Graveley
GRAVELEY: Military aerodrome later private airstrip?
The aerial view was obtained from Google Earth ©. The local area and area views are from my Google Earth © derived database.
Military users: WW2: RAF Bomber Command 8 Group
35 (Madras Presidency) Sqdn (Handley Page Halifaxs, Avro Lancasters later)
35 Sqdn were the first to operate the Halifax, being posted to BOSCOMBE DOWN for the conversion to type.
The history of the Halifax was blighted by the relatively poor performance of the Mk.II and Mk.V although by all accounts the Mk.III was about equal to the Lancaster?
161 [SD] Sqdn (Seven Westland Lysanders, five Armstrong-Whitworth Whitley V, two Vickers Wellingtons and one Lockheed Hudson (ex-King's Flight).
692 Sqdn (DH Mosquitos)
Location: W of Graveley village, 5nm S of Huntingdon
Period of operation: Military: 1942 to 1968 Civil: 2000s only?
Runways: WW2: 02/20 1280x46 hard 08/26 1829x46 hard
15/33 1280x46 hard
NOTES: This must presumably have been a far more important RAF bomber base although the runway lengths and amount of hardstandings are identical to the nearby GRANSDEN LODGE aerodrome. The difference is in the amount of personnel on station. 2300 in this case as opposed to 1111 at GRANSDEN LODGE although with only slightly more, (299), WAAFs.
THE PRICE TO PAY
It was this airfield that Kevin Wilson has used (amongst others of course) to describe the ultimate price paid by aircrews of RAF Bomber Command and this is very well illustrated in his books Bomber Boys and Men of Air which I would thoroughly recommend reading in order to appreciate the sacrifice and horror those young men endured. It is largely forgotten today that these bomber crews were the ONLY means of attacking Germany itself for most of WW2. This is why the majority of those aircrews saw it as being their duty alone to both defend their homeland and carry the war right onto the doorstep of the enemy.
For example, it was on a raid to Kreffield in 1943 that 35 Sqdn, “…lost six aircraft out of nineteen dispatched, the worst loss by any RAF bomber squadron throughout the whole of 1943 apart from the specialist 617 Sqn on the Dams Raid. Six crews of 35 Sqn had already been lost in the past three weeks.” They certainly realised their lives were sacrificial but it seems they didn’t see their duties as being suicidal. It is perhaps rather difficult today to fully appreciate the resolve of those young men to climb back again and again into these aircraft knowing full well they would probably die. Indeed, many did so convinced they wouldn’t return and so very often their premonitions were correct.
161 SQUADRON
This was one of two Squadrons, the other being 138 Squadron, formed out of 1419 Flight to conduct highly secret clandestine operations providing support to resistence movements, mainly in France, by dropping supplies and agents, but also with Lysanders initially, also landing to both deliver supplies, agents and VIPs, and airlift them out. An often hazardous operation in all sorts of ways. It is highly recommended to read We Landed By Moonlight by Hugh Verity, published in 1978 to get the bigger picture.
A COLOURFUL AFFAIR
This story by Hugh Verity, from his book We Landed By Moonlight, greatly appealed to me, and I trust you will enjoy it too. 161 Squadron had just that day, (1st March 1942), moved to GRAVELEY so the operation had clearly been planned in advance, and their usual operations base at TANGMERE in SUSSEX was being used.
"That same night, 1/2 March, Sticky Murphy carried out a remarkable rescue operation in an Anson. It had been borrowed from the Bomber Command Operational Training Unit at Abingdon, where yellow Ansons were used for training. The unit never knew what it was used for on that sortie. All they knew was that when it was returned it had been sprayed black all over, including the windows. (My note: But obviously not the cockpit windows!). Ansons were very slow twin-engined aircraft used mainly for training navigators or patrolling round coastal convoys to keep submarines below the surface."
"On this trip Murphy was accompanied by Pilot Officer Cossar, a wireless operator.They set off from Tangmere at 2100, flew over Cabourg an hour later and set course for Tours. Then heavy cloud and rain made map-reading difficult and their fix on the Loire was delayed until 2315. From 2230 to 2355 they were lost. Then they could set course for Issoudun and they saw their reception committee's lights at 0100."
"The four passengers, including Whippy Nesbitt-Dufort and the intelligence agents that he had gone to collect, embarked 'very rapidly' and the Anson then took off agonisingly slowly, according to Whippy's report. They were airborne at 0015 and set course for Cabourg. For some unexplained reason they actually crossed the French coast at Dieppe and finally landed at 0240. This was the first pick-up by a twin-engine aircraft and the only one by an Anson. When the Anson was returned to Abingdon, the crew did not want to face its owner's fury that it had been painted black. They simply parked it and climbed into the back of the Lysander which had come with them and flew away."
Wouldn't we just love to know the reaction at ABINGDON? And how high up the command chain the complaints went until somebody presumably said, "Just shut up, and paint the bloody thing yellow again." Or words to that effect.
Typically a Lysander would carry two and at a pinch three passengers - hence the use of an Anson. The first Lockheed Hudson arrived at 161 Squadron in January 1943 and could carry eight or even ten passengers plus luggage etc - but clearly needing far larger and firmer fields than those selected for Lysander operations. And, the landing technique developed by 161 Squadron was by using approach speeds well below the normally recommended speeds. Plus flying and landing at night onto a flare-path lit by three torches in a row, plus a fourth set at a position at right angles to the third torch. An inverted 'L'. A technique orginally developed by two RAF (SD) pilots for the first Lysander deliveries and pick-ups in late 1940, apparently on a tablecloth in a restaurant.
This said, Hugh Verity does give an account when four adult passengers did squeeze into the back of a Lysander, presumably without the pilots consent.
What also interests me, is the way pilots and crews were expected to so quickly adapt to flying different types. Hugh Verity for example was sent on a one week course at RAF SILLOTH (CUMBERLAND) to convert from Lysanders to the Hudson. And then had the problems of trying to explain to the instructors that he needed to practise very slow approaches to land, without explaining why!
THE NUREMBURG RAID
When ordered to take part in the Nuremburg raid, (30/31 March 1944), 35 Squadron had just converted from the Halifax to the Lancaster. In effect they were still trying it out. On this raid, coupled with a clear night ideal for Luftwaffe night fighters and poor tactical planning, RAF Bomber Command suffered their worst losses. Without any doubt a Nazi sympathiser or 'mole' imbedded in RAF Bomber Command HQ had deliberately arranged this.
This is just one example, the interference with the Dambusters Raid, on the day, by such people almost beggars belief, the result being less than half that planned for.
If you dig deep enough, all the proof is there.
To cap it all, regarding Nuremburg, not much lasting damage was done. 795 aircraft were dispatched and 96 failed to return. Twelve more were fatally damaged. 'Bomber' Harris, the head of Bomber Command, was quite unconcerned, stating that he was surprised his forces did not suffer a score of Nuremburgs!
It is important I think to try and put things into some kind of perspective. On this one night the RAF lost 545 aircrew, more than in the Battle of Britain - although the majority of those were pilots of course, in single seater fighters.
PROOF OF GA ACTIVITY?
At Flying for Fun at KEMBLE in 2005 the very rare Ultravia Aero Pelican Club G-BWWA was entered as flying in from GRAVELEY near Huntingdon. But, had it come from the ex-WW2 aerodrome site, or possibly a private airstrip nearby?
Norman
This comment was written on: 2019-09-22 06:10:47A very quick search of g-info reveals that the Graveley mentioned as being the departure airfield for FFF at Kemble 2005 was the microlight strip near Luton
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