No 74 ‘Tiger’ Squadron had many firsts to its name during the Lightning era. When it flew its Lightning F6s to a new home at RAF Tengah in Singapore, it made the type’s longest deployment to date — and some memorable years in the Far East were to follow
Thirteen Lightning F6s, 17 Victor K1 tankers, more than 6,700 miles. Operation ‘Hydraulic’ was, when it took place in June 1967, the longest fighter deployment the RAF had ever carried out, not to mention its largest-scale, most complex use of air-to-air refuelling. The objective was to transfer No 74 Squadron from Leuchars, Fife to its new home at Tengah, Singapore, significantly upgrading the air defence capability of the Far East Air Force. And, across three waves, they did it, underlining Britain’s commitment to a theatre recently wracked by conflict.
How different things had become. “Effectively, we appeared to be on a permanent holiday”, remembers Dave Roome, one of 74’s Lightning pilots. “Most of the time it was a very pleasant, quiet environment. We had no requirement for similarly fast reaction times on alert as in the UK, except during exercises”. The Indonesian Confrontation had ended peacefully in August 1966, following the overthrow of President Sukarno and the …
