Warboys
WARBOYS: Military aerodrome
Note: This picture (2017) was obtained from Google Earth ©
The basic layout and location of the runways, can more or less, still be discerned. Which is often the case when seen from the air, even though next to nothing is visible at ground level.
Military users: WW2: RAF Bomber Command 8 Group
156 Sqdn (Vickers Wellingtons, later Avro Lancasters)
Pathfinder Navigation Training Unit (Lancasters)
1655 Mosquito Training Unit (de Havilland Mosquitos & Airspeed Oxfords)
F.N. Training Unit
MAP (Ministry of Aircraft Production)
Location: W of A141, SW of Warboys town, 5.5nm NE of Huntingdon
Period of operation: 1941 to 1963 (or 1964?)
Runways: WW2: 12/30 1829x46 hard 17/35 1234x46 hard
06/24 1280x46 hard
NOTES : I have often thought about what must have been behind the sheer guts and determination that kept those young bomber crews going despite appalling losses. Without much doubt Patrick Bishop puts his finger on a main cause in his book Wings: “The start of the Blitz generated a hatred of Germany that had previously been latent. On 14 November 1940 the city of Coventry was devastated with more than 40,000 homes destroyed or damaged, 554 people killed and nearly a thousand seriously injured."
The attack created an upsurge in popular pressure for retaliation and revenge. Before Coventry there were some – perhaps many – who felt it was unwise to provoke the Germans. Afterwards most shared the view of the young man who told a Mass Observation reporter: ‘We’re fighting gangsters, so we’ve got to be gangsters ourselves. We’ve been gentlemen too long.” From now on the bombing of Germany had the backing of the nation, even when everybody knew what that meant for the townsfolk of Cologne, Hamburg and the Ruhr.”
This is absolutely correct. Every bomb that fell on a German city was more than totally justified, including the raids on Hamburg and Dresden which had the most appalling conseqences. When faced with a regime led by some of the most demented and deranged leaders ever seen in human history, there was no alternative. Especially when the V.2 missiles started to arrive. It is often ignored that, despite it was obvious that the Nazi regime should have surrended in 1943, it kept on going.
PRACTICAL MATTERS
I do realise I’m going on about this throughout this Guide but I simply cannot understand the mania the RAF had for constantly moving most squadrons around. It was obviously counter-productive to the war effort, (as was so much ‘strategy’ that came out of Bomber Command HQ), but the history of 156 Squadron surely pinpoints the utter stupidity of this policy?
This squadron was moved four times in WW2, starting from ALCONBURY to WARBOYS, then UPWOOD and finally WYTON. All airfields within a few miles of each other. To move a squadron was a major logistical exercise so it stands to reason that many senior RAF officers engaged behind the scenes were obviously sympathetic to, if not actively aiding the Nazi regime? Can there be another explanation?
Indeed, the same accusation can be squarely aimed at many within Bomber Command HQ. So many raids were clearly planned to inflict maximum casualties and loss of aircraft whilst giving the German forces every advantage. Many surviving crews from early raids realised this, (if not in so many words?), and tried very hard to concoct various means to avoid throwing their lives away.
Does the usual excuse of utter incompetence, thorough stupidity and ineptitude at every level still wash? But, we do have to remember that the boss of Bomber Command, ‘Butcher’ Harris as he was known by his aircrews, (and he was a WW1 pilot), appears to have held dear to the concepts of trench warfare behind his thinking and strategies. If you can afford to throw enough lives away…you’ll win. In this at least it seems he was right.
This said, faced with the sheer enormity of the task Harris faced, despite the efforts of many of those beneath him to thwart the effectiveness of Bomber Command, what else could he have done? It also appears that Harris did not appreciate the value of a system that allowed advice from operational crews to percolate upwards. Orders could only come from above.
THE COLD WAR ERA
1960 RAF Fighter Command 257 Squadron with Bloodhound SAMs until 1964
REMAINING PROOF?
As far as I could tell from a brief visit in July 2015, and at ground level, this single sign was the only evidence that an airfield once existed here. I would be interested to learn if any other evidence remains - apart from bits of concrete apron.
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