Stoney Cross
STONEY CROSS: Military aerodrome
Note: This picture was obtained from Google Earth ©
Military user: RAF Transport Command 116 Wing
232 & 242 Sqdns (Vickers Wellingtons)
Location: In New Forest 4nm NW of Lyndhurst, N of the A31 & NW of Stoney Cross
Period of operation: 1942 to 1948 (some say 1946) Returned to the Forestry Commission in 1956
Note: The outline of runway 07/25 could still be discerned in 2015, and I expect it will remain visible for many years. The public road in the picture runs parallel to and fairly close to the northern edge of the runway.
Runways: WW2: 07/25 1829x46 hard 14/32 1390x46 hard
18/36 1280x46 hard
NOTES: I well remember when we had a motor caravan meeting up with friends who had a caravan in the mid 1980s to spend a night at the STONEY CROSS site run by the Forestry Commisiion in the New Forest. Soon after arriving we realised we were
on pitching up on one of the dispersal areas used on the WW2 airfield. They had a metal detector and within next to no time their teenage children were coming back with remnants of all kinds of machine gun and cannon ammunition typical of the type used by WW2 military aircraft, some of which hadn’t been fired!
This was of course one of the aerodromes used for the D-Day landings.
A SECRET PAST
I have been occasionally driving by the little that remains of STONEY CROSS for nigh on forty years, and, until researching this Guide had always assumed it was a sort of temporary aerodrome of a minor nature. Indeed, the little I’d discovered of its history over many years did little to elevate its status.
So, imagine my surprise, in late 2011 to discover a whole new episode of considerable significance. I have on occasion wondered where the ‘secret aerodrome’ was situated when the ‘Dambusters’ weapon was being tested on Chesil Beach. It now appears they were flying from STONEY CROSS.
ANOTHER ASPECT
In his excellent autobiography The Urge To Fly Don Robertson has a couple of tales regarding STONEY CROSS. He was a Royal Navy pilot in WW2 and spent quite a bit of time seconded to BOSCOMBE DOWN for test flying: “Another armament trial which ‘A’ per T Flight was involved in was a comparison of the effectiveness of a ground attack on dispersed aircraft with fighter aircraft guns, as compared with low-flying aircraft carrying bombs. About 25 different types of aircraft, which were servicable but becoming obsolete, were parked haphazardly around Stoney Cross aerodrome in the New Forest and our orders were to make a live ammunition attack from low level, thereby simulating an attack by the enemy. All the pilots concerned went over by road to inspect the site after being briefed on the direction of attack and where the spectators were to be.”
“It seemed a pity to ruin so many good aircraft and I am slightly ashamed to say that some of the hard to get spares and instruments mysteriously disappeared before our onslaught!* After every attack a party of engineers searched each aircraft for damage to vital parts such as electrics, the hydraulics, the fuel system and marked each bullet hole with a different coloured paint so that the damage inflicted could be assessed. We never saw the final report but it was an expensive trial much enjoyed by all.”
A PERSONAL MEMORY
*I once knew a ‘low level oik’, now deceased, who had served in the RAF and who had confided in me, over a bottle of whisky in a hotel room in Florence. (Italy), the sheer amount of fiddles they got up to . It was quite astonishing.
ANOTHER ASTONISHING REVELATION
Then came the revelation in late 2011, again from Don Robertson: “The same aerodrome was also used for the trials of the ‘Dambusters’ weapon which, at the time, was highly secret. Another secret weapon tested there was the Grand Slam. This was a 22,000 lb bomb in a streamlined casing with four tail-fins set to make it rotate in flight like a bullet from a rifle. Several of us, not directly concerned, went over to witness the first release which was to be dropped from a Lancaster at 18,000 feet, calculated to allow it to gain supersonic speed.
The top brass having assembled, the Lancaster began its dummy run dropping a 12-lb marker to check allowance for wind. A loudspeaker had been installed so that the bomb aimer’s instructions to the pilot could be heard on the ground. In the briefing we had been warned that there would be a delay of about 25 seconds while the bomb fell with an eight second delayed fuse in the bomb itself.”
The big moment arrived: ‘Left, left, right, steady, steady, steady, bomb away.’ There was a hushed silence and considerable tension as everyone waited for what was thought to be the biggest explosion ever. As we waited a firework was let off just behind us and we nearly jumped out of our skins. Practical jokers can be a menace sometimes and this time the culprit was someone from ‘B’ squadron.”
“We continued watching as a splash of earth was thrown up at the designated target followed shortly afterwards by a supersonic bang and what seemed to be an interminable delay. Suddenly there was a deep thud and chunks of earth half as big as a railway carriage flew into the air to several hundred feet and fell pitter patter for seconds afterwards leaving a crater about 60 feet across. These bombs subsequently penetrated six feet of concrete covering the submarine pens at Brest.”
ANOTHER PERSONAL NOTE
As my sister lives near Poole in Dorset and I live in London, a diversion through the New Forest is always a treat and very often a route via STONEY CROSS is taken. Since doing research for this 'Guide' I shall never ever again drive past this site with the same dismissive interest. Was the ‘Grand Slam’ crater filled in?
A STORY
I can most highly recommend to anybody the Tails Of The Fifties series compiled by Peter Campbell. In the first volume Peter Amos had this story to tell:
“On Sunday 13th November, (my note: this was in 1949 and the Canberra first flew on the 13th May that year), I decided to cycle to Stoney Cross airfield in the New Forest. The cows were grazing between the runways but I recall a T.2 hangar on the western side which was full of Auxiliary Fire Fighting Trailers, although little evidence of its previous occupation by the Stirlings of Transport Command remained.”
“It was whilst cycling down the main runway that I received the fright of my life: a jet noise caused me to look over my shoulder to find one of the blue Canberra prototypes diving at high speed apparently directly at me! I was off that runway like greased lightning and I swear I could see the grin on the pilot’s face as he returned to Boscombe Down, from whence he had obviously come.” Today of course we realise the staggeringly historically important significance of this account….test flying was being undertaken in those days on a Sunday!? And/or, somebody was taking a Canberra for a ‘jolly’?
END NOTE
Even in late 1944 this was still a pretty busy RAF Station with a strength of 2051 RAF personnel plus 395 WAAFs.
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