Brian was in the RAF for over 35 years and was posted all over the UK, including two postings at Neatishead, and around the world. He worked in radar and Air Defence Operations largely during the Cold War. Neatishead is now the site of the RAF Air Defence Radar Museum.
My childhood and early working life
I was born out in India in 1946. We lived about 40 miles north of Calcutta where my father had gone as an engineer. He married my mother, who was born in India herself. I did all of my schooling there until we moved back to the UK when I was 17. My mother’s sister gave us a base in Rochester in Kent to start our new lives.
Although I hadn’t completed all my examinations by then, I joined an engineering firm, which my father thought would be a good idea as he was an engineer. But I just couldn’t settle to it. So as soon as I was of the age I did what I always wanted to do and at 18 applied to the Royal Air Force and joined at 19 once the recruitment process had gone through.
My early RAF career based at Neatishead
I did my eight weeks basic training at RAF Swinderby in Lincolnshire and having completed that training I went to my very first RAF station, here at RAF Neatishead as an Air Defence Operator. I wasn’t however, trained as a Radar Operator at the time we came to Neatishead I was put on hold until about January 1966 when a course became available at RAF Bawdsey, the school of Fighter Control where Air Defence Operator training was done.
I was very shocked when I arrived in Norfolk because I’d never seen a place so rural in all my life. I was of course a youngster having lived overseas all my life, but I soon settled in at RAF Coltishall (where the accommodation was) while waiting to start my Air Defence Operator’s course at Bawdsey.
I have very fond memories of living at Coltishall. Unlike today a lot of people lived in single accommodation. There was a lot of good fun among the young men, and may I say, the young women, in the Air Force. Not a great deal of money in those days, but a good social life. Lovely days for a youngster.
I couldn’t afford a car as a young airman so most my social life revolved around Coltishall and the NAAFI (Navy, Army & Air Force Institutes) and we used to have our own cinema on the base. We did go out at the weekends though, to places like Norwich. I remember the Samson and Hercules club where we all used to congregate on a Saturday night. Obviously not necessarily just for the music!
After moving to Bawdsey for my basic training, we came back to Neatishead to start on-the-job training. I qualified to the dizzy rank of Leading Aircraftsman, which was the next rank up after you qualified.
Neatishead was a Master radar station and we just did what we were told. There was a variety of jobs, such as Early Warning Operator. This was at the height of the Cold War. You’d have an Early Warning Watch and the Fighter Control Officer’s Assistant would assist the Controller actually controlling the aircraft on training missions or if necessary on live missions. There was also Tote Operator, writing backwards on a screen, so that the executive staff could see what was going on. We got quite proficient at that as young airmen.
I can’t remember feeling nervous about the fact that we had joined the Airforce at the time of the Cold War. I remember the senior NCOs (Non-commissioned Officers) and the officers impressing upon us the importance of the job we were doing. That doesn’t always register with a youngster, but in later years you realise how important it was. I wouldn’t say it was tense; or worrying, but we certainly knew the importance of it. If we missed something coming into the country – which could quite possibly happen – a lot of people could be in a lot of trouble.
Nothing really serious that required action happened while I was there, but we often used to get insurgence by Russian aircraft into our airspace and we would send up fighters to intercept them.
The first of the chain of RAF stations that would get any indication of insurgence were RAF Saxa Vord in the Shetland Islands and RAF Buchan on mainland Scotland. These two stations did a great deal of the intercept work during the Cold War. It was known for Russian aircraft to come down the English Channel and we were involved in that, but not that often. However, we had to be on watch all the time.
In those days the stations stayed in touch by voice communication – telephones. Generally speaking they were reasonably reliable, and we would always be in touch with the next station; for instance Bawdsey, which is further to the south, and with RAF Boulmer or Patrington; so you could form a fully recognised air picture for the United Kingdom air defence region.
We would know what everything in the sky was. We used to get information from air traffic control. All aircraft had to file flight plans as they do now. So if an aircraft was going between, say, Brussels and here we would know it was coming and we’d track it as a friendly.
