Flt Lt Peter McLeland

Flt Lt McLeland joined 208 Squadron at Eastleigh in 1959 for a 2½-year tour in Middle East Command. Once settled in, he became a member of the MEC Aerobatic team, flying Venom FB.4s and moved on to the Hunter FGA.9 when the Squadron converted to the latter in March 1960.

Swansong for the Venom

During his time on 208, Pete captured many of the Squadron’s operational and social activities on film and the following galleries give an insight as to what it was like to be on a front line Venom unit.

The pre-flight checks are carried out by the pilot of this Venom FB.4 at Eastleigh as the airman removes the engine intake blanks (Pete McLeland)

Tim Cohu climbing into a Venom at Eastleigh (Pete McLeland)

'Mac' McLeland climbs into his FB.4 prior to a sortie from Eastleigh (Pete McLeland)

Oh dear! The pilot who taxied the Boss's aircraft into a storm drain at Eastleigh during night flying had a bit of explaining to do (Pete McLeland)

Pete flew this Vampire T.11, XD615, from Ksar to Eastleigh via Mogadiscio where it is seen being refuelled from 40 gallon drums (Pete McLeland)

Each Venom squadron had a T.11 which was used for Intrument Rating Tests and weapons training.

A sequence of three images taken by Pete over the Rift Valley ......

...... by balancing his camera on top of the Venom's gunsight. .......

..... The gunsight graticules can be clearly seen as Pete approaches the soda of Lake Magadi (all three Pete McLeland)

Armament Practice Camps (APC)

APCs were part of the training syllabus on ground attack squadrons throughout the RAF and invariably incurred a week or two away at other stations. Such was the case in the following sequence which was taken when Pete was a participant in an APC to Southern Rhodesia towards the end of the Venom era.

RRAF Thorn Hill is the location of this view of armed 208 Sqn Venoms (Pete McLeland)

No time to lose as the groundcrew prepare a Venom for its next sortie (Pete McLeland)

208 Sqn pilot Terry Hill, in the left seat, about to fly a training sortie with an RRAF instructor in an RRAF T.11 at Thorn Hill (Pete McLeland)

Several RRAF stations were visited on the APC detachment, Salisbury providing the backdrop in this shot of Pete leaning on his mount (Pete McLeland)

Two 208 Sqn Venoms lined up behind an RRAF Dakota on the pan at Blantyre, the third RRAF base to be visited (Pete McLeland)

A totally different location and another APC, this time to Sharjah where the Ras Sadr range is about to be beaten up by a loan Venom (Pete McLeland)

Bang on target! A stack of oil drums feels the destructive power of 20mm 'ball' cannon shells as they impact on the Ras Sadr Range (Peter McLeland)

Another strike from a 208 Sqn Venom sends the barrels toppling (Peter McLeland)

Close up view of shells peppering the target (Peter McLeland)

The next two photographs were taken from Pete's Venom while on APC to Sharjah and depict Dubai and Deira

.....

..... and Dubai Creek (both, Pete McLeland)

Some of the Trucial Oman Scouts who helped to set up and run the range at Ras Sadr (Pete McLeland)

The Hunter arrives

In March 1960, the pilots of 208 Squadron gave up their Venoms and returned to the UK to collect their replacements - Hunter FGA.9s. The runway at Eastleigh being too short for operations with fully-laden Hunters, the aircraft were based at the nearby civilian Embakasi Airport where Peter took the next selection of photographs soon after settling in.

As the Masai had looked after practice targets in the Rift Valley for some years, a special parade was arranged for them .........

..... at Embakasi Airport soon after the Squadron had re-equipped with the Hunter (both Pete McLeland)

Sqn accommodation at Embakasi consisted of three groups of AITents, the inside of the Officers Crewroom being portrayed here (Pete McLeland)

An AITent was made of aluminium and was circular in shape with a pointed conical roof.

By contrast, Tim Riddihough, Tim Cohu and Alistair MacNab find something amusing to laugh at in the austerity of Bahrain (Pete McLeland)

Straps undone, Sqn Ldr Ramirez taxies back to the pan at Embakasi in a gleaming XE618-D after a sortie over the Kenyan countryside (Pete McLeland)

Despite the extremely long runway at Embakasi the Hunters always streamed their breakchutes on landing to reduce brake wear (Pete McLeland)

XE647-O is depicted in this early 1960s view.

Middle East Command aerobatic team

“As the Hunters could not be operated from RAF Eastleigh, due to the short runway, we were based at Embakasi Airport where, much to the delight of passengers and civilian employees, we carried out most of our practice displays. The sequence of photographs below were taken during our first year on Hunters.”

208 Sqn Aerobatic Team at Embakasi in 1960, comprising; 'Pancho' Ramirez, Tim Cohu, Pete Biddiscombe and Pete McLeland (Pete McLeland)

The Team take off from Khormaksar in basic box formation prior to giving a display at the Stations's open day, 18-11-60 (Pete McLeland)

Over the top above Embakasi Airport. The Hunter pan can be seen in the lower left of the picture (Pete McLeland)

Another image from the same loop over the airport with open country beyond (Pete McLeland)

The team's favourite photograph, taken with Mount Kilimanjaro as the backdrop, took two days to perfect (Pete McLeland)

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