Aberdeen, I couldn’t afford for anyone to get
in my way, especially during the afternoon
recovery when the skies were much busier.
At Middleton St George the enforced
secrecy caused me some frustration. In
the morning it was not so much of an issue.
I was up at 0530hrs, I was pre-breathing
oxygen from about 0600hrs to 0700hrs.
Then I took off, made the interception about
0730hrs and was back on the ground by
0745hrs, before anyone else started flying
at 0830hrs. For the afternoon intercept, I
took off at 1530hrs, all the students saw this
apparition walking around in a pressure suit
and I couldn’t tell them what I was doing,
apart from then Sqn Ldr Ken Goodwin, the
LCS commander.”
John’s career with the Lightning
continued, posted to 92 Sqn at Leconfield
in May 1963 to help with the weapons
conversion on the F.2. This task lasted until
January 1964 when he was assigned to 226
Operational Conversion Unit and detached
to RAF Leuchars in Fife, converting 23 and
74 Squadrons to their new F.3s.
He was next posted to 111 Sqn at
Wattisham as a flight commander during
which time he took part in the 1965 Paris Air
Show where the Lightnings flew a diamond
nine formation and performed a combined
display with the Red Arrows, then in their
first season. In 1967 he became the first
RAF pilot to pass 1,000 flight hours on
Lightnings. Subsequently, he was posted to
RAF Rheindahlen as the 2 Allied Tactical Air
Force (ATAF) Desk Officer for the Lightning,
and the British national representative on
the 2 ATAF Tactical Evaluation (TACEVAL)
team.SQUADRON COMMANDER
In August 1971 John became Officer
Commanding 92 Sqn, unofficially gaining
the title of King Cobra (based on the unit’s
badge which features a cobra). He recalled:
“With a reasonable amount of certainty, I lay
claim to being the original ‘King Cobra’. My
aircraft, Alpha, was in the hangar overnight
for routine servicing. During this period the
ground crew, of their own volition, stencilled
a crown on the fin above the squadron
badge. The following morning, to mytotal surprise, they conducted an informal
‘coronation’ and declared me King Cobra –
an honour that I cherished for the remainder
of my tour with 92 Sqn.”
The unit was equipped at the time with
Lightning F.2As and based at RAF Gütersloh
in West Germany. This, his ultimate
Lightning posting, he describes as: “Heaven
on Earth. It was quite an accolade to have
your own squadron. Then squadrons
were pretty much autonomous units, a real
command position, thoroughly enjoyable.”
He was responsible for 130 ground crew and
engineers, 20 pilots and 15 Lightnings.
Talking of his time in charge of the unit,
he added: “As a squadron commander
you used the training syllabus provided
and developed it with additional material
and encouraged further personneladvancement.” As the closest unit to the
Inner German Border, a major station task
was operating the Battle Flight shared
between 19 and 92 Squadrons. “We kept
two aircraft with two pilots on five-minute
readiness, 24 hours a day, every day of the
year. One aircraft was tasked as primary,
the other as reserve. We were there ‘to
maintain the integrity of West German
airspace’ and carried live Firestreaks and
cannon. It usually took new pilots about the
first six months of their tour before being
declared operational and commencing Battle
Flight duty. At any one time there were
probably a dozen pilots available, but leave,
other training and aircraft maintenance all
impacted availability. So, the Battle Flight
commitment was a considerable one.” All
the pilots took their turn, including John,
whose duties were usually at the weekends
because he was busy on the squadron
during the week.Live and practice launches could
be erratic, spells with nothing and then
several in quick succession. “We would
often be brought to cockpit readiness but
progress no further. In live situations we
were not authorised to fire, we had to be
given permission by the fighter controller,
although we were permitted to respond to
‘an aggressive act’. It was a demanding task
but a rewarding one, [with] a real enemy out
there.” German winter weather in particular
was often challenging. Sometimes we
declared a state called ‘Mandatory’. This
meant we were able to get airborne, but with
marginal weather we were not guaranteed to
land back at Gütersloh. During our training
we regularly practised diversions, often
using Hannover’s civil airport as it was open
all the time as many military airfields were
not. Experience had taught us just diverting
to an unfamiliar airfield undoubtedly
increased the pilot’s adrenalin, so practice
diversions made it somewhat easier if ever
necessary for real.
“Sometimes during TACEVALs an aircraft
was brought to readiness, then scrambled
to launch a live Firestreak on the Aberporth
range in Wales. The annual Missile
Practice Camp usually involved sending
four Lightnings to RAF Valley and everyone
would get a chance to launch a live missile
during their tour.” For gunnery practice the
squadron deployed to Decimomannu, in
Sardinia.
“It was a very, very rewarding two years,
all CO’s ran their squadrons in slightly
different ways but when I left in August 1973,
it was what I wanted out of a squadron: it
was ready to go to war and very efficient.
We had great guys, super pilots and
excellent ground crew.”
In 1977 John returned to West Germany
as station commander at RAF Wildenrath.
He was responsible for overseeing its
conversion to the air defence role as well
as the 19 and 92 Squadron transitions to
the McDonnell Douglas
Phantom, which had a
massively superior
weapons
system to the
Lightning.40 Aviation News incorporating Jets April 2018“to my total surprise,
they conducted an
informal ‘coronation’
and declared me
Ki n g C o b r a .”
King Cobra’s Lightning. John Mitchell’s personal aircraft, F.2A, XN793/A, with a gold crown above the cobra on the unit badge on the tail, and
inscription ‘Flagship 92’ below the cockpit. The aircraft is attending an airshow at Ramstein in 1973. Hugh Trevor Collection36-40_lightning_cobraDC.mfDC.mfDC.indd 40 01/03/2018 19:17