|
Post by PB on Apr 30, 2020 6:22:15 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 30/04/20The end of April, the end of the most devastating month our planet can remember in recent times. The global grief it has caused is far beyond measure
Today at 11.15 may our thoughts be with Rob Belcher and his family as his Dad, Harry, is laid to rest as a result of the virus.Life on this planet is a wonderful thing, but sometimes the price is hard to bear. May Harry Belcher now find the peace he deserves...PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on May 1, 2020 6:48:32 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 01/05/20Ahh, the joys of spring, May 1st, May Day the date of the ancient festival of spring. Of that I know no more, but this May Day will go down in history as one of the more quiet days of spring celebration me thinks?
Then, of course, we have another well known tried and tested "Mayday". Said three times in quick succession and we assume you're not having a good day, and it's about to get worse? So as today's "POTD" has some limited value, here's a serving of 'Mayday' info for you to digest with the Corn Flakes.. "The Mayday call originated in the 1920s. A senior radio officer at London’s Croydon Airport, Frederick Stanley Mockford, was the first to use this signal to indicate emergency situations. Mockford was asked by his seniors to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff during an emergency. As much of the traffic at Croydon airport at that time was to and from Le Bourget Airport in Paris, Mockford proposed the expression “Mayday" derived from the French word “m’aider" that means “help me" and is a shortened form of “venez m’aider", which means “come and help me".
If you didn't before, now you know..
Well, that's April wrapped up. "Photo of the Day" is most grateful for the almost 40,000 visits it had during the month of April, a month thanks to Hampshire County Council's Judicial Review that has not been one of the best for Blackbushe Airport. Their successful bid to overturn the Planning Inspectorate approval of the required land de-registration has put back any chance of progress in developing facilities perhaps by one or two years and placed in jeopardy the various businesses based on the airfield, their staff's futures, and the prospects of a General Aviation airfield that could/would be the pride of Hampshire.
To add fuel to the fire, I noted the Open Spaces Society's Facebook group yesterday. Celebrating their "victory" over Blackbushe and the de-registration question, numerous of their members celebrating our defeat, congratulating the OSS and expressing unbridled joy at their "news". While one understands their overall motives toward Common Land for their 'victory' to be based on a legal technicality is a bitter pill to swallow. A degree of practicality and common sense would have been welcome..I guess seeing others cheering and celebrating at the defeat of something that has been in our hearts for so long, in my case very close to my heart for six decades, is not the most edifying or cheering of sights? Heart breaking actually.The Blackbushe circuit on a busy day? Those chaps in the Tower sure seem to pack 'em in... Actually it's the Bader formation team in action, but one recalls ancient times when we'd have perhaps seven in the circuit. Before rules reduced the numbers and while flying was still a little more affordable with aged Austers at £4 per hour..Something we may not see much of this year? Blackbushe Airport in her summer colours as by August the green yields to what you see here... How much flying can be carried out by high summer remains to be seen. I'd still like to know how British Car Auctions have hi jacked so much Common Land and nobody seems to worry??? The tiny strip between the A30 and the taxiway where Blackbushe wish to pop up a hangar or two is minute compared to the BCA grab.... WHERE IS COMMON SENSE?The way we were.. a flashback to the Warbird days and one of our impromtu 'flying days' when the air - and those on the ground - would enjoy the sounds of varied warbirds. A popular and free chance for the public to take a look and listen. Dark clouds have crossed Blackbushe before, but they usually vanish in the fullness of time..... perhaps a good analogy for what we could describe as "today"?Stay dry...
PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on May 2, 2020 6:54:41 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 02/05/20It's Saturday!! Oh...lockdown. Coffee and chats at the Bushe Cafe, as a busy Blackbushe circuit comes alive with students, private owners and the occasional business jet are memories from some other world.. Remaining on the home side of the front gate while life supporting supplies are ferried in is becoming, has become, the new normal. Freedom to do what you want, when you want, and with who you want (within reason!!) now seems to belong some dreamed of ideal in 'the other life'...
