Wing
WING: Military aerodrome
Military user: WW2: RAF Bomber Command 92 Group
28 OTU [Operational Training Unit] (Vickers Wellingtons)
? (Hawker Hurricanes)
Note: Obviously not part of Bomber Command operations - presumably? This said some fighters did serve on detachment, (for example), for practise to bomber crews in spotting and evasion tactics etc.
92 Group Comms Flt
Location: NE of Cublington, 4nm W of Leighton Buzzard
Period of operation: 1941 to 1958
Runways: WW2: 17/35 1280x46 hard 07/25 1829x46 hard
12/30 1061x46 hard
NOTES: It is not usually recognised today that many semi-trained crews at OTUs were sent on operations (with instructors). For example, quoting from John Sweetmans excellent book Bomber Crew: “Quite apart from the thousand-bomber raids, many OTUs were sent on other operations. Three times in September, (My note: This was in 1942), Sergeant Reg Lewis navigated a Wellington from Wing, Buckinghamshire, to Germany. Only two from the twelve crews on his course survived to be posted to an operational unit.”
This sort of statistic will most definitely NOT be announced at an air show today when we are expected to ‘Oooh and Aaarh’ as the BBMF Lancaster flies past. Which is a damned shame I would say, because those aircrews also deserve, and need to be remembered.
MARTIN BAKER
Martin-Baker used WING in 1942 for flight-testing of their MB.3 R2492 which made its first flight on the 31st August 1942. This aircraft crashed shortly after on the 12th September killing Capt. Val Baker - a co-director of the company. This didn’t deter the company from then producing the MB.5 which, although never going into production, was rated by many as being potentially the finest British propeller driven fighter of WW2.
The MB.5 first flew on the 23rd May 1944 and therefore I suppose the RAF considered there was little point in backing the design as the jet age had arrived; even if the test pilots evaluating the MB.5 considered it to be superior to the contemporary models of the Spitfire? This said and given that front line fighter aircraft of the era had a rather short life-span, and indeed that propeller driven fighters were still being used in the Korean war, in retrospect this does indeed seem a somewhat short-sighted decision?
But, on the other hand, and for very good reasons, the decision to rationalise and standardise with a minimal number of engine and airframe designs had been taken many years before. Which of course makes the decision to go ahead with production of a prototype even more difficult to understand. Plus, as it appears that the MB.5 was designed to be much easier to maintain and service than similar types already in service, the decision not to proceed seems even odder.
BACK ON THE MAP
One of the really nice points about doing this Guide is the opportunity to put aerodromes like WING ‘back on the map’ so to speak. I have flown over this aerodrome many times using it as a navigation feature. I even used it when learning to fly although it certainly wasn’t too obvious at first sight that this was it once a big military aerodrome - until I learnt the signs to look out for.
After WW2 ended in Europe allied PoWs were ferried back to various airfields including, DUNSFOLD, ODIHAM, WESCOTT and WING. 38 Group Stirlings certainly landed here. In late 1944 some 1,976 RAF personnal were based here including 511 WAAFs.
Nick Ellins
This comment was written on: 2021-02-06 15:51:27Thank you for a very good page. Two things: 1) work is underway to unveil a memorial to all at Wing airfield, Valentine Baker and to Operation Exodus this year. See more on the Facebook page ‘The Stewkley, Wing and Cublington History Group’. 2) it was No.26 OTU that served at Wing and their satellite at Little Horwood rather than 28 OTU
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