With VT-2 to Germany

The CO followed the crew ashore and looking at the Supply Officer enquired “Where are our duty-free stores?”. The Supply Officer looked puzzled. “This is a British Registered Naval vessel” responded the CO. “Go and get our allowances”. The lad had to go back to the NAFI in Kiel and returned the next day with a lorry loaded with beer, spirits and cigarettes. He then came around our allocated rooms selling the items – I had a bottle of whisky for £1.

We soon settled into what was a modern well-equipped establishment with excellent facilities. Over the next few days, I worked with Heinrich Hammer as additional on-board instrumentation was installed, and we worked on the trial’s schedule.

This included not only measuring the general performance of the craft but also operating on a variety of ranges where the magnetic, pressure and sound signatures were to be recorded in various water depths, together with other radiation effects such as the infrared (IR) signature of the craft.

I had brought with me from my UK office, a variety of documents describing the VT-2 and the results of some of our tests at NHTU. I transported these in a secure case which I jokingly referred to as “Pandoras box”; the name stuck much to the amusement of my German trials’ colleagues. This was the name given to the prison cage in which the deserters from HMS Bounty were transported back to England in HMS Pandora in 1790.

We started with the IR trials. The craft headed to the range, and as planned, I went ashore. This was to ensure that the scientists were acquainted with the craft’s capabilities in terms of its speed and manoeuvrability. I also of course, shared in the first look at the results. We all expected to see hot spots showing from the gas turbine exhausts but found that these were partially masked by the spray from the air cushion. The sea water was still cold at that time of year.

It had been agreed before leaving my office in the UK, to regularly send back reports to my establishment. We had considered various alternatives, bearing in mind that the subject matter was likely to contain sensitive information. Oddly enough we decided that the best way was for me to write the reports by-hand (there were no laptop computers in those days) and send them back by normal post. The letters were delivered to my head of department at his home address to avoid suspicion. We were advised to be that careful since we were working only 50 miles from the East German (DDR) border still under Soviet control.  

Tests of the craft’s acoustic (under-water noise) signature followed. I again worked ashore with the range authorities. I was intrigued to see that the range house was hidden in an old farm building. The magnitude of the noise was low of course, since the air cushion prevented much of the transmission through the water surface. Testing continued with measurements of the pressure signature. At low speeds the air cushion under a hovercraft causes a depression of the water surface underneath the craft which can be detected. Tests were carried out in various depths of water. On arriving at the shallow water range, we found that a local fisherman was standing in our way. Our CO was told, much to his surprise, that we couldn’t tell him to move!

These tests were very extensive and continued over a period of about four weeks. For these trials we were assigned a German Liaison Officer (LO) who was a captain of a submarine. He was a charming and amusing man, who also helped to organise our free time. We weren’t required to work on Sundays when very kindly Heinrich Hammer usually invited me to visit him and his wife at their home in Kiel. An extra holiday was announced on a Thursday in late May which we were told was Vatertag (Father’s Day). Transport was arranged by our LO and we were given a tour of northern Germany. As we passed through small towns it appeared that Vatertag was an excuse for the local men to tour the streets giving out free beer! We visited the famous castle in Gluecksburg near Flensburg, where we waddled around in oversize carpet slippers to avoid scratching the old wooden floors.

Additional tasks were assigned to the VT-2 as part of German Naval exercise HOVERBALT . On one occasion the crew were issued with camouflage nets and asked to cover the whole craft. They did this in a few hours, even over the tops of the ducted fans, and we were told it was well disguised after a low-level fly past. On another occasion a rendezvous was arranged between the VT-2 and a German fast patrol boat out in the Baltic, where the transferring of stores at sea was practised.

In the fifth week of trials, shock testing was to be carried out, i.e., subjecting the craft to underwater explosions. This was regarded as the most important evaluation of the VT-2. A planning meeting was first arranged with senior German naval staff officers. After the meeting, we prepared the craft for the tests and then proceeded to a site out in the Baltic where we picked up a laid mooring so that the craft was fixed in position. The charges were laid by a stand-by vessel. Three were to be fired that day at decreasing distances from the craft, which of course was hovering on cushion. We remained on-board and were not particularly concerned, since shock testing had previously been carried out on hovercraft in the UK in the past. It had been shown that hovercraft were highly protected from such explosive forces.