Happily reality showed its hand yesterday in the form of the April "Airport Manager's Report" landing on the Forum. Hearty thanks to Chris for the update although his spider is looking decidedly malnourished this time.. Check it out >>> blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/13561
Elsewhere on the Forum I endeavour to keep the Covid 19 NOTAMS up to date simply FYI for the southern and south eastern part of our green and pleasant land >>> blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/13339
Scanning backwards over the years today has significance for our country's move forward in the world of jet travel.. In 1952 BOAC introduced the Comet to the London Johannesburg route, while on this day in 1966 BEA started jet services on London to Glasgow with the Comet 4B. With a deep breath of nostalgia for Blackbushe, BOAC, and British aviation, POTD recalls that ALL the BOAC Comet variants crew trained at Blackbushe.. For many years a white line remained across the Blackbushe apron, the purpose of which being to guide taxiing Comets whose crew could not see their wingtips in relation to other aircraft. Touch and goes and also much taxiing were involved and swept wings were such a novelty, best not to ding them on a parked Viking, Hermes, or the such like...A few parked Vikings. Happy days when Blackbushe was the place for the nation's growing independent airlines, but the Government saw badly drained Gatwick with an adjacent railway station as the new London airport, and the rest is history..Spring returns to Blackbushe "east", the part of Blackbushe destroyed by the local parish, and now maintained by the County Council. Photo taken a few years ago before "lockdown", it's much more overgrown today...A moment of perspective maybe? It is quite incredible how much Common Land has been consumed by British Car Auctions for their used car business. While hostility flies at the thought of the Airport's request to de-register its precious bit, BCA carry on unchecked, you just hear "uninformed of the locality" bleat on about Blackbushe becoming a business park or a housing estate if it's de-registered!! If you look down from aloft the area within which new hangars and old buildings are replaced by new and visually acceptable replacements is just a relatively tiny strip of land. The area between the southern taxiway and the A30. Just LOOK at it... Looking at what BCA have done and the acres they have grabbed, looking at the huge amount of open space that will still remain if and when the Airport are able to construct new hangars on the appointed section of its land one has to ask WHAT on Earth is going on when the County Council allocate vast sums of OUR money to destroy the prospects of people's lives, their work, and the finest potential GA asset in south east England over such a minute percentage of the landscape?? WE live in the hopes that justice, and common sense will prevail in a future time when the word "curtilage" becomes legally defined as to what it means and not a hook for a county council to hang its case on, however light its case may be... Finally, as Chris's report states, there is some good news to be had... Namely, since Hampshire County Council's unseemly Judicial Review whereupon judgement overturned the Planning Inspectorate's agreement that the Airport's operational acres could be "de-registeed" thus blocking any development progress on the airfield, the Judge has approved Blackbushe Airport's taking the judgement to appeal. It's rare, but very welcome news, 'hope springs eternal', it certainly does at Blackbushe!!
Wishing you a sunny Saturday...
PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on May 3, 2020 6:48:06 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 03/05/20On this spring day in 1695 Henri Pitot was born. When he departed this planet he left us something to remember him by, it's called the Pitot tube.. He could not have imagined its value so many years thereafter? We look forward to his invention receiving broader use some time in the future?
Today's Forum "Header" photo indicates Three Counties Aero Club's Auster V tied down to the apron mid sixties, or thereabouts. The irony of the Airport trying to develop into a viable General Aviation centre while the local parish excavate every inch of their land east of the Vigo Lane divider is plain to see. G-ANIS was a gentle beast, the Lycoming so much more peaceful than the Auster 6 and its Gypsy Major engine.. Happy memories of taxiing the old tail draggers with rudder, throttle and heel brakes combining to keep you on track! The nose wheel spam can era changed the whole thing!A reminder of how the days looked whilst the precious apron area was reduced by around two thirds aided by the local ratepayers cash... You can see how much has already been destroyed and how much further this destruction had to go until it met with the Vigo Lane 'boundary'. Was there a mandate amid the parishioners for their money to be spent in this fashion to guide whoever sanctioned such devastation?..and six decades later the battle still goes on, fuelled by insane bureaucracy and financed by public money, nowadays from the County coffers.... Please note that the removal of soil, gravel, or turf is forbidden by order of Ye olde Parish.. Could you make it up?Six decades later, and some of us have watched the changes year after year, after year.. The apron (the bit left behind and when there is no lockdown) plays host to corporate jets, business travellers, and those for whom the aeroplane is an invaluable tool. The surviving Airport today (lockdowns excluded), despite the efforts of some parties, is neat, smart, professionally run, busy, and an indication of the superb General Aviation centre that awaits if only Hampshire County Council could reflect on the asset they have in Blackbushe rather reaching for Judicial Reviews in a bid to devastate what they so far have failed to ... See you in the Court of Appeal.
PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on May 4, 2020 7:15:04 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 04/05/20IF it were possible to transport ourselves back through time, back to May 1944 shall we say, Blackbushe was at a significant time in her history. Night intruder missions would leave, single B-25s to seek out and destroy enemy airfields and vital railway links. The mysterious black B-25's of "C Flight" who carrying a French speaker would speak to our agents on the ground via special radios that were also dropped from the Blackbushe C Flight aircraft to enable communication via a very narrow band. Then there were the two Lysanders used to drop agents in occupied France. Surrounded in mystery, the agents were housed in nearby Hartley Wintney, but that's all I can say... Had I written this in 1944 no doubt my future would have been limited and brief, and quite right too. You really should read Rob Belcher's Blackbushe books for greater insight of the extraordinary journey undertaken by 'our' aerodrome..In the beginning, even during the time leading up to her birth, Blackbushe Airport (RAF Hartford Bridge initially) excelled herself as her massively strong runways were mixed and poured into existence, As confirmed by the telegram. Telegrams were the means of rapid message transmission, long before the web and What's App etc etc...Anyone unfamiliar with Blackbushe and visiting her today would no doubt be surprised, or disbelieving that this was once an expansive wartime base, the second airport for London, or the US Navy's UK land base, but it was, her history is extraordinary and unique. Her history cannot be broken unlike the dark desires of those who today would prefer to see her turned into a wasteland, her history making opportunities dashed for good. Once nuclear bombers parked by the side of the A30, they may not be seen so frequently today, but dear old Blackbushe is still here - a miracle in itself - and she fights on to ensure her skill at making amazing history is unbroken to become the south-east's premier General Aviation 'centre of excellence'. Once lockdown is over, the fear of the virus eliminated, and life finds out where it left off a few weeks ago aviation will return, and with it the business airfield will be as - if not more - important as the airlines try to find their feet again.. Blackbushe could not be better placed.PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on May 5, 2020 6:09:02 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 05/05/20Just another Tuesday, Blackbushe remains silent as do most other GA airfields, and as rather helpless humans we can but sit and wait for better times. Thank the heavens for giving us (some of us!) the brains to develop vaccines that will one day wipe out our new viral intruder! It's amazing how a microscopic alien can bring a whole planet into shut down mode, makes our tenancy of planet Earth feel somewhat tenuous, a feeling exacerbated by recent reports of asteroids performing fly-bys and 'near misses' even if they are a few million miles out, skin deep in astronomical terms..
Now that we're in a jolly mood best bring our thoughts down to Earth while we can.. Thoughts around the Open Spaces Society's Facebook Group. It crows in triumph over the defeat of Blackbushe at the recent Judicial Review and gathers the dreaded "likes" from many who seem to be celebrating the attempted assassination of Blackbushe. I'm sure by and large they have the wrong end of the stick, the impression being that the Airport wanted to de-register a vast swathe of Yateley Common, not just the tiny strip required for hangar construction. Would mature adult minds really cheer at the demise of many jobs, businesses, and a charity such a Aerobility? Maybe they would, if so the OSS might to need to re appraise their standing a little?
Robert Belcher's excellent book, "Blackbushe, London's Lost Airport 1942-1960" is one that all who have an interest in Blackbushe should have digested. For example, today 5th May 76 years ago, in 1944, you would read that recent bad weather had broken at last. The Boston crews had had much needed rest during the bad weather although "gee" equipped B-25s had flown on through the bad weather. Today, Blackbushe launched no less than twenty eight bombers to a large formation assembled to attack railway works at Cambrai. Other Boston crews spent time practising smoke laying techniques. Rob's book is a valuable window that looks straight into our airfield's highly varied past.It may be hard to imagine large numbers of Bostons departing Blackbushe 'in anger' as this one did, but they did and many of her young flyers gave their all in the process. Let us hope when sanity is re-established and Blackbushe is eventually able to build desperately needed hangars a permanent memorial to her fallen aircrews will be in place for all to see.The wind will continue to range across a silent Blackbushe for a while longer maybe, but the time WILL come when normality returns, time for a coffee at the Bushe Cafe and once again meet up with well known faces from the pre lockdown age..
