MY PART IN THE DOWNFALL OF THE USSR.

By Martin McArthur.Electrician.


The closest I ever got to the mighty USSR was the border of Eastern Germany, in the Hartz mountains, while we were on holiday in the area, in our caravan, from Gutersloh. At work life was driven by the need for UK forces to put up a credible deterrent to the forces from the east. To this end we had fairly regular exercises, tacevals, called at all times of day or night. Three or four times a year the exercise would lead to deployment of the Harrier force into the field.

I had been posted to Gutersloh mid 1978 and was to work in the Harrier Servicing Flight (HSF) where a steady stream of Harriers was brought in to have Minor and Major servicing carried out. I thought that I would spend my tour as Chief Technician in charge of the electrical section but the 'powers that be' had other ideas. I had not been there for very long when the boss told me that I was to be a Team Chief, in charge of a team of riggers and engine fitters, together with a floating group of other tradesmen, electricians, radio fitters etc., mostly carrying out minors. This was a big thing, a sparky doing work normally associated with rigger and engine chiefs!

It took a little time to get used to my new post, and for the other chiefs to get used to me being there! Once I settled down to the job, largely co-ordinating the efforts of the whole team and signing a mountain of paperwork I began to realise that every team, there were 6 of them, suffered from the same problems. One of the most contentious was the length of time allowed, particularly time for rectification of defects discovered during the servicing. In the recent past I had been on a course at the army college at Shrivenham where I had been taught about 'network analysis' and I felt that if I applied that knowledge to the servicing it might help to either reduce the time necessary, or provide proof that longer time was needed. Once more I found myself being viewed with some doubt by my fellow chiefs and their teams as I asked questions about how they carried out their jobs and had to assure them that I was not a 'time and motion' man. Eventually I had gathered all the facts and produced a flow chart, identified the critical path and proved that the time allowed for the servicing was just about right! The problem area was time required for rectification. I presented my findings to my boss, and to his boss, and as a result nothing changed, although delays towards the end of a service were viewed a little more sympathetically after that.

Early in the tour at Gutersloh as part of the arrivals procedure we were given lectures regarding the threat to Gutersloh from the Soviet Union. We were advised that the station, as a key bridgehead for troops being sent into Germany from UK in the event of war, would most likely be subjected to a fairly intense attack, possibly involving chemical (or even nuclear?) weapons. This would mean that we would have to become very proficient in the use of our NBC suits and be prepared to be in shelters for up to 5 days. The good news was that after 4 or 5 days the enemy would run out of munitions due to re-supply problems caused by the roads being clogged by other military transport and refugees. It was important that the Harrier force was not bogged down in the early stages and so we would deploy 'into the field'. Actually we were usually based at the edge of woods where there was some camouflage for the aircraft, trucks, tents and stores. My understanding was that the 'field' was a temporary measure so that we could deploy rapidly and wait until the legal issues were resolved that would allow us to make use of supermarkets where the front end - wall, tills and clothing/household goods - would be bulldozed out of the way to make a handy sheltered hangar for 3 or 4 aircraft. The cafeteria would be ideal for our cooks to provide food and the petrol station would provide fuel for the MT. Of course the Harrier could also operate from under motorway bridges and barns, etc.

When I first arrived at Gutersloh the Harrier force was already deployed and my boss said that he had arranged for me to join one of the teams from HSF for a couple of days so that I could observe the 'rigours' of a deployment. The boss drove me out to the logs (logistics, or stores) park where the team was based. There I found the team comfortably housed in 6 man frame tents. The SNCOs had a carpet, a heater and electric light and my experience was that this was easier, and more comfortable, than sailing offshore, and I did that for pleasure! Later in the tour my team had a formal dinner in the field, we lined up trestle tables, for a table cloth we had 'kimwipe' (absorbent blue paper) everybody had a place set with their irons and, nice touch, we sent the boss to a nearby army officers mess to buy sherry, wine and port (sale or return) and to borrow enough wine, sherry and port glasses. By arrangement, and a small bribe, the cook prepared our food later than the main meal and we were served our meal after the sherry, had wine with the meal and followed up with the loyal toast and port. Our guest was the boss's boss and he made a very good speech. There was a fair amount of beer consumed after dinner and I am sure there were some sore heads in the morning!

There was a serious side to deployment, we did several engine changes, necessitated by foreign object damage (FOD) caused by debris while operating on rough ground. Usually these would come up in the late afternoon and we would take the whole team (all trades), together with our spare engine, spare wing, spare tailplane, jacks, tools, air publications, etc. to the flying site. There we would liaise with the Royal Engineers who would have the job of laying a jacking pad of PSP (perforated steel plate) - where we agreed that the engine change would be done - and then a tie-down pad (also PSP) where the engine run would be carried out once the change was completed. It usually took just under 24 hours from arriving at an engine change site to the aircraft taking off for air test.

On one occasion we had an aircraft that had made a very heavy landing and it was suspected had cracked a major component in the area of the main undercarriage. For this job we erected our inflatable hangar. This was a bit like a bouncy castle, and came in (reportedly) man portable sections that had to be laced together. The whole hangar, deflated, occupied a trailer towed behind a 3 tonner and we got it out using the hi-ab (hydraulic crane) on the 3 tonner. Once laced together we connected up the air blowers and up it went! Before the aircraft was brought in there was a fairly easy job to string up the lights. There was room inside for the damaged Harrier, a Coles crane and space for the wing that we took off and the engine we removed to gain access to the undercarriage from above. A successful temporary repair was carried out and the aircraft was flown back to base. It continued to fly afterwards until it came in for a minor and a team from the MU carried out a full major repair as designed by the manufacturers.

On my final deployment we achieved the epitome of comfort in the field. Someone going tour-ex had donated a twin tub washing machine which was repainted in camouflage colours and we took that with us. During each deployment we would spend 4 or 5 days in NBC kit. This resulted in everyone's underwear, socks and shirts becoming impregnated with charcoal dust for the suits. We could get washed as there was usually an army unit where we could use the showers. Usually we took the kit home to be washed by our wives but this time it was all washed and clean at the end of the deployment!

I enjoyed my tour at Gutersloh, I had an interesting and varied job and, in the absence of an officer i/c I ran the offshore sailing club for over a year in which I arranged 6 sailing expeditions to the Baltic. Maybe the most successful offshore sailing club in the RAF? As to my part in the downfall of the USSR, we never went to war while I was there and despite a crop of books (fiction) describing World War III, we were only slightly worried. Then years later they whole thing fell apart - I must have helped?