“Target destroyed, sir,” reported the console operator. The officer breathed a sigh of relief. In the control tower the station duty officer cancelled the order for the fighter planes and then telephoned the station commander. In Missile Control, the officer telephoned the Officers’ Mess and asked to speak to Squadron Leader Dawson, his CO and was told that he was on his way to the unit. The launch had been heard by officers who had raced outside to see what was happening. The men were congratulated by the officer on the way that they had gone about their work and were told to take a short break. The theft of an important part of interest to the enemy had been thwarted.
Now would come the enquiry and the need to provide a story to satisfy the general public, since there were a number of civilian witnesses to the occurrence. Fortunately, it happened so fast and unexpectedly that only one civilian managed to photograph the event — the ‘birdwatcher’. The other photographs were taken in the control tower at RAF West Sanby.
Out in the North Sea, an East German freighter waited for the Anson aircraft, its crew ready to extend a specially constructed net to catch the expected crate. They waited in vain. At 16.00 hours it radioed Moscow to report that the expected aircraft had not arrived.
***
Squadron Leader Dawson congratulated his officer for his quick thinking that had saved the situation but knew that there would be a formal enquiry. He telephoned Air Ministry and told the duty officer that he needed to speak to Group Captain Clarkson urgently. Fifteen minutes later Dawson was speaking to Clarkson, who was at his home, and explaining the situation. “I’ll contact the AVM immediately and we’ll work out a statement for the media. If the debris was too far from land to be recognised then we can say that there was an accidental firing and the missile was made to self-destruct. We will satisfy the prime minister and there will not be an official enquiry, just an internal de-briefing,” was Clarkson’s response. Thirty minutes later, Clarkson was talking to Air Vice-Marshall Denby and briefed him on the situation. Denby told Clarkson to get a written report to him of the whole incident, including a background on the corporal storeman. They would need to get Intelligence onto that aspect of this.
The BBC Six O’Clock News reported that ‘during a missile system trial at an RAF base in Lincolnshire, there was a technical fault which resulted in a missile launching out over the sea. It was commanded to self-destruct and the debris fell harmlessly into the sea. At no time was there any danger to the public or shipping. The aircraft that was seen to take off minutes before the incident was satisfactorily accounted for’. Denby heard the news item and smiled to himself, thinking that it was brilliantly worded. Since the system was top secret, no further information would be forthcoming and the media would have to accept it. There would, however, be a further tightening of security on the Red Hawk programme.
The Six O’Clock news was also heard by Major Garasov and he wondered at the truth of the statement by the RAF since the Anson aircraft seemed to have disappeared. He wondered what their man at Parfleet St Peter would report. Garasov wasn’t looking forward to the next message from Moscow. Once again, his plans had been thwarted. An hour later, a call was put through to him from the consulate switchboard. It was the ‘birdwatcher.’ He said that he was ‘phoning from Louth and had an urgent report. He then related the event concerning the Anson aircraft and that shortly after it had taken off and entered cloud, the trials missile had been fired, it tracked after the Anson and then there was an explosion and some debris fell into the sea. He would post the film to the major who could have it developed at the consulate. Major Garasov thanked him for the report and hung up the telephone. Security would be so tight now that it would be waste of time trying anything more.
The ‘birdwatcher’ left the telephone booth and as he started to walk away, he was approached by two men. They showed him their credentials and ask him to accompany them to the police station. There he was searched and the envelope with the film addressed to a PO Box in Manchester was confiscated and he was held pending further investigation.
Members of the JSTU heard all about the incident from those on shift returning to the barrack block. It caused a lot of excitement but they all knew that they would not be able to discuss it outside of the unit.
CHAPTER 17
On 23rd November, Corporal Hill was told that he was to report RAF Leuchars to join a RAF mountaineering team on 4th December. This was for further training, following which he could have one week of his disembarkation leave. A week later, Corporal Crossley’s family were informed of his death in the line of duty and offered a military burial for him. Due to the nature of the unit, the true circumstances of his death could not be given. No more airborne trials would be carried out until the spring and other trials and training would continue. The general feeling was that the system had been proved to work, even though