Can't come soon enough...
PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on May 6, 2020 6:25:27 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 06/05/20So THAT'S what a 'Month of Sundays' feels like? Sundays or Christmas Days once provided a much quieter world than the one that occupied our 'working' days..Skies are no longer laced with vapour trails and an all consuming silent world beyond the front door has become the new 'norm'... How many more months of Sundays lie in store? Reading an update on research into Covid 19 it's a clever little fella who has ways of doing business quite unlike any of the other corona virus examples, I won't spoil your day but it is certainly a challenge for the 'people' in white coats looking for the vaccine that will help put aeroplanes back in the sky and life's return to 'normal'.. they'll get there, might take another month or two of Sundays?
Today, 6th May we can look back and celebrate men of accomplishment in aviation. Sir Alan Cobham, KBE, AFC, was born in 1894, meanwhile in 1908 over at Kitty Hawk the Wright Brothers were at it again. Their first flight since 1905, Wilbur took the Flyer III for a 1,000ft trip, the aircraft now modified so as pilot and passenger could both sit upright.. What would they have thought of the future they were leading us to? Machines like the A380 for example with hundreds all sitting upright?
Having devoted a large chunk of the past near sixty years to Blackbushe Airport, one way or another, some images taken along the way?John Cooper, famed for the Mini Cooper was one of our treasured "Sunday visitors" in the early 1960's G-ARAG was his flying steed. Amid the team of volunteers who worked, whiled away the hours talking and hoping for a better Blackbushe there was collective joy if an aeroplane should land and make our Sundays worth while!! John popped in reasonably often, Dick Emery was another, plus numerous others from Fairoaks, Redhill, and White Waltham who would help break up the silence that consumed Blackbushe - much as it does again today!! That all consuming silence is too familiar!1963, our first Dakota...57 years ago! Oh my...So many wonderful friends, lots of flying as the years ticked by. Where have they all gone? The years have melted and many friends with whom those years were shared have left the circuit..Exotic shapes would manifest over the passing years!Colour photos, and names like Neil Williams, James Black and Zlin entered into our lives...Resident flying clubs gained strength, Three Counties wonderful Comanche 250 basks in the sunshine. A 'new' fence lined the A30, long before the scrub of today took over the boundary..Warbirds came, warbirds went but they all added to the rich past Blackbushe has kindly given.It was sad to see Blackbushe "east" devoured and overgrown, but now and again shades of 'yesteryear' would land with their passengers who would walk the once well passenger trodden Blackbushe tarmac. Which ever way you look at it, Blackbushe has given many people many years of joy and fulfillment long after the Government closed her and threw away the keys..Many years have flown, and changes have come about, circuit procedures for example..Time for the Alpen packet, see you!
PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on May 7, 2020 7:06:15 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 07/05/20Another sunny May day stretches across many an English aerodrome, sadly the delights of the weather from above remain untapped by the flying fraternity a little longer..
While it remains a little difficult to tune in the crystal ball and view the immediate future, looking back is far easier... For example today, 7th May, 1944, would have been 264 Night Fighter Squadrons first full day at their new Blackbushe base. Equipped with night fighter Mosquitoes they had arrived to support Spitfire XIV equipped 322(Dutch) Squadron. Their joint role would be to prevent Luftwaffe Photo Recce aircraft snooping over the South Coast as we prepared for D-Day. The efforts of the combined squadrons was described as, "Boringly successful". The Luftwaffe were seemingly shy. Moving from war to Blackbushe's years as an air transport airport for London, a view so familiar to those of a certain vintage who spent happy hours by the A30 soaking up the Blackbushe atmosphere. Gorse grew the length of the ditch that ran parallel with the A30, but it was always kept down and never became 'obstructive'. It was a prickly deterrent to those who were tempted to cross the line. I think it was just once the Airport Police requested I move my feet from Airport property.. The "Loop" is plain to see here as it sports a resting Dakota, happily one part of Blackbushe that remains operational subject to lockdowns.With that image I'll bid you "Good day" and hopefully be back on VE Day!!
