Terry
Luxford, a Cpl Radar Fitter, was posted to Saxa Vord in the Summer of 1957
after spending several years at RAF
Sopley (near Chichester, Hampshire). With Saxa being a new unit, few RAF
personnel had a clue where it was and, when people did find out, many thought
it must be a "punishment posting". In fact, for the next 50 years it
proved to be one of the most popular UK postings, with many servicemen
extending their tours and many others returning for second & third visits.
Terry was one of those who enjoyed his time and has happy memories of his
posting to Unst. Terry was employed in the Radar Office in the R10 on the
mid-site and I'm sure it was no coincidence that his previous unit also had
Type 13, 14 and 80 radars.
Fortunately,
for those interested in the history of 91SU/Saxa, Terry had been given a camera
for his birthday and some years ago had 2 photos published on the Saxa pages of
the Subterranea Britannica site here: http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/s/saxa_vord/ I was
lucky enough to make contact with Terry and I am grateful to him for sending me
copies of those photos and a number of others he took during his tour. He has
kindly given me permission to reproduce them.
Very few
photos seem to exist of the Saxa Type 80 in its early days before it was
enclosed in a Radome (which happened during the summer of 1963). Apart from the
following picture, taken by Terry in 1957/8, most of those that I have seen
tend to have been taken at long ranges. (Left
click on pictures to enlarge)
It didn't
look quite the same after the dome had been built:
During the
planning of 91SU/Saxa Vord it was envisaged that up to three Type 13
height-finding radars might be built. In the construction phase two possible
sites were prepared. One of these was just to the east of the Type 80 where a
Type 13 was erected on a plinth. The other site was a gantry, just to the west
of the Type 80 - all the necessary cables and earthing mats were laid. In the
end only the plinth mounted Type 13 height-finder was ever in use at Saxa. The
gantry, pictured below, never carried a radar, though in Terry's photo there is
an anemometer mounted on it.
In later years numerous other items were attached
to it. In this 1983 picture aerials belonging to the Civil Aviation Authority,
Coastguard & Shell can be seen:
Theoretically the Type 80,
with a pulse repetition frequency of 250 pulses per second, was
limited to a range of 372 miles
(governed by the speed of radio waves and the time taken for an echo to be
returned). In practise, because of equipment limitations, the maximum feasible
range was about 335 miles although an aircraft would normally have to have been at very high altitude to be detected at
that sort of distance. Under normal atmospheric conditions a target detected at
240 miles would have to have a large cross - section and be flying at 35 -
40'000 feet. However, atmospheric conditions were frequently abnormal and the
radar waves were often "bent" either up or down - a phenomenon known
as anomalous propagation. On a number of occasions I've seen the coast of
Iceland (around 450 miles away) and parts of the Norwegian coast 190 -
300 miles from Saxa Vord.
During the
planning stages it was envisaged the Saxa Vord Operations Block (the R10) would contain six Type 64 consoles, two
Type 61 consoles, one "A" Scope and 3 video mapping Units. Most of
this equipment was to be installed in
the operations area but some of it was destined for the Radar Office.
The Type 64
consoles were Plan Position Indicators, designed to give the range and bearing
of the target from the radar, and were used for tracking and controlling
aircraft in association with the Type 14 and Type 80 search radars. The longest
range scale available on a normal Type 64 console was 0 to 240 miles.
The Type 61
consoles at Saxa were associated with the Type 13 height-finder and, dependent
upon the manual you read and the date it was published, were known as
"B" Scopes , "E" Scopes or (the term I prefer) Range Height
Indicators. On the Type 61 screen the beam nodded up and down in unison with
the height-finder and gave the elevation and range of a response - this allowed
the height of the target to be calculated.
If an aircrafts height was required it was usual for the
operator/controller on a Type 64 console to designate the radar response with a
marker (controlled by a joystick). This indicated the required bearing to the
height-finder equipment & turned the Type 13 onto the appropriate bearing where
it started nodding up and down searching for the target.
