Hixon
HIXON: Military aerodrome later private airfield
Note: These first two pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©. The third astonishing picture was found and sent by Mr Graham Frost. To which I have added a Google Earth © from 2013.
Military users: RAF Bomber Command 93 Group
30 OTU [Operational Training Unit] (Vickers Wellingtons, later Avro Lancasters)
Note: This painting of HIXON in the earlier part of WW2 was reproduced on a postcard, a copy of which was kindly sent by Mike Charlton who has an amazing collection. See, www.aviationpostcard.co.uk
Location: NW of Hixon & SW of Stowe villages, S of A518 & E of A51, 7nm NE of Stafford
Period of operation: Military: 1942 to 1957 Civil: 1970s, 1980s only?
Runways: WW2: 03/21 1509x46 hard 09/27 1280x46 hard
15/33 1097x46 hard
NOTES: Barely heard of today I expect; I had certainly never heard of it until researching this 'Guide'. It was nevertheless a pretty important OTU in it’s day with, in late 1944 some 2393 RAF personnel on station plus 445 WAAFs and 30 hardstandings for heavy bombers.
SOMETHING OF NOTE
During WW2 some 6,000 men from the Caribbean and West Africa volunteered for service in Europe with the RAF. Of these around 400 were selected as aircrew. One such was Cy Grant from British Guyana who was a navigator, and arriving at HIXON he was selected by the French Canadian pilot Al Langille, when they were crewing up in 30 OTU.
The British government lifted the colour bar for military service just eight weeks after war with Germany was declared, but it appears that only the RAF decided to accept this ruling - initially at least. If you are interested in this little known aspect please see my entry for ELSHAM WOLDS which contains more information.
In 1977 the Robin DR.400/160 G-BAMS of Bostock Aviation and Robin HR.100/285 Tiara G-BCMR were based here.
It appears that around 2013 Air & Ground Aviation obtained a contract to scrap some time expired RAF Hercules. Their base was just west of the WW2 airfield. See a seperate entry for SHIRLEYWICH.
Stephen thomson
This comment was written on: 2019-01-11 07:53:56my dad was based at hixon during the war I belive he was an engineer to the bomber base
Ray
This comment was written on: 2020-04-08 17:45:02Who was the artist of the picture depicting Wellington Bomber WW2 Aircraft at RAF HIXON IN 1943.
Dick Flute
This comment was written on: 2020-04-09 18:57:32Hi Ray, I have been in touch with Mike Charlton and he tells me that the only info on the card is that it was published by M.A. Arts, copyright Alan Preece. Regards, Dick
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