Marville France

The Arrival of the CF-104

It was 1963, and we Canadians were clearly becoming persona non grata in the eyes of President DeGaulle.

The arrival of the '104 pilots was less muted....we were all in a bit of awe at these types who had "earned their spurs" the hard way. Some had flown Sabres or Vampires in the mid-fifties, during the halcyn days of the Air Division. Some had even been operational World War Two pilots. All had just been through the toughest flying course then known in the Air Force. We instinctively knew they deserved to swagger a bit, but they always swaggered in a strange way. Wheras your average Sabre jock could be likened to a pup who yelped his presence, the '104 types we saw were like old dogs who growled their authority. I remember that a lot of people in the Wings at that time remarked, "We knew the young Sabre drivers. Now, here are their fathers." In fact a few of them looked like grandfathers!"

On the other side of the Rhine, trouble with the DeGaulle government was coming to a head. In 1963, France had decided to acquire an independent nuclear force for reasons of prestige, control of her desiny, and for guaranteed protection of French territory. This meant that nuclear weapons on French soil would be subject only to French authority. In December of 1963, a Special Committee of Defence reported to the Commons that even French squadrons armed with American nuclear warheads were not permitted to operate from bases in France, and thus were stationed in Germany until their own home-grown air-portable nuclear arsenal could be developed. What hope then for four squadrons of Canadian Starfighters based at Grostenquin and Marville respectively? The answer from the French government was not long coming.... CF-104's bases in France would not be permitted to store their American-aquired devices at French bases, and would consequently have to obtain these warheads outside of France. In terms of presenting a credible deterrent posture, this situation was unsatisfactory. Something had to give, and the Special Committee recommended that NATO be petitioned to immediately relocate the Starfighter Strike squadrons based in France to more hospitable soil. Again, action was swiftly forthcoming, and the upshot of it all was that Grotenquin was closed down in February, 1964. 430 Silver Falcon Squadron (Course 5) was sent to Zweibrucken in the Strike role, and 421 Red Indian Squdron (Course 6), who had only arrived in time for Christmas and had barely time to unpack their bags, headed east to Baden-Soellingen.

Years later, in the mid-seventies when I was serving as a pilot with 439 Squadron at Baden, the name of Grostenquin would resurface and it would aquire a new claim to fame in the Air Group. Grostenquin was at that time being used by the French Air Force strictly as a storage facility and an inactive one at that, and although the extremely robust runway was still in splendid condition, there were absolutely no air traffic control facilities available. 439 Squadron, like all such units, had a very large aircrew statistics board near the operations desk that contained each pilot's name and a breakdown of flying hours and sorties in a myriad of different categories. The stats board also listed numerous annual and semi-annual requirements, usually in columns headed by some sort of acronym. For example IRT stood for Instrument Rating Test, AOI for Aircraft Operating Instructions, PPFL Practice Precautionary Forced Landing, and so on.

One day, Roy deWolfe, a Squadron pilot, unobtrusively and silently added a new column to the board, labelled TGLGTN, and put the number 1 beside his name. Wolf was often somewhat enegmatic, so no one gave it much second thought. One week later, Wolf walked in and quietly changed the one in his new column to a two. Now Wolf was an outstanding pilot, but his utter disregard for keeping records was practically legendary, so it was most unusual to see him tracking this supposedly new requirement so assiduously. Neverless, after a lot of puzzled looks and shrugged shoulders, we let it go. Wolf would unravel the mystery in his own good time. About three days later, when he had further changed the board from 2 to 3, one of the pilots could stand it no longer and said, "Hey Wolf, what does TGLGTN stand for anyway?" "Touch and Go Landings at Grostenquin," came the laconic reply. We never did find out if he was serious or joking".

quotes from page 27 & 28 of "Starfighter" written by David L Bashow. This book was published by Fortress Publications Inc, in 1990, has 223 pages, and the ISBN # is 0-919195-12-1

On July 2, 1959, it was announced that Canada had chosen the F-104 Starfighter as the replacement for the Sabre Mk.6 in service with the RCAF's European Air Division. However, since the Canadian government wanted equipment to be fitted that was specific to RCAF requirements, it opted to manufacture the aircraft under license in a Canadian factory rather than to buy the aircraft outright from Lockheed. On August 14, it was announced that Canadair of Montreal had been selected to manufacture 200 aircraft for the RCAF under license from Lockheed. In addition, Canadair was to manufacture wings, tail assemblies, and rear fuselage sections for 66 Lockheed-built Starfighters that were destined for the West German Luftwaffe. The license production contract was signed on September 17, 1959.

