Milden Pound
Note: This map is just a guess as I cannot find any mention of a 'MILDEN POUND'. But, I did find a Pound Farm on the Boxford Road south of Milden village. Could this be the Milden Pound Joe Patient refers to?
MILDEN POUND: Temporary landing site
Location: I suppose this was adjacent to Milden village? Roughly 3nm SE of Lavenham
NOTES: In his excellent book PILOT Joe Patient DFC has these stories to tell whilst CO of M Squadron GPR (Glider Pilot Regiment) at GREAT DUNMOW. (Joe had nearly completed two Tours on Pathfinder Mosquitos). The RAF often showed a remarkable ability, when aircrew having completed a Tour or more on Ops, (would divert pilots especially?), to other sections in which they had no expertise, could not pass on their operational knowledge, and basically had to ‘learn the ropes’ as a beginner. Can anybody explain the logic behind this strategy?
“On one of my rounds of inspection, I saw a Mosquito land and went to meet it. The pilot, who had about an hour’s business to attend to at Station HQ, said he would have no objection to my flying it so long as it was not pranged. What a joy to fly a real aeroplane again. Joe and Mossie Mk 30 MT 481 were united for half an hour.”
“Tom McGeorge was a JP and greatly respected farmer in Milden Pound in the Lavenham neighbourhood of Suffolk. I forget how I became friends with him and his wife, Connie, but I remember introducing him to flying by landing in one of his fields in the Tiger Moth when staying there for the weekend.” It was common practise from the earliest days of flying in the UK for pilots, both civil and military, to ‘pop in’ to visit using a suitable field.
A practise today usually frowned upon at flying clubs, but often practised by a few light aircraft owners, and I imagine by the microlight fraternity especially? And yet, it does appear such behaviour only very rarely presented problems. Without any doubt many have lost the knack of landing safely in a suitable field, if the AAIB accident reports are anything to go by. This said, the majority of these accidents are caused by engine failure.
Isn’t this odd? A skill deemed no longer required. And of course, since WW2 so many light aircraft are not designed to handle landing in a typical grass field.
“Another house guest at the time was Colonel H. Todt from the US Air Force base at Lavenham, who was interested in the fact that I had carried out sixteen sorties for the U.S. I had taken with me an article from Illustrated magazine on 24 March, 1945, showing two pictures of myself involved in briefing. The caption read, ‘The cream of Britain’s fighting forces.’ Tom’s remark, ‘You know what cream is Joe? The scum off the milk.’ ”
“Colonel Todt expressed a wish to see the gliders, so I invited him to Great Dunmow. When he arrived with jeep and driver, I sent the driver back saying that I would take the Colonel back to Lavenham by air after he had looked round and had lunch. I gave him experience of the Tiger Moth on the way to Lavenham, ending up with a display of aerobatics over the airfield. After landing, he asked if he could make a circuit solo. I agreed so long as I could do the same on the B17 (Flying Fortress). He arranged this, naturally with a safety pilot in the other seat. I was astonished how docile and easy it was to fly. She seemed to handle just like an overgrown Anson, that wonderful, viceless old lady. Todt’s flight in the Tiger Moth, however, caused me a number of anxious moments as a wind had developed and it was only after two overshoots that he managed to get it down. I had visions of a Court Martial if he had pranged it.”
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