There had
been a rapid development in aviation technology since WWII. Aircraft like the
TU 95 Bear, which first flew in 1952, had a service ceiling of 45,000 feet and
the US RB45C was capable of flying at over 46.000' (occasionally and
clandestinely with RAF crews). The English Electric Canberra, which
first flew in 1949 ,had a service ceiling which significantly exceeded
that of the Bear. The advisability of extending the Type 80's
search envelope beyond the normal Type 64 maximum 240 mile range scale was
agreed early on. A separate channel was used to provide an "Extra
Long Range" (ELR) facility on a "Type 64 Special Purposes
Display" and the work was carried out by personnel on the strength of the
unit. Terry was one of the men involved in the modifications, which entailed hours of
work in the radar office providing an extended time-base, lifting
flooring and laying extra cables in the ducting through to the Operations Room.
The result was a console with a Type 80 range scale of 80 to 320 miles. For the
next 20 years radar operators spent many a boring hour in front of the
"Extra Long Range Console" watching the trace go round. The
occasional detection of a distant target could quickly make up for all the
inactivity!
All the air
defence radars had to be calibrated regularly. In UK calibration runs in the
era of Saxa Vord were normally carried out by Canberra aircraft flying set
tracks at specific altitudes. However, these flights were expensive and not
flown every day. The technicians needed
to be able "set-up" the radars
on a regular basis and so a "permanent echo" was selected for each
Unit to enable basic calibration to be done. The "permanent echo" was
usually a hill of other high point on a known bearing and at a known range from
the radar. In the case of Saxa Vord Terry remembers that the island of Foula,
to the south west of Unst, was selected. The highest point on the island is
1,371' and it lies 47 miles from the radar site - these factors made it easily
recognisable and, therefore, ideal for the purpose.
The winter
of 1957/8 had it share of snow and those working up Saxa Vord were sometimes
isolated when the road up to the site became unsafe. The picture below from
Peter Barnes, who was also at Saxa !957/8, shows a not unusual occurrence, in
this case it happened even before the driver got to the bottom of the hill
proper (the Domestic Site is in the left background):
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This early
on in the history of the Unit there were no WRAF and the winter snow came in
handy when the Radar Office personnel were stuck on duty and were trying to
remember what women looked like:
The next 2 photos
from Terry were also taken just outside the Radar Office. The first shows Burrafirth
and the Loch of Cliff on a very wintry day:
The second
shows Muckle Flugga in the distance - of great interest to me is the pile of
crates in the foreground. It looks to me that the crates are in front of a
building known as the Admiralty Annex and it is known that the Admiralty
Research Laboratory was engaged in underwater trials as part of Operation
CORSAIR during the winter of 57/58. However, it is also possible that they
contained material for the recently operational 91SU/Saxa:
The Domestic
Site also experienced its share of snow. In the following photo a building on
the left would be used by the NAAFI and became the Airmen's' Club - the NAAFI
organisation did not arrive at Saxa until the end of Jan 1958.
Unst had been an officially a "dry" island
since 1921. Alcohol could not be bought legally from any of the shops, although
it is known from the records of the Sherriffs Court that alcohol was sometimes
sold "under the counter". Apart from the camp, the only establishment
permitted to sell drink was the Springfield Hotel and then only to customers
eating on the premises. I believe the
hotel staff were quite expert at making a quick sandwich when the need arose. A
number of the local men folk produced "home Brew" from anything which
could be encouraged to ferment and provide alcohol. This was sometimes manufactured in
galvanized baths and could be very potent. It wasn't until 1965 that the first
licencses to permit the sale of alcohol in selected shops were issued.
