Pictures from Ralph Swift's Album
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Flight Lieutenant 'Dick' Ferre'. 'B' Flight commander (jets) 527 Squadron. RAF Watton. 1955. The flight commander of 'A' flight (not shown) was Flt Lt John Dean. 'A' flight were the piston engine flight using Varsity aircraft.
Flying Officer Ralph Swift and Flight Lieutenant Don Sleven, Taken outside the crew room of 527 Squadron on the Griston side of RAF Watton airfield December 6th 1954.
Flying Officer Dave Williams temporarily attached as co-pilot on the Varsity flight ('A' flight) of 527 Squadron, RAF Watton during a time when the airforce was having trouble placing all it's recently trained pilots onto active squadron duty. By this time I (Ralph Swift) had already done a fighter tour on Vampire jets on 213 squadron, Deversoir, Egypt
This is the old 527 Squadron hangar on the Griston side of the airfield at RAF Watton. Taken in 1954/55 it shows a Meteor NF 14 inside the hangar, you can tell the difference from the NF11 as that had a glasshouse type of canopy (Small panes of Perspex) whereas the NF14 had a one piece clear cockpit canopy. If you look closely you can see the tower of Griston Church through the hangar's open doors. This Hangar was a survivor from WWII, it was one of two built on the Griston side of the airfield for use by the USAAF 3rd Strategic Air Depot.
This is the 527 Squadron dispersal on the Griston, side you will note the Varsity's and also what must have been one of our first Canberra B2's. I think this was taken in the early fifty fives just after Christmas and still snowy. I converted onto the Canberra at Bassingbourn in Cambridgeshire in May of 1955 and was probably still flying the Meteors when this photo was taken.