Before I slide off to find the cereal bowl, I'm giving increased thought to the need for a suitable memorial structure at Blackbushe to remember the far too many who gave their lives flying from here in the last war. It will not be something that can be entertained until the Airport's future is secure and the antics of Councils are overcome. The Airport owner is supportive of the need for a permanent memorial on site. I have an offer with regard to the production of a memorial's inscriptions, but I wonder if we were to propose a funding channel a suitable amount of money could be raised amid the many who follow the Forum and social media sites where Blackbushe gets significant daily viewing? A memorial dedicated to the airfield's wartime souls provided by the many who today share a love for the airfield would, I think, be a very suitable action. Literally just an open thought, but it would be interesting to see your thoughts too... Lasham have a splendid memorial near the airfield main entrance, I feel we owe something similar to the many who flew from our runways - and often failed to return. Feel free to leave your thoughts on the Forum's "POTD Comments and Questions", be good to hear from you!
PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on May 8, 2020 7:16:47 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 08/05/20A very special day, VE Day, the 75th Anniversary of the end of hostilities in Europe. A day when we remember a great victory for the free world and an unrest previously unknown to mankind was brought to its knees. A similar victory will in due course be celebrated across the planet as the war against a viral aggressor is finally won, a war in which thankfully mankind is not slaughtering fellow mankind.
We owe so much to so many for our peace and freedom enjoyed since the end of the last War, for us who value Blackbushe today it's entirely appropriate to reflect upon the debt we owe the aircrews who first used Blackbushe, RAF Hartford Bridge, in the dark days of war as we remember the many aircrew who gave their lives for us flying from here. Their roles were many and varied, from vital photo recce work leading to D-Day, tactical bombing, laying smoke screens, and various covert actions demanding the greatest extremes of courage and self sacrifice, please give them time in your thoughts as we celebrate VE Day 75 and the freedom they paid for so dearly in human cost.It's a difficult challenge to convey the emotion and circumstance of today into a few brief paragraphs, but perhaps we could soak up some words from different sources. For example, Stuart Marshall's excellent work "RAF Hartford Bridge, The Wartime Years"... I quote his words pertaining to VE Day, the first one!!
" On the 8th VE Day - the end of hostilities in Europe was received with relief and delight by all ranks. To mark this very special day celebrations were organised at short notice, with a victory dance being especially well attended, in part no doubt due to there being free beer and a buffet available! With suitable decorations having been put up and everyone really getting into the swing of things it was a good evening which all attending much enjoyed. It was a night when tensions could be forgotten and everyone was able to let their hair down in the knowledge that they had helped to achieve an outstanding victory that would greatly influence the future of this country and Europe".We can but imagine the atmosphere as aircraft across the airfield were at last silent and also able to enjoy peace of mind! The sounds coming from RAF Hartford Bridge's joyful occupants can be easily imagined as we walk across today's silent aerodrome?
" On the 13th May, 1945, the day was named "National Thanksgiving Sunday" and a large parade was held on the airfield with the Padre, Squadron Leader SWA Collins,taking the service. During the day parties of airmen and WAAFs representing the Royal Air Force attended services in Camberley and Yateley". A couple of links for you this morning... Click the link! Wartime memories wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/airfields/airfield.php?pid=1755and
VEDay75 ve-vjday75.gov.uk/The following report conjures up something of the 'atmosphere' in the locality, something that ever decreasing numbers will recall today.. I have take it from 'WW2 People's War' an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar'This contribution to WW2 People's War was received by the Action Desk at BBC Radio Norfolk, with the permission and on behalf of Douglas Gibbs. I lived in Yateley from 1925 to 1950. My father was headmaster of Yateley School so I lived in the school house with him, my mother and two brothers Ken and Gordon. There were three other teachers, my mother taught the infants. The school was heated by Tortoise stoves but we only had cold water to the wash basins and toilets were earth closets. There were play sheds with long seats, one side for boys and the other for the girls. My father was the air raid warden for the school and local area.