Terry arrived in the summer of '57 and the first CO of
the operational 91 SU arrived ion the island on 16 September. Sqn Ldr Gordon
Millar made a note in the official record at the end of that month which
included the statement "A general lack of furniture in the Airmens Billets
and Offices is evident". At least personnel had somewhere to sleep and the
following picture of Terrys Billet should bring back similar memories for a
number of people who were at Saxa in the early days:
The next
picture shows the rear of the Domestic Site Fire section. The building later housed
the GDT Section and, at one time, the Hobbies Club. In the mid-80's Radio Saxa
Vord was reopened in the building. The 2 long, ridged wooden huts in the
distance (centre, left), were used by construction workers. Work on some of the
camp went on for another 3 years with 2 of the later buildings being the
Education Section and the Ice Cap (cinema):
In these
early days there were no official RAF Married Quarters. The only official
residence was known as the Admiralty Bungalow. It was built in the expectation
that there would be a permanent RN presence based at Saxa Vord. As far as I
know it was never used by the Navy but was leased to the RAF on one year's
notice and was occupied by the Station Commanders and their families from 1957
until the early 90's , when a new build of Officers Married Quarters was
completed very close by and named Taftens:
The next
sequence of photos from Terry shows a number of Unst views which will be
familiar to most of the servicemen who were posted there. The picture below was
taken looking south from the Domestic Site. The land in the foreground is part
of an area of Unst known as Valsgarth - indeed the whole area of the Domestic
Site was at Valsgarth. The summits in the right distance are called The Heogs.
Another
photo from the Domestic Site follows, this time looking towards the north-east.
The hill on the left is the Ward of Norwick where the Transmitter Site was
located and the headland on the right is Lambaness, where the WWII Chain Home
radar station called RAF Skaw was situated.
The next
shot was taken looking towards Norwick, with the headland of Lambaness beyond.
The Hill of
Clibberswick lies to the east of the Domestic Site and, at 520 feet, is the highest
point on the east side of Unst. The exposed cliffs on the seaward side are
quite impressive:
The most
northerly Lighthouse in the UK was built on a rocky outcrop to the north of
Unst at Muckle Flugga. I believe that 3 Lighthouse Keepers manned the light at
any one time and spent a month on duty. In poor weather reliefs were frequently
late, extending periods of duty, sometimes considerably. Off duty Keepers and
their families stayed at the Shore Station at Burrafirth. The Light was
automated in 1995 and the Shore Station was put on the market. The white
building in the picture below is the Shore Station and the ship to the left is
a coaster, probably discharging Lighthouse supplies. The summit of Saxa Vord
can also be seen with, from left to right, an unused Type 13 Gantry, the Type
14, the Type 80 and the plinth mounted Type 13.
The next two
pictures are of the beach at Norwick:
The
grass-covered, rocky feature in the following picture of Norwick beach is known
as The Taing:
A shortage
of sunscreen was never a problem, in fact most people had never heard of it in
those days, but summer did occasionally visit Unst. The group below at the
Taing made the most of one warm day (I do have some names suggested but am
looking for confirmation before adding labels - help with names would be
appreciated):
In 1957/8 there
were hardly any private cars on Unst. The Doctor, Ministers and some of the big
landowners (Lairds) would have been among those with this select mode of
transport. Most local folk walked to their nearest shop when the need arose and
when money/credit was available. This meant that there were a significant number
of "shops", often in a croft house and open for limited hours. The
three shops closest to the Domestic Site were Mouats, just outside the camp to
the east, Virse, on the road to Norwick and Sandisons Shop, by the shore in
Haroldswick. At this time the main shop
on the island would have been Skibhoul in Baltasound, which was also owned by the
Sandison family and supplied goods to a number of the smaller shops. The group
below are standing outside Sandisons Shop at Haroldswick in November 1957 (if anyone
can supply the missing surnames it would be appreciated).
The final
picture was taken at Victoria Pier, Lerwick and shows a view which will be
remembered by many a serviceman when arriving in or departing from Shetland,
though they may not have been as lucky with the weather!
Terry left
Saxa on 14 Aug 58 and was demobbed soon
afterwards. He enjoyed his Shetland tour and says his one regret was missing
the annual fire festival of Up Helly Aa. My thanks to Terry for allowing me to
reproduce his pictures and for sharing some of his memories.
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