A good excuse to use this photo of a rather bent one. Code is H (definite) and E (probably) then P (definite). Maybe No 263 Sqn. ‘C’ Type hangar in background so could be Horsham St Faith or Church Fenton, both squadron bases. There is a small unidentifiable cartoon character painted on the nose. Pathfinder, you are welcome to use it on your website if you want to.

So was I, and a member of the MGAE before it became a society rather than a group! Oh yes and only had girlfiends during the winter, dumping them before the airshow season started 😀

There is a story, but I can’t remember where I read it, that a B-29 returning from a raid on Japan spotted a US carrier and set up a spoof landing circuit and approach. Frantic light signals were aimed at it until a go-around was performed!

Wait a few years and global warming will cough them out, along with a lot of other aeroplanes! Won’t be much dry land to display them on, though! 🙂

There are about 20 copies of my book listed on abebooks.com at reasonable prices. It was a spin-off from the Action Stations series. By coincidence, there is a little about the 5 mile runway in another thread.

I have now dug out my original notes made at PRO from AIR2/4557. My memory is a bit adrift in that I summarised the details in the book rather than used them verbatim. The proper version reads as follows:

22 May 1940 – (then a few words have been missed) ” …. sites consist of farms operated by East Anglia Real Property Co, the following eight places in Norfolk: Sporle, Buckenham, Baighton, Cantley, Halvergate, Paston, Guestwick and Southrepps. Some, if not all, have hedges removed and have the aspect of prepared landing grounds. Usually crops are sown earlier in district this year but these are still almost bare and rolled hard. The Chief Constable of Norfolk requires a Home Office Order to apprehend directors, managers and others connected with the company, of whom he has a list. All are Aliens, registered Dutch. The sites should be taken over simultaneously by the military with a view to obstruction, camouflaging barns and making a thorough search. …..
At 52 degrees 38′ N and 00 45’E there is a large area with hedges removed suitable to take off or land heavy aircraft from all directions. There are two barns painted red alongside and the owners are understood to be Aliens.”
(I then note that four others are then mentioned but I omitted to transcribe the details)

“The Officer Commanding Watton states that all have the aspect of being specially prepared landing grounds with easily recognisable features and barns painted red . In view of the number found , an immediate investigation of the sites and neighbouring population is essential.”

It might be worth checking the file, which is headed “Aerodromes in the UK – Obstruction and Blockage Policy Against Enemy Use” , for anything I didn’t include but the essence is certainly here. Unfortunately, there is no clue to the outcome. Home Office (HO) files and Norfolk Police Records may have more.

So it isn’t just a myth, although I doubt if they really were clandestine LGs. Touching that legal niceties were still being followed when the country was fighting for its life.

Wings Across the Border Vol 3 recently published has four photos of Coronados at Beaumaris, also Mariners, Catalinas and other marine types. Apart from a full history of Saro at Beaumaris, there is much else of interest in this gem of a book