THE commanding officer of the RAF’s Dambusters spoke yesterday of his pride when his pilots were given the honour of leading the aerial bombardment against Saddam Hussein - on the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Second World War bomber squadron.
Wing Commander Dave Robertson and the crews of 617 Squadron fired Britain’s new super bomb, "Storm Shadow", in precision attacks on Iraqi command and control bunkers in and around Baghdad, marking the start of the "shock and awe" phase of the war.
"It was absolutely incredible," he recalled yesterday after the first of the air crews from the now renamed "Saddam Busters" squadron returned to their home base at RAF Lossiemouth. "We were coming back, fairly close to Baghdad, and we could see all the explosions going off. It was quite awesome because you knew you were part of history. It was totally amazing and something that will live with me for the rest of my life."
Wing Cmdr Robertson was among a small party of 28 air and ground crew which returned by bus to the Moray base in the early hours of the morning after flying into Glasgow on board a passenger jet.
They were the first back from a total deployment of 500 air and ground crew from RAF Lossiemouth, sent to the Gulf in the biggest ever deployment of personnel from the base.
Speaking shortly after he had been reunited with his wife, Helen, and children Michael, 16, Elizabeth, 14 and Adam, 9, Wing Cmdr Robertson told how he learned of the role his squadron’s Tornado GR4s would play in the war only 48 hours before the mission.
"617 was given the task of bringing Storm Shadow into service on night one of the official Gulf war," he said. "It was Friday, 21 March, the 60th anniversary of the formation of 617 Squadron."
On the first night of the "shock and awe" campaign, the pilots of 617 were the first coalition aircraft in action, firing 11 Storm Shadow missiles on selected command and control bunkers throughout Iraq.
Costing £750,000 each, Storm Shadow is designed to penetrate well-defended targets, homing in on them using GPS or terrain recognition navigation systems.
Wing Cmdr Robertson explained: "There was an awful lot riding on the success of Storm Shadow and an awful lot of pressure on the guys to make sure we did everything possible to make sure it worked. But I know from battle damage assessment that our missiles were incredibly accurate."
Throughout the war, the Tornadoes from Lossiemouth fired a further 16 Storm Shadows, flying almost 100 bombing missions against various strategic targets.
"The first few days were quite hectic and we were under quite a significant threat for the first week," recalled Wing Cmdr Robertson. "And then it got progressively easier. The Iraqi air force, very sensibly, decided to stay on the ground because the Americans would have just taken them apart."
Flight Lieutenant Bob Chevli, 32, revealed that he had been the first pilot to fire Storm Shadow, despite the squadron’s plans.
"It was supposed to have been the boss who fired the first missile, but when we checked the tapes later, in fact I fired two seconds ahead of him," he explained.
"The main concern was whether this brand new weapon would work first time out. And it did, thanks to a lot of teamwork."