Basically the way we got the information was not a great deal different to now so I’ve got to be careful that I don’t go too far in what I say. Even though the technology is greater nowadays, the basics of how we identified aircraft is very similar – you followed aircraft paths, flight plans, and you knew exactly where an aircraft was. Sometimes mistakes were made, but you sent an aircraft up to take a look and identify the error. This happens even now. You often hear that an aircraft has been intercepted and escorted into Stansted. Of course today the technology would be much better.
The station was in operation 24 hours a day and we worked a split shift system. On any one shift there were about 40 people, both men and women. We’d start a morning shift and work until lunchtime. We’d then have the afternoon off and then we’d work an evening shift until midnight or the end of night flying. The next day we’d work an afternoon, have the evening off and then work the night shift. We’d work morning, evening, afternoon, midnight for two days, then have a day off, do it again and then have four days off.
It could be just an eight-hour day if you took the morning shift from 8 o’clock until, say 12, and then you’d go off for the afternoon and come back on at 6 till 10 at night.
In those days we didn’t have any civilians. The canteen staff were ourselves. When we weren’t sitting in the Radar Ops room we were in the canteen making the tea for the ones who were. We had our meals at Coltishall before our shifts as only drinks and things like chocolate were available at Neatishead.
There was a real feeling of comradeship at Neatishead. Like any job you can’t say you were happy every single day. Nobody is. Some people would moan and groan about everything. I guess I did myself in those days. Of course we used to be in trouble with the warrant officers if we didn’t turn up for shift, but when you look back they were lovely days. Not all roses, but generally speaking it was good.
The fire at Neatishead
The fire took place at Neatishead in 1966. The radar station would go off the air for a monthly or annual servicing period when they shut everything down and engineers did all the deep servicing of the radars. Most of the operators were sent down to RAF Bawdsey and we extended our radar coverage so the Neatishead area overlapped with Boulmer. However, another young operator and I had to stay up here and we were down at the bunker on that fateful date. We were in the canteen having a cup of coffee and the alarms went off. Just like young airmen would, we said ‘Oh, it’s a false alarm. Let’s not worry about it,’ which was the worst thing we could do. Then, as the black smoke poured out of the air vents, we realised that it was time to leave so we ran out of the building. I’d left half of my uniform down there. We got out of the way and let the fire service take over, and then they got the Norfolk Fire Service to come down.
After that we were sent back to Coltishall and subsequently back down to Bawdsey and I didn’t come back to Neatishead until much later on in my career.
RAF Bawdsey had their own staff as well so there were two crews of operators there – one from Neatishead and one from Bawdsey. Staff was dispersed to other units and I got sent to RAF Wattisham in Suffolk to the mobile radar station there called Number One Air Control Centre. When I got there I went to the general office and said ‘I’m LAC Webb (Leading Aircraftman) posted to Number One Air Control Centre’, and was told ‘Well, go back to your block. We’ll be in touch with you because your radar station isn’t here. It is actually in Zambia in Africa. You’ll be flying out to your station when we get some more information.’
An international career
I was quite excited to be going overseas and joined the radar station out in Zambia. The work I did there was similar. It was still identifying aircraft, assisting the controllers etc, but more to occupy the airfield in Zambia because of a political decision,. This was when Mr Smith had declared UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence) in Southern Rhodesia. I think the British government didn’t want the Russians to go into Zambia so they sent us there to keep them out. I enjoyed every second of the year I was there.
After Zambia I got posted back to Wattisham as my unit came back to the UK and an important part of my life happened then. I met my wife, a Woodbridge girl, in Ipswich, which is just up from Wattisham. At the end of ‘68 I got married!
I was then posted out to the Far East, to Penang in Malaysia, doing a similar type of work, but defending the Malaysian Peninsular when we had bases there.
