Last Op

Prologue

RAF (Royal Air Force) St. Mawgan is located on the southwest coast of England just ten minutes north of the popular seaside town of Newquay (pronounced ‘Newkey’). Originally a civilian airfield, it was “requisitioned” at the outbreak of World War II as a satellite base of nearby RAF St. Eval. During the period 1940 to 1941, the Germans bombed St. Eval because of its strategic importance.

In June 1943 the U.S. Army Air Force took over the base and carried out a number of major improvements. A new control tower was built and the main runway was widened and extended, turning it into one of the widest runways in England. Reopened as a Coastal Command base in 1951, it was used for maritime reconnaissance, flying Lancaster and Schackleton aircraft.

Beginning in 1956, the Vulcan, a jet-powered, delta wing strategic bomber, was flown by the RAF, then replaced in 1962 by a more improved Vulcan B2. The new aircraft featured more powerful engines, a larger wing, an improved electrical system, and ECM (electronic countermeasures). The Vulcan was the backbone of the United Kingdom’s airborne nuclear deterrent.

On October 2, 1969, an RAF crew flew the Nimrod XV230 aircraft to its base at St. Mawgan, where the Nimrod maritime operational training unit (MOTD) was formed.

Since 1962, two jets in every major RAF base were armed with nuclear weapons. They were on standby permanently under the principle of QRA (Quick Reaction Alert). Vulcans on QRA were to be airborne within four minutes of receiving an alert, as this was identified as the amount of time between warning of a USSR nuclear strike being launched and the time it would arrive in Britain.

In 1965 Prime Minister Harold Wilson and President Lyndon Johnson signed an agreement to store U.S. nuclear depth bombs at St. Mawgan for the Dutch Navy’s ASW (anti-submarine warfare) aircraft and for other members of NATO. Similar weapons for U.S. and British aircraft were also stored at this base.

The MK 57, a tactical nuclear weapon, was designed to be dropped from high-speed tactical aircraft. It had a streamlined casing to withstand supersonic flight and weighed about five hundred pounds. It was later reclassified as the B57.

B57s were under U.S. Marine Corps guard at RAF St. Mawgan.