Rap movie classic High-speed read The Bag Eminem Bio of jet Forces' Oscar winner genius on DVD Whittle favourite Win! Win! Friday January 29 2021 paper ● See RnR p5 ● See p23 No. 1507 70p –– ●Pages GULF WAR 15-21 30 years on Motorsports Setbacks end season Wingman UAV gets £30m lift ● See p28 Cricket Pandemic's bowled out Simon Mander DEFENCE CHIEFS have unveiled plans for a fleet of uncrewed fighters designed to fly at high speed alongside RAF Typhoons and F-35s. Belfast-based firm Spirit AeroSystems has landed a £30 million three-year deal to design prototypes of the aircraft, dubbed 'Loyal Wingman', which the RAF hopes will be supporting combat operations by 2030. ● Continued on p3 ● See p29 We are excellent. We are QE. The Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) has found Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate to be ‘Excellent’ across all schools, praising our pupils’ outstanding academic achievements and personal development. Queen Ethelburga’s has a long-standing relationship with the British Forces, welcoming students from military families for over 100 years. We currently have over 300 such students living as part of the QE family. We welcome day students from 3 months to 19 years and boarders from 6 years to 19 years. We ±ųå)e±ÏÏųåÚĜƋåÚ±ĹÚĜĹųåÏŅčĹĜƋĜŅĹŅüŅƚųÏŅĵĵĜƋĵåĹƋƋŅ8ŅųÏåŸü±ĵĜĬĜåŸØƵåŅýåų±ŸĜčĹĜĀϱĹƋ reduction in fees. In 2019/20 this meant that our Forces families paid just 10% of fees. In 2020/21 8ŅųÏåŸü±ĵĜĬĜåŸƵĜĬĬޱƼģƚŸƋƊĿĂĂŞåųƋåųĵØŞåųÏĘĜĬÚŠƵĜƋĘƋĘåÆåĹåĀƋŸŅüĘĜĬÚϱųåŅƚÏĘåųŸƋĘĜŸ ĀčƚųåϱĹÆ屟ĬŅƵ±ŸƊƅŎĉŞåųƋåųĵšţ We pride ourselves on our wrap-around specialist pastoral care for our students, providing a secure and supportive home from home. We are focused on creating the right learning and living Qenvironment so that every one of them can thrive. For further information or to arrange a visit contact our admissions team on LjŎĉƖƐƐƐƐƐƐƐ)ĵ±ĜĬ×±ÚĵĜŸŸĜŅĹŸÄŧåţŅųč Thorpe Underwood Hall, Ouseburn, York, YO26 9SS | www.qe.org Royal Air Force News Friday, January 29, 2021 P3 We’ve suffered in TV from I remain the RAF’s youngest The world’s changed due to female characters always having living ex-prisoner of war. I hope that Covid and thrown hurdles in my “to be one certain thing continues“ for a long time to come way,“ but I am giving it everything ” ” I can to get to China Gulf War ”Bobsleigh veteran David Morven star L/Cpl Waddington Shanwayne Christie, star See p19 of crime drama Stephens The Bay on his See RnR p4-5 Olympic bid See p30-31 Wingman breaks cover Continued from front SUPPORT ACT : How the new The new combat air platform is Loyal Wingman unmanned being developed alongside the aircraft could operate with the sixth-generation Tempest RAF’s radical sixth-generation PHOTO: MOD Tempest fighter. Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, said: “We’re taking a revolutionary approach, looking at a game- changing mix of swarming drones RAF News and uncrewed fighter aircraft Room 68 alongside piloted fighters like Lancaster Building Tempest, that will transform the HQ Air Command combat battlespace in a way not High Wycombe seen since the advent of the jet age.” Buckinghamshire The deal with Spirit is expected HP14 4UE to safeguard more than 100 jobs at the firm’s Northern Ireland site. Editor: Simon Williams Defence Minister Jeremy Quin Email: [email protected] said: “This is a great win for the Northern Ireland defence industry Features Editor: Tracey Allen and will showcase some of the Email: [email protected] most pioneering engineering work currently being undertaken in the News Editor: Simon Mander UK. “The £30 million project will Sports Editor: Daniel Abrahams accelerate the development of Email: [email protected] the UK’s future air power Tel: 07966 429755 by delivering cutting- edge uncrewed aircraft, All advertising: maintaining our position as Edwin Rodrigues a world leader in emerging 07482 571535 Tel: technologies.” CAS: ACM Wigston Email: edwin.rodrigues@rafnews. co.uk Subscriptions and This Week In History distribution: JPI Media Print Holdings Ltd 1945 26 Whitehall Road Mosquito mission Leeds LS12 1BE 544 SQN Mosquitos launch Tel: 020 7855 7574 Operation Haycock flying courier Email: [email protected] missions from RAF Benson to the Crimea, Cairo and Athens via Italy in support of the Yalta conference. 