After two and a half years there I specifically asked to come back to Wattisham to the old radar station and did various detachments. After that I went to Cyprus, which was during the first coup. It was a very interesting time as it was when Turkey decided to invade the northern half of Cyprus. The family were stopped from going out with me because the war had started there. When things had settled down my wife and our two children joined me.
From there we went to West Drayton where I became an instructor as a Corporal. Then I did a tour in the Shetland Islands for a while and then three years recruiting in Ipswich. We had family connections in the area. After the recruiting I got a commission in 1984 and went to West Drayton to do my Fighter Control training. I didn’t make it as an actual Controller – I was getting a bit long in the tooth – so I became a Reporting Officer and then came back to Neatishead as an Identification and Recognition Officer in 1984/85.
Back to Neatishead, with a tour in the Falklands
This role meant I would be responsible for the airspace as an officer, looking at what was on the screen and identifying all the aircraft. The airmen would plot the aircraft and you, having looked at all your flight scripts etc, would say ‘Make that a friendly or make that aircraft suspicious,’ etc.
I was on the Ops Room floor, which was in the Cold War Room (now part of the museum). Because of my previous experience in this field of work I quickly became what they called a Track Production Officer in those days – a TPO – which is the next rank up, so I was responsible not only for the Identification and Recognition Office, but for the whole reporting team.
There was an 18-year gap between my first and second postings here – 1966 to ’84. There had been several changes, but bear in mind that I hadn’t been out of the job. except for the three years when I did recruitment. I had been instructing in the school as well so I’d kept up with the technology.
Neatishead had changed a bit. There wasn’t a bunker anymore. We had moved to the Ops Room because of the fire and then much later on into the new bunker. I did have things to relearn, because even though I was an airman and knew about the air defence world it was slightly different when I was commissioned as an officer.
The base was pretty much the same size. We were still in the ‘80s and had a fully functional RAF contingent. There still weren’t many civilians involved at all.
It can be difficult to put down roots when you’re travelling a lot. Pat and I made the decision that if we were going to be in the Service together she was going to move with me. A lot of people in the Services leave their wives and children in one area, but we chose the other way and sent both the children to boarding school. Some would say that’s not such a good idea, but we thought it was and the two children are doing extremely well at the moment so I’m quite happy with our choice.
When I came back to Neatishead we sold the house in Ipswich and bought one in Norwich. Then we moved to Ludham, which is just down the road, and sadly it was in that house I left the Service and that my first wife got cancer and died in 2004.
During my time here at Neatishead, after I’d done my Track Production Officer course, the Wing Commander at the time – who was the Operations Wing Commander – moved me to the role of Training Officer for all Reporting Staff, Reporting Officers and also responsible for the airmen as well. My little office was just down the hall so I have lots of lovely memories of this particular building.
The training was classroom-based and also on-the-job. I did the officer training and the NCOs were doing the airman training at the time. The people hadn’t changed at all. I’ve always found them very conscientious. We have reunions sometimes of both the officers and airmen and people just used to love their days. Facebook now brings us together with lovely memories and I don’t regret a day of my Service life at all.
When I was back here in the 1980s we all had to take our turn to do a tour in the Falkland Islands and I did four months there . I believe they send people there even now.
My role was Radar Operations Argentinians after the Falklands War. I was based up a mountain in July, which is their winter, so I had three winters that year. I can’t say I particularly enjoyed it because we were living in pretty rough conditions in converted containers of the type you see aboard ships. The strange thing about the Service is when the going gets rough the better it is for morale. You really do get together and have a good time even though there are some bad days. Although I enjoyed some of my four months there, I was quite happy to come home, believe you me.
So it was back to Neatishead and my job. Three or four months later I was contacted by one of the Squadron Leaders, who had been posted to RAF Portreath in Cornwall, saying there was a vacancy for a job there and did I fancy it. I talked to my wife and she said she would like to do it so I rang him back and said yes. Down there I was what in those days was called a Convoy Commander, as it was a Mobile Radar Station. That’s how most of the air defence was done in those days – if the Russians found out where one of our radar stations was we’d just move it. That was in 1989 and I did two years there.