During the war we became used to moving about in the dark. Getting off the Reading train was hazardous, you had to make sure your carriage had stopped at the platform and not on the bridge parapet! The Nuns from Yateley Hall were scary to meet in the dark, also in Farnborough the monks in black or white habits. We could see the searchlights scanning the sky and thought we could always tell which were 'our' aircraft. We could also see the 'flaming onions' falling London way.
I was in the Home Guard, at the age of 81 I believe I am the last one alive from the platoon photograph. This was taken outside Dr Turner's house opposite the drill hall. Dr Turner was the village doctor with a wide practice area. He was also the Home Guard doctor. His surgery had large flagons in its windows with red, green and yellow liquid in them. He did his own dispensing and before the war, after school, I used to deliver his medicines to his patients. The charge was 2d for pills and 3d for bottles. I think his surgery charge was 5 shillings. The Home Guard uniform I was offered was either size 8 (too small) or size 11 (too big). We had a forage cap, leather ankle gaiters, boots, tin hat, an overcoat, gas mask pack and an Enfield rifle with 5 bullets. Also a thunderflash (banger firework), one string of Chinese crackers (jumping jack fireworks) and a spike bayonet. Sergeants were issued with Sten guns. Everything had to be accountd for and given back when the Home Guard was stood down in 1944.
We had parades twice a week and instruction was given in the use of rifle, grenades and Lewis gun. We did guard duties at all the village bridges and had battle exercises against Hawley and Hartley Witney Home Guard platoons. I was once given the dubious honour to blow the Hartley Witney Post Office door with a clay bomb - luckily it made no impression on the door! All the Home Guard platoons gathered at times for a full parade at Bramshill House, Hartley Witney. Some weekends we were at Arborfield Army Depot. Shooting practise was done at the Sandhurst Royal Military range - we were known as the second line of defence! How my Thunderflash and Chinese Crackers would have frightened a German soldier I shudder to think! Dads Army TV episodes bring back many similar memories. The village dances were often held in the drill hall. I cannot remember who organised them but they were always well attended. The Macrae Scout Hut, near the school, was used as an emergency food store and was full of tinned food. With rationing one can understand why not many folks knew about it.
Officially Yateley cricket, football and tennis ceased at the start of the war but I kept the cricket and football clubs going. I knew where all the lads in reserved occupations like myself lived in the area. Contacting them meant cycling round as I was the only one with a phone. I always managed to raise a team! I used to contact local military units in the area, every Saturday there was a game. Once we had one of the Arsenal boy teams play us. On the green I remember playing against Mountford, Kirchen and Busby, all professional players stationed locally - we lost! In the summer I managed to wangle a gallon of petrol from the military to mow the cricket pitch and outfield in return for putting on a game. We sometimes went back to the Naafi for a meal. Yateley was the only village in the area to have Saturday cricket and football matches throughout the year.
In September 1939 the Militia were billeted in houses round Yateley, the village school was full of troops and the school yard full of army vehicles. Billeting was not repeated, possibly because the village was not on mains drainage.
