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It is all premeditated…

What to do on the hottest day of the year?

Spend the evening ‘en famille’ at Holbeach Bombing Range to watch RAF Night training.

This was quite a surprise to me.

The range during the day had more birds than people. That day there were 2 cyclists and 2 photographers all day…

By dusk though, the range filled up with military staff and the neighbours, their little ones and the dogs. All there sitting on the grass waiting for the helicopter to arrive.

It arrived a couple of minutes later than announced, landed and kept running as its live fire ammunitions were delivered by 2 soldiers’ and put inside the gun.

Contrary to what I’ve seen in films, none of the crew bent down when they came inside the machine as the rotors wizzed well above their heads.

Radio message between control tower and crew … the flying machine took off, did a round of the range… radio message again: “note any blockage” “copy”…

Then it fired and the range – the distance between the helicopter and the targets in the water – was shocking… How did the bullets reached that far? Scary to witness this… this might!

And you see it then hear it … You see it because as the light dwindles some ‘tracer rounds’ loaded amongst the bullets guide the crew as they create a ‘line-of-sight’. It is strangely beautiful as some bounced back up in the air before slowly extinguishing.

Without those markers, you only hear what has already happened…

Round completed, the machine and crew landed, refilled with more live ammunition and returned in the air for more rounds…

And as I watched, I see that everything has been planned… pre-planned… This and the real attacks (I wonder) are all premeditated…

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