Berlin Airlift
Discussion
Crumbs. I've just found out that Tarrant Rushton is only 15 or 16 miles away from me by bike. I might well take a trip up there if we get some half decent weather. It looks like there's a public right of way over at least part of one of the perimeter tracks if Streetview is at all reliable. If I go I'll try to get some photos...
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8528784,-2.0851777...
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8528784,-2.0851777...
ettore said:
Yes, you can access and walk around. Really is worth it - on a good day you can see the Isle of Wight.
Cool. I've also just realised that, for some bizarre reason, I had Tarrant Rushton mixed up in my head with Compton Abbas airfield. But that is obvious lunacy, as I'm sure you'd struggle to operate a Lancaster from there at all, let alone house the hangars required by a Bomber command base, and the additional associated manufacturing processes that Flight Refuelling would have needed. Why I've been thinking that I have no idea, as I've seen many images and videos of Compton Abbas and it's hilltop grass runway and restricted site. 
And Compton Abbas is an additional 15 miles away, too. So I might make a double visit on a nice day. I pass Hurn regularly on my bike, heading out Ringwood way for a bike ride. I also ride (and drive) regularly down one of the old runways at RAF Stoney Cross... https://www.google.com/maps/@50.9165721,-1.6505753... For anyone interested, it's now a road, another nearby road follows part of the perimeter track, the whole site is open to walk over, and you can camp there at Ocknell Campsite on one of the former technical areas. The New Forest and surrounding areas was crawling with runways during WW2, and there are lots of remnants if you only look for them...
Edited by yellowjack on Thursday 12th December 18:54
I'll bundle them in fours so as not to overload things...
Sign says Private area, so I kept out.
Full width taxiway narrowing to a farm track.
The second surviving hangar, tucked away toward the perimeter road behind some trees.
Inaccessible behind a fence and overgrowth,but this area looked like the remains of a runway threshold, with taxiways/peri track coming in from both sides this is the remains of a dispersal/aircraft parking area on the north west side between the ends of two of the runways. So big I couldn't get the full width in one shot.
Sign says Private area, so I kept out.
Full width taxiway narrowing to a farm track.
The second surviving hangar, tucked away toward the perimeter road behind some trees.
Inaccessible behind a fence and overgrowth,
Edited by yellowjack on Saturday 14th December 00:00
Four more...
The other end of that Private area. Not entirely sure, but this felt like the end of one of the runways, looking down the length of where it once was.
Taxiway bending away from the "runway end", toward the second of the surviving hangars. Full width in this part of the field, whereas other areas it had been reduced in width to a single lane road. Lots of the old concrete tracks were in use for storing straw bales, and various pieces of agricultural equipment.
Several benches on the site. This one commemorating 'Stanley Haines ("Taff") 16.06.1925 to 16.06.2004'
That second hangar again, and the taxiway leading to it.
The other end of that Private area. Not entirely sure, but this felt like the end of one of the runways, looking down the length of where it once was.
Taxiway bending away from the "runway end", toward the second of the surviving hangars. Full width in this part of the field, whereas other areas it had been reduced in width to a single lane road. Lots of the old concrete tracks were in use for storing straw bales, and various pieces of agricultural equipment.
Several benches on the site. This one commemorating 'Stanley Haines ("Taff") 16.06.1925 to 16.06.2004'
That second hangar again, and the taxiway leading to it.
Last batch of four now. There were other pictures, but they just repeat stuff, and aren't as good...
The second hangar again. Memorial site just off the back right corner from this direction. Being used to store agricultural gubbins and some old buses.
Passing that first hangar again now. Forest Fuels seem to have a rather large chipping operation going on, in two buildings, the old hangar and another smaller wriggly tin building finished in the same fetching 'black all over' look.
Not sure about this shot. I thought it was a runway, as it just "felt right" for one. But it's rather close to that hangar, so I wasn't sure in the end.
