#Commander rex full
#Commander rex series

He completed a bomber training course and in October 1943 joined No 78 Squadron based in Yorkshire, operating the four-engine Halifax. On his return to Britain he discovered that his family had been evacuated from their home after it had suffered in the bombing of London. There was no history of aviation in his family, but he was fired by dreams of becoming a Spitfire pilot, and in April 1941 he enlisted in the RAF Volunteer Reserve, training as a navigator in Canada under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. He left school at 15 and took a job as a draughtsman he was working at an ordnance factory at Wrexham when war broke out. No great academic, Rex was a good sportsman and he ended up as the swimming captain. The eldest of five children of a civil engineer, Rex Southern Sanders was born on Decemat Bridlington but brought up in Wandsworth, south London, where he attended the Central School. Electronic intelligence was gathered and photographs taken of the targets the aircraft landed back at base after an uneventful 10-hour flight. Crampton then turned south-east for Russia, flying at 36,000 ft. The three aircraft took off on Apand headed for Denmark where they refuelled from airborne tankers. We were like ferrets going into a rabbit warren.”

#Commander rex full

Sanders recalled: “We went at full throttle … to try and stir things up. The following February the crews were briefed on the operation code-named Ju-Jitsu.įour RB-45Cs were flown to an RAF base in north Norfolk, where they were shorn of their USAF markings and repainted with RAF roundels (one aircraft was to act as a spare).Īfter Crampton and Sanders had flown a practice flight – a high-speed, high-altitude sortie along the Berlin Air Corridor to test the Soviet reaction (there was none) – Winston Churchill, the prime minister, gave approval for the top-secret flights. The leader of the team was Squadron Leader John Crampton and Sanders was his navigator. In August 1951, three RAF bomber crews flew to a USAF base in Louisiana to train on the North American RB-45C four-engine jet reconnaissance aircraft.

#Commander rex series

Wing Commander Rex Sanders, who has died aged 94, was the lead navigator of a select nine-man RAF team that flew USAF reconnaissance aircraft on a series of top secret, and highly risky, spy flights deep into the Soviet Union in the early 1950s.