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47RAF LYNEHAM AND THE AIR BRIDGEAir Vice-Marshal Clive EvansClive Evans joined the RAF in 1955. His veryvaried flying career embraced Hunters, Chipmunks,Vampires, Canberras, Lightnings, F-111s and theHercules, the latter as OC No 24 Sqn and later asStation Commander at Lyenham. Along the way hebecame a QFI, QWI and IRE, served as the firstMRCA Project Officer at Munich, was the firstHead of the RAF Presentation Team and spent mostof 1985 as Deputy Commander of British ForcesFalkland Islands. Before retiring in 1992, he wasDeputy Air Secretary and then Deputy Commandant of the RCDS.In early April I was called to the scrambler telephone in operations atRAF Lyneham where I was Station Commander and informed by mySenior Air Staff Officer at Group that a consignment of ex-Andoverauxiliary fuel tanks were on their way to my station and that myengineers were immediately to start plumbing them in to some of myaircraft. The reason for this was that the Hercules of RAF Lyneham wereby then engaged in a massive airlift in support of the Task Force to theSouth Atlantic but were limited by their range of 3000 miles, and theAndover tanks were a stopgap measure to increase their range. But whywas the Hercules normal range capability inadequate?As you have heard from Jeremy, Ascension Island was vital to ouroperation but, at 4000 miles from the UK and 3500 miles from theFalklands, the standard Hercules could not cope with the distancesinvolved. We handled the UK to Ascension leg by receiving welcomeco-operation from Senegal who allowed us to use their major airfield atDakar as a staging post, with accommodation being provided for our slipcrews and engineers. We also used Gibraltar on occasion as an extrastaging airfield for some very heavy loads. This arrangement enabled usto carry loads as far as Ascension and I will come back to the use of theAndover tanks in a minute.The first surface ships sailed from Portsmouth on 5 April but by thenI was sending eight aircraft a day down to Dakar and thence toAscension. Although all the aircraft carried loads which would be vitalfor the Task Force when it arrived at Ascension, on my early aircraft I