Middleton St George airport, WW2

There is a photograph of 419’s KB762/VR-J at dispersal in the book ‘Lancaster at War’ and I suspect that it may be an official Canadian photo although it is not credited as such ? In the background and under the wing of the Lanc is the church of St George which still stands today . Some details here ;

http://www.durham.anglican.org/userfiles/file/Durham%20Website/Diocese%20and%20Admin/Care%20of%20Churches/Archaeological%20Assessments/Middleton%20St%20George.pdf

The church can be clearly seen on Google Earth and is also marked by a Panoramio icon so is easy to find . There is a small cluster of frying pan dispersals in that corner of the airfield and by comparing the photo to GE it is quite easy to make out which dispersal Jane is sat on . Of interest in this area are alpine flowers and maize , the seeds of which were collected in the Lancaster airframes whilst on Ops , brought back to the UK and washed from the airframe by rain to grow around the dispersals were they still thrive today . Adjacent to these dispersals is the bomb dump area and I have always thought it rather strange that the aircraft were parked so close to it ! I have some photos of those dispersals if they are of any use ?
NB ; Teesside Airport although officially now Durham Tees Valley Airport !

Cheers Dave!

Have a look at Dan Logan’s superb 419 website which may be of some use ;

http://419squadronbewarethemoose.com/home.html

A quick skim through the squadron history published in 1987 hasn’t provided a conclusive answer. The squadron appear to have use Number 2 Hangar, and the dispersal seems to have been on the south of the present main runway. None of the photos of aircraft at dispersals have any buildings or other distinguishing features (not that there are many, even now) visible in the background, but almost without exception the background is very washed out / overexposed, so it’s difficult to tell more. I can add that ‘D-Dog’s ground crew haunted an improvised hut called ‘Gladys Hotel’, but I don’t know where that was (there’s just a single tree visible behind it)!

The couple of better-exposed photos that look identifiable show Lancasters lined up ready to fly back to Canada after the end of the war in Europe. I’m not entirely certain, but it looks as if they’re in a line around the eastern end of the airfield with the lead aircraft nearest to the A67. On closer inspection, not all of these aircraft are 419’s, and since the war had finished they’re no longer necessarily coming from their wartime dispersals anyway.