RAF men, WAAF's and Free French airmen were stationed in huts in Yateley, ATS at Minley Manor with Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders. One morning we woke to find the whole area covered in strips of aluminium foil. We learned later it was the RAF testing a foil system to be used over Germany to disrupt their radio systems. All the seven lakes from Frensham, Surrey to Crondhall, Hants were drained as it was thought that in the moonlight German aircraft would follow the lakes as msrkers. The last, the eighth, was at Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Surprisingly there was no military misbehaviour in the area. Not so in other places. I happened to be in Aldershot at the end of the war on the day the Canadian troops rioted. They were annoyed at the delay over being sent back home. Shop windows were smashed, all around the Empire Cinema was chaos. No Military Police about, I was glad to leave the area quickly. Each day I cycled up Dungells Lane, around Blackbushe, then known as Hartford Bridge Flats Aerodrome. Then through the Canadian lines at Minley Manor and Cove, past the Tank Corps depot at Pinehurst to get to the Royal Aircraft estate where I worked as an apprentice. I recall working a 60 hour week, seven days on and then the eighth day off. We were allowed one weeks holiday. As a government employee I was entitled to an all expences paid break with hostel accommodation on a farm in Cornwall. I went two years running. Blackbushe Aerodrome, originally called Hartford Bridge Flats Aerodrome was a fighter drome. A new house called Four Winds, at the top of Dungells Lane, was knocked down as was Silver Fox Farm at the top of Monteagle Lane to make way for the drome. On foggy nights the aerodrome runways were illuminated by Fido. This was the name given to oil flares placed at intervals in a parallel line to disperse the fog. Spitfires, Huricans, Baltimores and Maryland planes were flown from the drome. On D-Day June 4th 1944 when I crossed the drome early in the morning all was quiet and again at night returning home. All the planes were there, they had white bands painted on them. The morning of the 6th June at 7am the drome was empty of planes - they had all flown into action. That night at about 7pm when I was at home in the school house with my parents we saw the sky full of Dakotas, towing Horsa Gliders. They flew so low one could see the piolts in the gliders. The numbers seemed endless, plus the noise of the aircraft engines. The closest I came to being injured during the war was when the Royal Aircraft Establishment was bombed in daylight by a lone bomber. I was in no. 13, a partially submerged shelter near the engine department. A 1000kg delayed bomb fell between the department and the shelter - giving it a right good shaking. The blockhouse near the main gate collapsed killing three Home Guard inside. The fourth Home Guard man who walked out alive was apprentice Mark Freemantle.
VE Day, nothing startling happened except a sigh of relief. Bob Boswell, Mark Freemantle and myself (we were all RAE employees) met up for a drink in the Dog and Partridge. My father joined us for one and then being young we went on to other pubs. Hopefully the above paints a few pictures?Finally for today...Yesterday's POTD included thoughts about the pressing need for a permanent memorial to be established at Blackbushe. A memorial to remember the Hartford Bridge aircrews who we particularly thank for their contribution to freedom. I floated the idea of a memorial at least part funded by those of us who value Blackbushe today - and yesterday. There are many members signed to our Forum and various other social media sources who might be willing to contribute even a small amount to such a project. The concept of a memorial being established, once Blackbushe Airport has achieved permission to develop as required, and donated with our love and respect for the many crews who 'flew here first' and gave their all seems a fitting way to plant a little of our personal respect for them into the airfields courageous history?
Sadly, only one member responded yesterday. It will be quite some time before the idea could become reality, but it would be encouraging to see more support as to the prospect of a memorial to or aircrews donated at least in part by our own resources. I think it would mean a lot. You are free to add thoughts here.. blackbusheairport.proboards.com/post/13592That's more than enough from "POTD" today, wishing you a happy and meaningful VE day 75.....
As ever PB
|
|
|
Post by PB on May 9, 2020 8:14:12 GMT
"Photo of the Day" 09/05/20It may be 75 years since the Germans signed their declaration of surrender and the unthinkable horrors of war across Europe were brought to an end, but yesterday's show of emotion, respect, and thanks for all who served in the defense of our island confirms that our spirits have not lessened in their love and admiration for all who gave so much to secure the wonders of 'peace'. Placing a photo of RAF Hartford Bridge crews on Facebook's "Yateley Community" yesterday I was quite overwhelmed by the huge level of appreciative response, interest, and the large number of "likes" pinned to it, much in excess of those noted elsewhere! ! I lodged a "thank you" with Yateley Community this morning. The Battle of Britain's 75th Anniversary filled the Goodwood skies with Spitfires. Including this one, the famed pale blue of 16 PR Squadron, a sight that would have been so familiar in the Blackbushe, RAF Hartford Bridge, skies of World War Two. The very same shade of blue that joined us for Blackbushe Airport's 75th. This aircraft did actually belong to 16 Squadron during the war, but it joined the RAF too late to serve at Blackbushe, the Squadron had advanced into Europe. VE Day was getting ever nearer.... Enjoy the weekend, apparently it's Saturday today.. who knows? Everyday's the same! (Apart from the weather and Arctic winds we're promised before long..)
PB
|
|