Back to where I entered the site. This is the part of the site with the concrete in the best condition. Really quite smooth, and with what looked like 'blanking plates' for airfield/runway lights?
The second hangar again. Memorial site just off the back right corner from this direction. Being used to store agricultural gubbins and some old buses.
Passing that first hangar again now. Forest Fuels seem to have a rather large chipping operation going on, in two buildings, the old hangar and another smaller wriggly tin building finished in the same fetching 'black all over' look.
Not sure about this shot. I thought it was a runway, as it just "felt right" for one. But it's rather close to that hangar, so I wasn't sure in the end.
Back to where I entered the site. This is the part of the site with the concrete in the best condition. Really quite smooth, and with what looked like 'blanking plates' for airfield/runway lights?
Tyre Smoke said:
Mate, I can't thank you enough for that. It's got very dusty all of a sudden.
Thank you thank you.
It was a pleasure. I wanted a long bike ride in decent weather anyway, and Tarrant Rushton was as good a destination as any, really.Thank you thank you.
A bit more info on some of the surviving buildings. The two T2 hangars are half of four built, and one pad prepared for a fifth that they never put up. The runways are all gone, back to agriculture. As is the control tower and most of the ancillary buildings. The hangar near the memorial site seems to be in use by whoever is farming the land. The one away from the perimeter is used for wood chipping by a company called Forest Fuels. Might be worth a shot contacting them? Although I'm not sure how much of the 1940s era survives inside. Their hangar has vents in the roof, for extractor fans as it was used to paint Sea Vixens (I think) as targets when they were converted to be drones by FR.
The airfield was also a standby base for a squadron of Vickers Valiant nuclear bombers during the Cold War (mid 1960s).
Aside from your personal interest in it, I was visiting more for the airfield's place in D-Day history as the departure point for the Airborne Forces glider force. Trying to imagine the airfield full of gliders and the Stirling and Halifax heavies that pulled them across the channel as I stood at the end of one of the runways. I'm very much into wartime history, having lived on one old Fighter Command base (RAF Debden) and spent a lot of time riding my bikes on and around the disused runways and taxiways of RAF Hartford Bridge (Blackbushe Airport).
It's worth a visit too. Most of the remaining perimeter track and taxiways are Public Bridleway, all signposted too. And just down the road there's the National Trust estate at Kingston Lacey for a coffee and cake stop. As well as the Royal Signals museum at Blandford, and the Tank Museum at Bovington all in striking distance. Or if you're staying in the area, put it together with the memorial in the churchyard in Andover to make a full day of it, as they're not all that far apart.
yellowjack said:
The runways are all gone, back to agriculture.
Easy to see where they were from Google maps though, still quite noticeable even after all these years. Unusually for a UK airfield, the main runway is almost directly running north-south, rather than east-west.For many years of course, through the 60's and 70's up until it closed in 1980, it was also home to the FR fleet of 8 x Sea Vixen's including Foxy Lady, which was until its wheels up a few years ago, the last airworthy Vixen.
yellowjack said:
If I'm interpreting where that was taken correctly (comparing your photos with google earth) that's the right hand edge of the threshold of the 36 runway, it was originally about 6 times that width, you'll have seen the concrete on the perimeter changes when you get past the other edge of the runwayzombeh said:
yellowjack said:
If I'm interpreting where that was taken correctly (comparing your photos with google earth) that's the right hand edge of the threshold of the 36 runway, it was originally about 6 times that width, you'll have seen the concrete on the perimeter changes when you get past the other edge of the runwayI figured as much as the caption in the photo from the other end correctly identifies it as the runway 
Finding a bit flat enough to build a runway long enough for large bombers must have been quite a lot of work, even without being overly concerned about the orientation. There aren't that many places left with more than one runway orientation, typically the most useful one is still there and all the crosswind runways are either completely gone or just used as a taxiway.
At some point I'll have to go and have a look at all those disused bases in that part of the country properly, I've only seen them from above and neither Tarrant Rushton, Stoney Cross nor Beaulieu are the sort of places you want to hang around up there.
