Ich lese solche Geschichten ja immer gern:

http://www.pprune.org/5488308-post5.html

Den französischen General kann ich mir gut vorstellen, wie er "Merde!" murmelnd und auf die Erde spuckend aus der F-15 ausstieg. So erklären sich zumindest mal die teilweise spektakulären Starts während der Berlinflüge.

Ich hatte BEagle gefragt, ob es noch weitere interessante Geschichten rund um Bold Gauntlet gab. Und es gab sie:

Bold Gauntlet was certainly one of the more enjoyable exercises of those times!

A couple more tales:

1. One day, as a break from 'passageway' flying, we were due to fly 2 F-4s on a low-level navex around Germany. The second aircraft had a snag on start, so we went off on our own, although the No.2 said he would try to catch us up. So off we went and took in such sights as the Nurburgring and other interesting scenery. Then home to Gutersloh via the Eder dam. Of course we had to play 'dambusters' and flew past the castle, across the lake and over the dam. Great fun, so we did it again. Then we heard the No.2 calling , so set off towards him. Having joined up, I asked him whether he'd ever seen the Eder dam. He said he hadn't....so this time we went round as a pair - noticing lots of people waving from the castle! Then back to Gutersloh. Chatting about this after landing, the station navigation officer overheard or conversation and came over to talk. "You went where?", he asked. So I told him. "You're not allowed anywhere near the dams - didn't you know that?" "Well, no, actually - you should have told us. Anyway, the locals seemed quite happy" After he'd gone we turned to eachother and said "Good job we didn't tell him about our visit to the Möhne dam on the way home!". This was May 1983 - what we'd overlooked was that it was 40 years to the very day since the Dambusters' raid......

2. Chatting with various folk in the Officers' Mess bar one evening, including the French Air Force and some SSAFA (forces' welfare) sisters, one of these SSAFA sisters suddenly took rather a fancy to one of the FAF pilots, with his film star looks, and threw her arms around his waist. With typical French sang-froid, he put down his beer and stood his cigarette on its base, then disappeared down into the Reichsmarschall Göring bar, where he 'entertained' her across the snooker table. A few minutes later, he returned, picked up his beer and cigarette and carried on his conversation without a break!

3. Another amusing incident was at the 'banquet' which we all had to attend at the end of the exercise. We were rather put out at being made to go to such a boring event as we'd far sooner have had another night sampling Bratwurst, Bier und Schnapps in the town, particularly since we were all staying at a little hotel in the town centre.

Centrepiece of the banquet table was a large ice sculpture of the 'mailed fist' Bold Gauntlet emblem.... Halfway through the dinner, there was a sudden commotion as a group of Brits and Americans rushed up to the sculpture and stood in a circle around it. When they went back to their seats, the sculpture had been modified and now included a raised index finger, giving the 'one fingured salute' to the top table!!

:)