Goldington
GOLDINGTON: Military Landing Ground
Military user: RFC (Royal Flying Corps) Night Landing Ground then Day Landing Ground
75 [Home Defence] Sqdn (Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c, later B.E.2e types)
Location: Now a north-east suburb of Bedford
Period of operation: From October 1916 to April 1918
NOTES: As far as I can see without the luxury of having a lot of time to research this site, it would appear that 75 Squadron were the sole occupiers, in terms of being based here. They moved to ELMSWELL (SUFFOLK) in September 1917.
A THANKLESS TASK
The threat of being bombed by airships and Gotha bombers was blown out of all proportion in WW1, mostly fuelled I suspect by a completely out of control and unscrupulous press seeking sensationalism to increase sales of their ill-informed rags.
Typically the poor sods of 75 Squadron patrolled in vain, month after month, in search of a target. This was a common story elsewhere of course. But any 'modern' war is of course largely an exercise in how to lay to waste very expensive resources, and it is only in recent times that a more focused approach has been adopted.
I suppose that this is hardly surprising given that the British Empire was founded on the principle of having military might to impose the regime around much of the world, with more or less unlimited resources and finances. And, for the people involved it is a bitter pill to swallow when discovering that the 'tap' is running dry.
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