had its turn in the defence of London. One of 303's pilots, Tadeusz Sawicz, was at the time of his death in 2011 believed to be the last surviving Polish pilot to have fought in the Battle of Britain. Post War In the 1950s Leconfield was a nominated 'dispersal base' for the RAF V bomber force. Also, after being transferred from RAF Catfoss in October 1945, and into the early 1950s, it was home to the Central Gunnery School which, among other functions, trained air gunnery instructors in Wellington bombers and pilot attack instructors in Spitfire and Mosquito aircraft. This school was later transformed into the Fighter Weapons School. The aircraft then flown were mainly single-seat Venoms and Meteors, plus twin-seat Vampire T11, Meteor trainers and Hawker Hunters for trials with ADEN cannons in 1957. Bristol Sycamore HR 14 helicopters of No. 275 Squadron RAF arrived on 9 October 1957 before being re-equipped with the Westland Whirlwind HAR 4 in March 1959 with the HAR 2 version being added in August 1959, however on 1 September 1959 the squadron was disbanded. On 29 June 1959 19 Squadron joined with their Hawker Hunter F.6's before being re-equipped with the English Electric Lightning F.2 in December 1962 and moving to RAF Gütersloh on 23 September 1965, being joined at RAF Gütersloh by No. 92 Squadron on 24 January 1968 which had also been stationed at Leconfield with their Hunter F.6's also later FGA9's (The Blue Diamonds). It then became home to No. 60 Maintenance Unit RAF (MU) and also 202 'B' Flight with Westland Whirlwind helicopters. 60MU was responsible for the major servicing of the EE/BAC Lightnings, plus several other tasks. No. 202 Squadron became the first SAR unit to rescue people off of Britain's first offshore oil rig, the Sea Gem. The rig had capsized on the 27 December 1965 and the crew of a Whirlwind rescued three men from the freezing water in a horrendous snowstorm. The crew were later awarded medals and commendations for their actions. In the 1970s the control tower at Leconfield developed a reputation for being haunted by a Flight Lieutenant who had been killed, along with an airman passenger, when a Meteor 7 he was piloting crashed when coming in to land in 1956. RAF Leconfield closed on 1 January 1977. RAF Leconfield archive footage from summer 1961 shows Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother going