Just finished Harald Penrose’s “Airymouse” and I’m a little confused by his account of the Wyvern crash landing at Warmwell. I quote “When the rescue team found me a couple of hours later, one of the cars collided with a stump of concretre hidden by the tall grass. … Quickly it became apparent that the entire area was thickly patterened with hundreds of great concrete blocks which had been set up during the closure of the airfield to prevent German gliders landing if invasion was attempted” But if Warmwell was operational until 1946, why would they have done that? Did they build the stumps around the open spaces of the airfield when there was a threat of invasion but keep the runway/taxiways clear? Or did Penrose really put the Wyvern down outside the actual airfield?

Yes mention of those concrete blocks is in more than one of HP’s books (‘Adventure With Fate’ being another), but it has also been suggested to me by someone with a long standing association with Warmwell that it was not entirely a correct observation, as there is no recollection of any such blocks on the airfield. But seeing as i am in no position to dispell Harald’s claims either way, for now i’m happy to believe his written word, until someone can prove otherwise !

Mr Creosote

I have not, as far as I can think, heard of the Wyvern crash landing… I will post out on the site – I’ll also do a search to see if it HAS been posted and forgotten by me…:apologetic:

Mike, just to put the record straight it wasn’t a crash landing, but a forced landing as i believe the aircraft was undamaged apart from a u/s engine.

Rob