Ternhill
TERNHILL: Military aerodrome (Originally spelt TERN HILL, two words)
Note: First two pictures by the author. The Stormy Petrel is situated almost opposite the entrance to RAF TERNHILL so I would imagine it was rather popular with those serving there over the years.
The third picture (2018) was obtained from Google Earth ©
Military users: WW1: RFC/RAF Training Squadron Station and Training Depot Station
HQ 29 Training Wing
10 TS (Airco DH.2s)
4 & 13 TDS (Avro 504Ks/FE2bs/Handley Page 0/400s)
63 Reserve Sqdn, became 63 TS
6 TS (Sopwith Camels)
34 & 43 TS (Reserve) Sqdns (Avro 504s/Bristol Scout D/Sopwith Camels/Sopwith 1½ Strutters)
132 Sqdn (Sopwith Camels)
133 Sqdn (Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2s & Handley Page 0/400s)
30 & 33 TS Australian Flying Corps (30TS had Sopwith Camels)
95 Sqdn (A variety of types)
HQ 29 (Canadian?) Training Wing (Airco DH.5s)
(Other aircraft types seen at TERN HILL were BE2e’s, Maurice Farman S.11 Shorthorns, RE.8s and at least one Armstrong Whitworth FK.8)
After 1936: 10 FTS 4 ASU (Westland Lysanders, Fairey Swordfish & Vickers Wellingtons)
24 EU
WW2: RAF Flying Training Command 21 Group
10 FTS (Flying Training School)
5 AFU [Advanced Flying Unit} (Hawker Hurricanes & Miles Masters)
5 SFTS (Miles Masters)
29 & 611 Sqdns (Probably flying Bristol Blenheims?)
78 Sqdn (Armstrong-Whitworth Whitleys)
RAF Fighter Command? 306 (Polish) Sqdn (Hurricanes) Here just for training? Or as part of the reserve force during the Battle of Britain?
No.4 Aircraft Storage Unit later 24 MU
Post 1945:
6 FTS (North American T.6 Harvards, then Percival Prentices and later Percival Provosts)
1975: (Westland Whirlwind, Bell Sioux & Westland Wessex helicopters)
Gliding: 1970s & 1980s 632 VGS
Location: SW of A41, SE of A5, 4nm SW of Market Drayton
Period of operation: 1916 to 1920 then 1936 to 1976? Apparently reopened, in the 1980s (?) and still operational in 2001 when it appears to have closed…for good this time?
Site area: WW1: 300 acres 1189 x 1006
Runways: WW2: 11/29 914x46 hard 05/23 914x46 hard
2001: 10/28 948x45 hard 05/23 980x45 hard
A MOST UNUSUAL COMBINED GALLERY
In June 2021 I was contacted by Mr Michael Wadsley from Australia who had found some pictures in an album, and could I identify the aerodrome? They appeared to have been taken by his deceased relative George R Brettingham-Moore, who was a 2nd Lieut in the Australian Flying Corps, and who had gained his flying certificate, No.5282, at THETFORD on the 21st August 1917.
I had a good look round but failed miserably. So, as so often I asked Mike Holder, such a good friend of this 'Guide', to see what he could make of these pictures, and lo and behold, in next to no time, he came up with the answer. Not only that, he also sent the following:
NOTES: Some sources say TERN HILL opened in 1917, others late in 1916. On the evening of 9th March 1919 a fire broke out destroying a large hangar, (with four Handley Page 0/400 bombers and several Avro 504s inside), plus other sundry wooden hutments nearby. It would seem that this pretty much put paid to any future for TERN HILL as a military aerodrome at that time. The surviving sheds were soon used as stables and a training track and gallops were laid out on the previous Landing Ground.
It seems that the greater part of the WW1 Landing Ground became infested with rabbits which caused substantial problems when it was decided to re-open the site in the mid-1930s as an aerodrome. I just love learning all this stuff - as a lad aerodromes, especially grass aerodromes, were seen as being very much permanent fixtures I had no idea how much effort was, (and still is), often required to construct and maintain a grass airfield or even a private landing strip. Occasionally mowing the runway grass is the least of it, indeed some specialist companies were set up to properly ‘construct’ these grass airfields, (we’re talking about the Landing Ground here, nothing to do with buildings), and it involved much expertise plus quite a bit of ‘science’.
QUITE A JUMP
I have learnt that 133 Sqdn were using their F.E.2s to train pilots destined to fly the Handley Page 0/400s based here - it must have been quite a jump?
It was in WW2 that 133 Sqdn was reformed, becoming an ‘Eagle’ Squadron with American pilots. I would thoroughly recommend reading The Few by Alex Kershaw who relates the stories of the handful of American pilots who managed to fly in the Battle of Britain.
ANOTHER ASPECT
There is another aspect to the training of RAF pilots and aircrews during WW2. The established system in the UK simply could not cope. To quote from John Sweetman in his excellent book Bomber Crew: “In a determined effort to clear the log jam of applicants and to improve the training organisation overall, on the 17th December 1939 the Empire Training Scheme had been agreed for aircrew to attend courses overseas (for example, in Canada, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, India). Ultimately, more than two hundred thousand would be trained in this way, in addition to fourteen thousand in the United States.”
NOTE: In January 2022 I was kindly sent this picture of Pilot Officer Ralph Farmer RAFVR, (at TERN HILL), by Brent Thistle who is a relative. At that time P.O. Farmer was serving with No.10 SFTS. Note the Station Standing Orders notice on the wall. This was before they were sent to Moose Jaw in Canada and Brent asks why this transfer happened? I think it was, (as explained above), simply to remove RAF aircrew in basic training away from the front line. I think it also possible that, although already in the RAFVR, P.O. Farmer might have been destined for Bomber or Coastal Command, and sent to Canada for training on multi-engine aircraft.
Tony Thomas
This comment was written on: 2019-01-02 00:30:18I lived at Tern Hill, Garden City from 1941 to 1963. I can just about remember the Wellington bomber crash, and Lancaster bombers returning from night raids. Mostly the roar of Harvards overhead drowning out the skylarks.
Adrienne Slater
This comment was written on: 2019-03-03 15:10:17I am researching my father’s record of RAF WW2 service and see he was at Ternhill 24 MU from Sept 39 to July40, though attached to Xflight Upavon for part of that time. Anyone know what he would be doing there please. he entered RAF as a sergeant pilot in 1936, I think
christopher leivers
This comment was written on: 2019-09-29 15:14:35i lived in a house accross the road from the entrance to raf ternhill i was only a young lad at the time and i am looking for pictures of the houses tat where on the end . our back garden was the way we went to the stormy for a beer with dad but any pictures would be most welcome as memories are only as long as we are alive
ANDY Jameson
This comment was written on: 2020-06-10 23:53:11My father was based at RAF Ternhill with 24 MU from sometime in 1943 to 1945 when he was demobbed. There is a photo of the staff of the MU (including my dad) in front of Lancaster S for Sugar, one of the few Lancs to survive over 100 sorties, after she was sent for a major overhaul.
Vernon Chambers
This comment was written on: 2021-05-03 01:05:48As a child (and up to age 20) I lived at Blackbrook village, (on A 51about 2 mls past The Swan with 2 necks) at age @ 10 yrs, i remember aircraft flying low over our house, I was told they were training planes from Ternhill, seem to remember single seaters ! Anyone kmow what they were? sorry email inop at present but tel. 07913 674750.
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