Filton as Airfield #803, 9th USAAF

Thanks to all those who’ve responded, as I said previously there’s plenty to be getting on with now.

Andy: I think you may be right about the location being adjacent to the West Works and A38, judging by the houses in the background of the Footnote pics. It would seem the USAAF might have built their own temporary hangars and removed them in 1946. I’ll PM you soon with some additional details.

Regards, Ned

Having now had a look at the photos, its likely that they are from Filton, as they say they are, and that the Butlers were put up on some unused part of the airfield. They are possibly in the north east corner, as the houses in one of the photos could be those in Callicroft Road, which are occasionally visible in airfield photos. This area also has very good access to the A36 Gloucester Road.

Andy

I don’t know Filton well enough to comment but I can say that none of them are at Speke. Could be Sydenham or Renfrew but I doubt it. The hangars appear to be Butlers, a USAAF type usually erected by their own engineers. The A-20 in one of the photos, 43-10170, went to the 410th BG and was lost in action.

Maybe the resident Filton expert is away for the weekend?!

That could be me? I’m an expert on most of Filtons history, but unfortunately over the years I’ve found very little on the USAAF side of things, apart from what has been mentioned earlier. I have a feeling that the West Works were used, I think I remember reading that somewhere. The West Works were built around 1917, comprised three Belfast hangars, and were used by the Aircraft Acceptance Park. Later on they were used by BAC Engines, later Rolls-Royce, and were demolished in the 1990s to make way for the Royal Mail sorting office.

I don’t have any photos, but I’m interested in seeing the ones mentioned earlier, I couldn’t find them by Googling. Any chance of a direct link?

It’s possible that there is something in the Bristol Aero Collections archives at Kemble, I’ll get in touch with the archivist. Unfortunately my website is a bit out of date and in need of a clean-up, I’ll get to it when they introduce that 8th day in the week…

Andy
http://www.filton.flyer.co.uk

… I’ve found the website now, here is a link to some of the photos…
http://www.footnote.com/search.php?query=filton&vs=1&category=wwii-hp&nav=4294966796&id=28439236
Although so far some of them don’t particularly look like Filton.

There is a bit on Crookham Common on AiX as well.

Many thanks, gentlemen, plenty more for me to be getting on with. Incidentally, I’ve identified two more MRRS locations:

#429 Crookham Common, Berkshire (adjoining Greenham Common) 26th MRRS
#433 Bishopstrow, Wiltshire (adjoining Kingston Deverill) 30th MRRS

Regards, Ned

USAAF’s 3 Base Air Depots were:
The World’s Greatest Air Depot: Pictorial History of the U.S. 8th Air Force at Warton, 1942-46, Harry Holmes, Airlife, 9781853109690.

Lockheed Overseas Corp (Br.Re-Assembly Div.) Langford Lodge, sprawl, intended for B-29. 3,250 a/c assembled, 11,000 serviced.
http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/dnetrAzQ/LANGFORD.TXT

Burtonwood Repair Depot Ltd: from July,1942 a Joint Venture, Bristol/Fairey: to October,1943: Sister Firm repair/support of all Lend/Lease Types (sub-contractors: BOAC, Rollason’s, Rover, Sunbeam-Talbot). From Oct.43: to USAAF as European Theatre Repair Depot.

Rootes Securities at Speke handled 2,690 USAAF P38/47/51 (from P.B.’s book, I think). Allow me to confuse assembly and repair/mod.

There is a Filton thread on AiX, you may find some info on there, whether it is what you are looking for is a different question;
http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/filton-t197.html

I was born in Bristol and have flown from Filton a couple of times but it is an airfield I don’t know much about, I would like to more as well.

Maybe the resident Filton expert is away for the weekend?! I have just remembered the Footnote site. (Google the name.) I have just checked this and found several excellent shots of P-51s at Filton, some with mechanics, one of which just COULD be your Dad! The captions say they are USAAF personnel but some look like civilians. There is also an A-20 shot with houses close in the background. That should help with pinning down the site on the airfield. Footnote is not terribly user friendly but if you get the WW2 section, then the USAAF aircraft section,and put Filton in the search box, you should get 17 images, although some are duplicated. Haven’t tried Avonmouth yet or Bristol so there may be other stuff on there.

Thanks, AT. Despite over 100 views, only your input so far! I’ll follow up your suggested Flypast and Liverpool History leads to try and improve my knowledge of the subject.

Regards, Ned

Hi Ned, can’t help much with info on Filton specifically but I’m sure someone will be able to. There were a couple of articles in FlyPast about ten years ago entitled “The Naked and the Cased” all about aircraft deliveries through Avonmouth etc. Lockheed Overseas Corp operated similar activities at Liverpool’s Speke Airport, Renfrew near Glasgow and Belfast Sydenham, supported by MRRS’s. Phil Butler’s Liverpool Airport history has photos of wartime work at Speke, including British civilians involved in US aircraft assembly.