Towards the end of the Service career
It was at that stage that I unfortunately developed quite a serious heart issue and had to have a heart bypass operation at only 46 years old. They tell you that a heart bypass lasts about ten years – it’s over 30 now so I’m doing pretty well!
I had been posted at Portreath and was then going out to Germany to a new job, but I felt really ill and I had to go to RAF Halton, one of the hospitals we had in those days. They sent me to the NHS Royal Brompton Hospital in London where they identified the heart problem and I had my operation done there. But that meant my posting to Germany was cancelled. I did a job in London at the time to be close to Halton, but I wanted to get back into things even though my career was put on hold at that stage because I was medically downgraded. Then a job came up at Hopton near Lowestoft for another mobile radar as a Convoy Commander. So I spoke with my Desk Officer and said ‘Listen, I’m coming to the end of my career, I’m not going to get promoted or go overseas anymore. I’m not allowed to now due to my medical category. How about the job in Neatishead or Hopton to see me through to the end?’ Hopton was under the auspices of RAF Neatishead and we also had a radar station at Trimingham on the north coast. The radar at Trimingham came to the end of its active life and we moved our radar there and I became the OC at Trimingham under the Station Commander at Neatishead – and that’s where I stayed until I retired at the age of 55 on a full pension. They did a marvellous job on me as far as the heart was concerned, but I wasn’t fit enough to carry on any longer so I was quite happy to leave.
Magistrate and working for Age Concern
When I left the Airforce I wanted to do something different, but I wasn’t going to work. While in the last throes of my Service life I made some enquiries about being a local magistrate at Great Yarmouth court. As soon as I had finished my Service I did my training as a magistrate and I worked in the law courts at Great Yarmouth.
This was on a voluntary basis – I didn’t work much more than three days a week. Only expenses were paid but it didn’t cost me anything to do the job and I looked forward to it. I continued to be a magistrate, but then when my wife Pat died in 2004 I found it difficult being on my own and needed to do more than court. Strangely enough, one day in Norwich I met one of my old Engineer Officers from Neatishead. He asked what I was doing with myself and I said I was just doing magistrate’s work. He asked if I’d like to be a Benefits Officer for Age Concern. They could teach me the job and if I looked at the local newspaper there would be a vacancy for a Benefits Officer at Age Concern in Norwich which I should apply for. He was doing the interview. I soon picked the job up and I became an Outreach Officer going out to do benefits for the older people of the area. We got millions of pounds for people but they just didn’t know what was out there.
It was a paid position – although a charity’s pay – which was a nice little supplement to my RAF pension. I thoroughly enjoyed the job and I did it until I was 65.
Your future is your history
I’ve been to two or three Neatishead reunions. The most recent one was last April and was only for people who served at Neatishead. They started off here (at the museum) and people came and looked around – all the old guys who used to work here – then they moved onto the pub until goodness knows what time in the morning.
I’d like to get more involved here (at the museum) as the Age Concern job’s finished and I don’t want to be committed to paid work. At the moment I’m the Treasurer for the local Royal Airforce Association at Great Yarmouth. That is a voluntary organisation that collects money for the Royal Airforce veterans. We have a little monthly get-together and things like that. This year we’ve raised £700 for the RAF fund – the Wings Appeal. We go to meetings here at the museum and do things like village shows, trying to raise some money. Maybe I need something else to do, but I’ll wait and see how I feel next year.
I think the volunteers do a fabulous job here. The only job I think I could do here is as one of the lecturers, for operations in the Cold War Room, which used to be the old Operations Room. I could tell them about what I did here.Your future is made from your history, so it is important that we remember what went on here. And if you t hink about it, in a way the Cold War is back on now so it is very important.
I loved the RAF. I miss it even now, but I don’t think I’d want to go back to shift work anymore!
Brian Webb (b.1946) talking to WISEArchive on November 2nd 2023
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