Why Buccaneer crews joked about descending to cruising altitude

Did landing gear limit how low Buccaneer crews were expected to fly?

The gear was retracted first, and the standing joke was that the aircraft then descended to its normal very-low-level cruising altitude.

Asked whether landing gear hindered British pilots from flying at their supposed maximum altitude, the panel recalls a deliberately exaggerated manual instruction. The Buccaneer would take off, retract the gear, and then descend to cruising altitude. The line is humorous, but it accurately conveys an aircraft designed to approach beneath radar coverage rather than remain high. Low altitude was not an emergency exception for the Buccaneer; it was central to how the strike mission was imagined and trained.