bridge. Born in 1921, from childhood he was fascinated by anything to do with aeroplanes and was always among the first to go and see those that came to grief for one reason or another while operating over and around the range. He left school in 1935 and found employment on Dennis Clifton’s farm at Gedney Marsh, where he remained until he volunteered for the RAF in 1940. Like thousands of young men of his time, the outbreak of the Second World War presented him with the opportunity to fulfil a boyhood dream and fly – and as he was quick to point out: ‘at His Majesty’s expense, too!’ He applied for training as a pilot but because he was a farm worker and thus in a reserved category of employment, his application was turned down. The Air Ministry did not reckon with Arthur’s determination, however, and after making five separate attempts officialdom finally relented and he was selected for pilot training. After the usual induction process Arthur was posted in late 1941 to No 12 Initial Training Wing (12 ITW) located in St Andrews in Scotland. It was here in May 1941 that the RAF had set up one of its many ground schools for would-be pilots. Arthur spent six months absorbing the theory of subjects such as airmanship, flying and navigation, together with brushing up his maths and learning the customs and regulations that ruled life in the RAF, before graduating successfully. He was posted to No 15 Elementary Flying Training School (15 EFTS) at RAF Carlisle, where his flying capability was assessed and he received basic flying training to solo standard in the Miles Magister aeroplane. Arthur soloed in Magister R1853 on 21 April 1942 and after a few more flights on his own found himself selected to train overseas under the British Commonwealth Air Training Programme (BCATP). This programme was the outcome of an agreement, originally made between the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in December 1939. It was strategically important because it made available airfields for flying training that were beyond the practical reach of enemy aircraft; the training programmes were run to a common system and the scheme formed the basis for a pooling of Commonwealth air resources.

Arthur was sent by ship to Canada where his group went to No 31 Personnel Depot in Moncton, New Brunswick. There followed a five-day train journey via Montreal, Winnipeg, Brandon and Regina before he and seventy-nine fellow airmen arrived in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, home to No 32 Service Flying Training School (SFTS), in the middle of June 1942. Here Arthur was assigned to No 34 EFTS for flying training at Assiniboia, a new airfield located 65 miles south of Moose Jaw. He was delighted when he discovered he was to be flown there in a Tiger Moth by one of the instructors, who let Arthur pilot the aircraft for the whole of the trip.

Assiniboia was one of seven BCATP schools in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and it was staffed and administered jointly by the RAF and Canadian civilians. It opened officially when No 34 (RAF) EFTS was formed on 11 February 1942 and was joined on 6 July 1942 by No 25 (RCAF) EFTS, a unit that was run by a civilian organisation called the Central Manitoba Flying Training School Ltd. Airfield facilities such as runways were not fully operational when Arthur arrived in mid-July 1942, so his training flights were made from strips mown out of the wheat fields in the prairies that surrounded the airfield. Having gone solo, Arthur looked forward eagerly to building up his hours on the DH Tiger Moth but, having put in some solo trips, he and the rest of his course were called together one day to be given stunning news out of the blue that, due to an oversupply of pilots, only the top thirty out of the eighty airmen would be retained to complete their pilot training to ‘Wings’ standard. To his great disappointment, Arthur was not in that top thirty and found himself posted out to Trenton, Ontario – another three-day train journey with a stopover in Toronto.