he opened the doors to some of the equipment the counter went berserk. The mercury rectifier was one of those items, but there were others. The levels reduced with the doors shut. As a result of this visit all significant equipments had radiation hazard labels affixed to them and he altered the maintenance procedures accordingly. We had previously known of the power of the Type 80 when, one evening back in January the head inadvertently stopped so that it faced the centre of Auenhausen village. It was noticed, by chance, that its transmissions were powerful enough actually to light up any unlit fluorescent lights in the buildings. Fascinated by this, the NCO in charge inched the head round to prove the point. After this it was always parked facing west, and not aligned with any nearby habitation.
There was also a visit by a group of Americans from their GCI Station at Rothwesten, with which I was involved. The tables were turned on them for, when we had visited them 17 months earlier we were envious of their radar equipment. This time they were extremely envious of ours. We showed them round the bunker and they saw all our control facilities as well as watching and listening to fighters under our control from one of our cabins. They were impressed, too, with the cleanliness and neatness of all our facilities, and particularly so when we took the Officers into what they termed our "Lounge" which was, to us, only our rest room down in the hole. We also, above ground, showed them the Type 80 radar head and allowed them to climb the gantry and ride in the rotating transmitter room below the reflector. In there, one of them inadvertently pressed an emergency stop button so when we came to step out, the head had stopped, much to the concern of all as it was facing the village. After their visit to the tech site we took our guests back for lunch in the appropriate Messes at Borgentreich before bidding them farewell. From my controller's standpoint June was a poor month. I was on nights for the second week, and then I only had four control sessions; the first on the 17th, the other three on the 25th. I had three pairs of NF11s on PI missions, and a formation of three Hunters freelancing. Papa Oscar Delta led them to intercept a pair of NF11s and a T33 Shooting Star. Of the NF11s under control, one of these pairs, while doing five PIs transited from Wahn, their departure point, to Ahlhorn. On two of the missions the R/T was very poor, poor enough in one instance to require a channel change.
July was a far better month. Most of the aircraft I had under control were Meteor NF11s; 11 sessions with them. The others were two separate Canberras, a pair of Hunters, a pair of CF100 Canucks of the RCAF, and two sections of 4 Canadian F86s doing PIs together.
On July 16th I was extremely fed-up. My Log Book records that I did 3 PIs with a pair of NF11s and "Video map display intermittent, AI dubious, R/T horrible, Radar needed imagination". Later the same day, with another pair of NF11s: "2 x 90° runs. R/T p.p! Heavy background howl."3 The next entry for the day, with another pair of NF11s reads "2 x 90° runs. Everything good but Type 80 goes off for servicing - I can't win!" Clearly, the 16th was not one of my best days.
The first Canberra sortie was for radar calibration purposes. It was under my control for 43 minutes at 45,000 feet under very cloudy conditions.
With the Canadian Canucks I completed 8 'scissor' interceptions. This was a technique, favoured by the Canadians, for getting the maximum number of PIs done in a single sortie. Eight in this case. The second Canberra sortie was most unusual, it was under my control as if it was a fighter. Under conditions of poor R/T, involving a channel change, and poor radar, it intercepted a single NF11. I reckon the Meteor pilot must have had quite a surprise. During this month I also had a session during which I was instructing a u/t controller.
_________________________________________
3 p.p. = piss poor! I must have been thoroughly disenchanted to put that in my Log Book.
224