The November monthly meeting was a busy one with one of the highest attendances.

The speaker was Steve Griffiths (Wing Commander) whose talk ‘My Days as a Spy’ was entertaining and informative.

Steve was a Squadron Leader at Scampton in 1980 when he was issued orders to report to the ‘School of Army Intelligence’ in Ashford in Kent and so began his training to become part of BRIXMIS (The British Military Liaison Mission) which was based in West Berlin. Its main objective was to gather military intelligence on Soviet and East German forces by overt and covert methods. His training involved becoming an expert in photography, recognition of aircraft and ground equipment and how to be ‘covert,’ for example how to hide and observe, how to lose a tail or ‘nark’ and to be quiet/secret.

He took us along on a typical fact seeking ‘tour’ which he would have experienced with two comrades, usually in an adapted Opel Senator car and remember this was before mobile phones, internet, and GPS. Their main objective was to covertly observe and identify anything new on military radar or aircraft which would indicate more capacity and an increased threat to the West.

In answer to questions he, unlike 007, did not carry a gun or a cyanide pill!

An enjoyable talk.