3-anst-a

The talk started with the introduction of General McArthur and Col.Doolittle and the initial raid on Tokyo six months after Pearl Harbor. Then Joe Stalin and Lavrentia Beria entered the picture with the Pentagon and the Kremlin in the postwar years forming North and South Korea between which states war erupted in 1950.

The rough balance between the aircraft then available was commented on as well as the availability of nuclear weapons. The iimbalance of ballistic weapons was noted as well as the known postures of both the Pentagon and the Kremlin.

Developments in the United Kingdom were noted especially the contracts for the rebuilding the original war time east coast radar chain of which Anstruther was an integral part. The further part played by the ongoing development of British radar and it’s trial during the Gatow airlift was highlighted. This was displayed along with two current photos from the Anstruther Museum.

Past experience of working with the Technical Officer of 3602 Sqd. of the R.Aux.A. F. was used to bring together the threads of the stories so far told and to illustrate the current thinking that if the Russians were to initiate W.W.III it might well be through a strike on the most powerful overseas base of the United States of America - the nuclear submarine base in the Holy Loch.

The hole at Anstruther was all but complete but the vast telephonic network, radar and telecommunications equipment were yet to be iinstalled. But higher authority decided that trials could not await the new station and a mobile radar would be sited at Anstruther and a trial undertaken to see if it would be possible to mount a surprise attack on the Holy Loch.

Thus an aircraft carrier with a squadron of Sea Hornets was stationed off the southern tip of Norway and they would provide the attacking force. 264 Squadron, flying Meteor night fighters were sent to RAF Leuchars to provide the defensive force and new, mobile, centimetric radar was established behind Anstruther to provide the necessary control facility.

Aircraft flew, initially in daylight, to get an idea of the local geography though the exercise took place in the darkest overnight hours.
The flying was done on the assumption that an aircraft could fly at night and enter the Firth of Forth off shore from Crail and proceed between Anstruther and the Isle of May by flying very low they avoided the radar on entry to the Firth of Forth and were then in the radar shadow of the Fife hills up to the Forth Railway Bridge. Thereafter they had a clear run up the Forth past Grangemouth before traveling up Flanders Moss and dropping down for a left turn about Drymen when they had a clear choice of routes to the Holy Loch. The new radar situated above the Firth should close this open door from Anstruther to the Isle of May.

The Harriers arrived and were usually intercepted as they made their way up the the line of the railway bridge when the practice run ceased. They had proved the route was feasible, the jets had proved that they could forsake their usual playing grounds above 30,000ft and perform effectively at levels well below what they had been accustomed to. The mobile radar had proved the validity of the new site which was only a few months away.

The Anstruther radar station closed in the late sixties and the station was taken over as a Government control centre in the event of a nuclear war. The Museum; you will see more more details elsewhere on this site, shows this latter arrangement and also tries to put some of it’s RAF history into context.