The CF-104 was basically similar to the F-104G, but was fitted with equipment specialized for RCAF requirements. It differed from the F-104G in being optimized for the nuclear strike role rather than being a multi-mission aircraft. The F-104G was fitted with NASARR F15A-41B equipment which was optimized for both air-to-air and air-to-ground modes, but the CF-104 was fitted with R-24A NASARR equipment which was dedicated to the air-to-ground mode only. The main undercarriage members were fitted with longer-stroke liquid springs and carried larger tires. The CF-104 also differed from the F-104G in retaining the removable refuelling probe that was fitted to the F-104Cs and F-104Ds of the USAF. Another difference from the F-104G was the ability of the CF-104 to carry a ventral reconnaissance pod equipped with four Vinten cameras. The 20-mm M61A1 cannon and its associated ammunition were initially omitted from the CF-104, and an additional fuel cell was fitted in their place.

In parallel with the production of the Starfighter by Canadair, Orenda Engines, Ltd. acquired a license to build the J-79 engine which was to power it. The CF-104 was powered by a Canadian-built J79-OEL-7 rated at 10,000 lb.s.t. dry and 15,800 lb.s.t. with afterburning.

Lockheed sent F-104A-15-LO serial number 56-0770 to Canada to act as a pattern aircraft for CF-104 manufacture. It was later fitted with CF-104 fire control systems and flight control equipment (but not the strengthened airframe of the true F-104G) and turned over to the RCAF, where it was assigned the serial number of 12700. The first Canadair-constructed CF-104 (RCAF serial number 12701) was airlifted to Palmdale, California in the spring of 1961, where it made its first flight on May 26. The second CF-104 (12702) also made its first flight at Palmdale. The first two CF-104s to fly at Montreal were Nos. 12703 and 12704, which both took to the air on August 14, 1961.

CF-104s were initially assigned Canadian serials 12701 through 12900. On May 18, 1970, they were reserialed as 104701 through 104900. The Lockheed-built F-104A pattern aircraft was reserialed from 12700 to 104700.

The 200th and last CF-104 (No. 12900) was completed on September 4, 1963 and delivered to the RCAF on January 10, 1964. Many early production aircraft were modified to the standard of the last production machines. Following the delivery of the last CF-104, Canadair switched over to the manufacture of F-104Gs for delivery to NATO allies under the provisions of MAP.

Beginning in December of 1962, the RCAF used its CF-104s to equip eight European-based squadrons of its No. 1 Air Division. Other CF-104s were assigned to the No. 6 OTU based at Cold Lake, Alberta. Apart from the operational conversion unit established at Cold Lake, Alberta in late 1961 (eventually redesignated No 417 Squadron), RCAF CF-104s were all committed to the support of NATO's nuclear deterrent mission in Europe. No. 427 Squadron was the first to form, with initial deliveries to Zweibrucken in December of 1962. In February of 1964, even before France withdrew from NATO in 1966, 2 Wing at Grostonquin was disbanded, and its two CF-104 squadrons were transferred elsewhere, No 421 moving to 4 Wing at Baden-Soellingen and No. 430 moving to Zweibrucken. The RCAF's other French base at Marville was closed by March of 1967, and its two CF-104 reconnaissance squadrons (439 and 441) moved to Lahr in Germany. Nos 434 and 444 Squadrons were disbanded in 1967-68, reducing CF-104 strength to four nuclear strike squadrons and two tactical reconnaissance squadrons.

Specification of the CF-104:

Engine: One Orenda Engines-built J79-OEL-7 rated at 10,000 lb.s.t. dry and 15,800 lb.s.t. with afterburning. Performance: Maximum speed (dash): 1550 mph (Mach 2.35) at 40,000 feet, 915 mph (Mach 1.2) at sea level. Climb to 30,000 feet in 1.5 minutes. Weights were 13,909 pounds empty, 21,005 pounds loaded (clean), 28,891 pounds maximum takeoff. Dimensions were wingspan 21 feet 11 inches, length 54 feet 9 inches, height 13 feet 6 inches, wing area 196.1 square feet. Armament: External stores could be carried on five hardpoints (one underneath the fuselage, one underneath each wing, and one at each wingtip).