1942 RAF Regiment forms 1991 THE RAF Regiment is Buccaneer laser debut Extracts from established under the command The Royal Air of Maj Gen C F Liardet, on loan BUCCANEERS FLY their first operations on Operation Force Day By Day by Air from the Army. The new unit Desert Storm providing laser designation for two Tornados Cdre Graham is composed of 150 existing attacking a bridge over the River Euphrates at Al Samawah. Pitchfork (The defence squadrons. Six Paveway bombs destroy the structure. History Press) SUPPORTING SERVING AND FORMER MEMBERS OF THE RAF AND THEIR FAMILIES WE CAN HELP WITH EMOTIONAL SUPPORT FREE CALL SCAN ME WITH 0300 102 1919 YOUR rafbf.org/welfare CAMERA The RAF Benevolent Fund is a registered charity in England and Wales (1081009) and Scotland (SC038109) Royal Air Force News Friday, January 29, 2021 P5 News You’ve Ern-ed it Tracey Allen SURVIVOR: Flt Lt Shot down, captured Holmes was captured A FORMER Lancaster pilot who was after eight weeks on imprisoned in the notorious Stalag the run. Inset below left, Dutch farmer Luft III camp and made to take part and then force marched Fons van der Heijden in the gruelling Long Marches has who sheltered the UK celebrated his 100th birthday. airman was executed Flt Lt Ernest ‘Ernie’ Holmes, who by the Nazis served on 76 Squadron and then across Europe by the with 35 Squadron on Pathfinder operations, was shot down near Eindhoven in May 1944 when retreating Nazis - WWII returning from a mission over Dortmund in Germany. Ernie was among three survivors Lancaster pilot Ernie of his eight-strong crew and spent eight weeks on the run before he was helped and hidden by celebrates his 100th Dutch families. He fought with the Resistance but was eventually captured and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III, made famous by the Hollywood film The Great Escape. He took part in two of the Long Marches across Germany in 1945 when thousands of allied prisoners of war were forced to trek from prison camps by the Nazis in blizzard conditions towards the west in an attempt to stop them being liberated by the advancing Russian Army. Ernie was liberated on May 9, 1945 and repatriated to Britain five days later. On his return he discovered that he had been awarded the Distinguished Flying DFC WINNER: Ernie Holmes (left) and at the helm of a Lancaster bomber Cross in 1944 for his ‘keenness, courage Flying Instructor aircraft and crew were shot down. and devotion.’ for the East of He unveiled a memorial to the He stayed in the Scotland University squadron and visited the graves in RAF after the war, Air Squadron and Eindhoven of his fallen crew. leaving in 1962 Glasgow UAS. He now lives in a care home in for a career in In 2018 Ernie Perth, Scotland. Due to Covid-19 civil aviation. returned to Holland restrictions he was unable to He later to take part in a receive visitors to congratulate him became a memorial service in on his centenary but was sent audio Qualified the field where his birthday greetings. French honour Stalag Luft survivor WORLD WAR II navigator to Germany in January 1945 in Stanley Booker, 98, has been appalling conditions.” appointed Chevalier in the Ordre She added: “Stanley and his National de la Légion d’Honneur compatriots arrived exhausted – the highest French order of at Luckenwalde PoW camp near merit – by the President of France. Berlin and then became prisoners Stanley was serving with and hostages of the Russian Army. Bomber Command’s 10 Sqn when “They were held as political his Halifax was shot down in flames prisoners whilst the Russians and crashed near Dreux in northern negotiated the release of some France on June 3, 1944. His pilot Soviet prisoners held by the British and wireless operator were killed and American forces. Finally, they – five other crew members escaped were liberated by the Americans by parachute and were hidden by – three weeks after VE Day – and the French resistance. WWII HERO: Navigator Stanley Booker eventually flown back to the UK on EAGLEEYED AIRCREW caught up with contenders on a round- His daughter Pat Vinycombe into filthy cattle trucks where they May 29.” the-world yacht race during a routine patrol over the South Atlantic. said: “My father and a fellow experienced extreme privation, Then a 22-year-old Flying The RAF A400M was on a reconnaissance mission when it captured crew member were betrayed to starvation and terrible thirst, they Officer, Stanley went on to be this dramatic image of competitors in the Vendée Globe competition. the Gestapo by a Belgian traitor. found themselves at the notorious promoted to Sqn Ldr. In 1951 he The A400M tracked and opened radio communications with Stanley was denied prisoner of Buchenwald Camp. was recruited to work for M16 in contestants on the non-stop and unassisted solo race, which war status and was treated as a spy. “He was transferred to Stalag Hamburg and Berlin. occurs every four years. See p27 for more. After a gruelling five-day journey Luft III in Poland, then forced to Pat is currently editing her with other allied airmen packed take part in the Long March back father’s autobiography. Royal Air Force News Friday, January 29, 2021 P7 News WWII PILOT: Eleanor In brief Wadsworth flew more Farewell to ATA’s Eleanor than 22 different aircraft types with the Air Transport Auxiliary BAE lands F-35 Tracey Allen Spitfire – which she said was her favourite.