all disused world war two airfields in britain should have been preserved
Well, maybe not all. Why?…Well for one thing many of these airfields were built for the duration only, and the land requisitioned under the Emergency powers Act of 1939. The original landowners did rightly want their land back after the war. So we see the reason why they have practically disappeared as visible airfields, and have returned to agriculture from whence they came.
I do agree that it would have taken great foresight, to have preserved in entirety, examples of airfields, be they Fighter stations, night fighter stations or Bomber airfields. With grass and hard runways, examples of expansion period airfields such as Bicester and Bassingbourne spring to mind. And a ‘Class A’ bomber airfield somewhere, as used by the Eighth and Ninth USAAF, would seem an ideal candidate for the ‘hostilities only’ airfields as built by the once great British Civil engineering companys, or the Engineering(Aviation) Battalions raised in the USA to build airfields here during the war.
It would also have taken great foresight to have saved one (at least) of every aircraft type in operation during the Second World War, but we have had that discussion several times before. Unfortunately no one had that foresight, unfortunately no one thought to save the airfields either. We just have to work harder to preserve what little we have now, before it crumbles away.
While this country has gone ‘green belt’ crazy about building on former airfields,it is not only here. Other countries also seem to have the same problem. but for us, it seems heritage counts as nothing any more.
Greed and profiteering from the acquisition of agricultural land, turned into development land, will rule the roost. Developers only have the £ note sign in their minds when looking at land. They will not see a place where the cream of youth took off daily, sometimes never to return. They will not see the empty buildings that echoed with their laughter and tears.
The following poem was read out at Hunsdon airfield on memorial day by the fellow who wrote it, I think it sums up how some of us feel about future development on former airfields…
Hunsdon Airfield
The brooks that rise about hunsdon
run lively, full and free,
I wish that you knew them as we do,
envisage what we see,
The deer in the early morning,
Fox and Badger at night,
Duck winging in at sunset,
Geese lifting off at first light.
Pike and Rudd with silver roach,
Give pleasure to such as we,
In ponds and lakes fed by the brooks,
fringe edged with reed and tree,
To net a fish, fulfill a dream,
Then gently to release,
For others to enjoy the same,
Tranquility and peace.
Moorhen,coot and water vole
make ripples at the edge,
Rustling through the rushes,
Purple loosestrife and the sedge.
If you are sitting still enough
The kingfisher displays
The iridescence of his breast,
much similar to the Jays.
I wish you might feel as we do
When you plan and design
to cover fields with asphalt
Diverting rain down lines,
Of surface water conduits
Depriving brook and stream
to become dried up stagnant sludge drains
Thats progress? and what it means?
Young men once lifted to the skies,
some never to return,
To fly home to Hunsdon
Our gratitude to earn.
The freedom of this precious land
with young blood was bought
Financial gain and profit
Brings their sacrifice…….to nought!.
Lewis Morrison
January 2005
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