Shot down John Nichol may well have been brought here when he was picked up in the desert by Iraqi troops when he bailed out of the burning Tornado. He doesn't know where he was first held. He does know where he was trying to bomb and the Colonel promises to take him there. They shake hands warmly. John Nicol on Iraqi TV during the Gulf War Ar Rumaythah airbase was the target the British Tornado was attacking 10 years ago.
Today there is little left of the base.
Only the runway itself remains intact. We walk along it, John, the Colonel and I, towards a huge hole. At the point where a taxi way joins the main strip there is a hollow 20ft wide and 10ft deep. That was the morning he was shot down. We're on the junction of a taxi-way too, so if you crater the runway here it means aircraft can't get on or off.