Finding a bit flat enough to build a runway long enough for large bombers must have been quite a lot of work, even without being overly concerned about the orientation. There aren't that many places left with more than one runway orientation, typically the most useful one is still there and all the crosswind runways are either completely gone or just used as a taxiway.
At some point I'll have to go and have a look at all those disused bases in that part of the country properly, I've only seen them from above and neither Tarrant Rushton, Stoney Cross nor Beaulieu are the sort of places you want to hang around up there.
The ATC squadron I was in was affiliated to FR. As a consequence, I spent a fair bit of time at the airfield while it was still active, trudging around the perimeter track on sponsored walks etc. One of the other ATC lads Father made the last ever landing/take-off there in a Cessna or some other small aircraft, I think the story made the Evening Echo. I grew up a couple of miles or so from Tarrant Rushton, the stripey Canberras were always buzzing about. The ‘glass house’ bit from the control tower recently surfaced in a local scrapyard, you can probably find it with a bit of Googling.
My dad went to Arnhem from there, we have no family connection to Dorset, however 50 years to the month I moved to Tarrant Monkton (next door village) The old man came over, took us out to lunch in the village pub. When the bill came, as he was paying it he mentioned to the landlord, who was fairly new that he had been banned from the pub.
"When was that" asked the landlord........"just over 50 years ago" the OM then went on to explain the circumstances . landlord tore the bill up so the OM wrote a cheque to the Airborne Forces charity.
He was in the para recce squadron equipped with jeeps, got back OK.........was told he had an MC.....later changed to "as its a UK/ US operation congrats you are getting a bronze star instead"
"When was that" asked the landlord........"just over 50 years ago" the OM then went on to explain the circumstances . landlord tore the bill up so the OM wrote a cheque to the Airborne Forces charity.
He was in the para recce squadron equipped with jeeps, got back OK.........was told he had an MC.....later changed to "as its a UK/ US operation congrats you are getting a bronze star instead"
Rangeroverover said:
He was in the para recce squadron equipped with jeeps, got back OK.........was told he had an MC.....later changed to "as its a UK/ US operation congrats you are getting a bronze star instead"
Wow.......what was his name if you don't mind me asking, as I used to be a member of the Airborne Recce Association, as part of the attached Living History Group, and we used to do a lot for the Airborne Recce vets, including mounting a a guard of honor for the Recce Association standard at the annual memorial service at the church in Ruskington where the memorial window is. Used to know a few of the guys back in the 90's, such as the legendary Chalky White, who was the Recce Don R and the last person to get from the bridge back through the German lines to Oosterbeek.Only 45 members of 1st AB recce went from Tarant Rushden in gliders, the rest of them went from Barkston Heath via para drop.
Your Dad was lucky to get back, as of the 200 or so members of 1st AB Recce, around 140 were taken POW, and 29 were KIA, that leaves only around 40-45 that got back.
Bash On........
Edited by aeropilot on Tuesday 17th December 10:32
Edited by aeropilot on Tuesday 17th December 10:34
Eric Mc said:
This thread just gets better and better.
I can see a trip down that part of the world in the spring.
Well if you do, let me know, we can meet up and have a bit of a wander round and lunch perhaps? I'd love to pick your brains about Lancasters/Lancastrians/Airlifts/Airfields and anything else I can think of!I can see a trip down that part of the world in the spring.
Glad to see it hasn’t changed much.
You should go Eric, fascinating place and there’s plenty else to see. It’s practically next to Blandford Camp where, other than the Signals museum, there’s a motor racing connection as it was one of the first post war racing circuits. Moss won there amongst others.
You should go Eric, fascinating place and there’s plenty else to see. It’s practically next to Blandford Camp where, other than the Signals museum, there’s a motor racing connection as it was one of the first post war racing circuits. Moss won there amongst others.
Edited by ettore on Tuesday 17th December 11:31
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