Place for some details on Cristot (B18) one of the later allied Advanced Landing Grounds in Normandy Specific ideas/questions (all for the long term chewing over!) at the moment: 1. Cristot was one of the later Advanced Landing Grounds (made operational 25th July) - just before the Normandy breakout. Did it see much operational use? if so what sort of planes were based there and what sort of operation used was performed (muc hlike the rest of the ALFs I assume - or was Cristot in anyway "different" there. - might have focused more on emergency evac for example as at one point being closer to the front? People might even have been flown from there in small planes back to one of the larger ALGs first - before assessing them and taking them to where needed/could be helped the most. 2. Did the kit that comprised Cristot (whatever there was there) come new from the UK or was it a remade ALG from further back (i.e. one that was no longer needed back by the coast shifted forwards to be closer to the -then- front if so which ALG was closed to make way for Cristot?) ? 3. What came next after Cristot? Where did those based there go to once the work at Cristot was done.... was the next "hop" to nr. Vernon (on the Seine) or Brussels or some point(s) in-between? I'll be thinking about these! All the best, Rm.
Hello Rob Another of my small replies!! As B.19 Lingèvres was the first one built by the RAF you need to find out which Royal Engineers unit built the place, and when you find them their War Diary will show where they went next, and of course where they had come from - and whether they bought anything with them, apart from their road and airfield construction vehicles of course, or took it away afterwards for the next one! Engineer Headquarters - Army Group Royal Engineers. 12th AGRE Served with 21st Army Group 1944-45. Specialized in the control of airfield construction groups. Disbanded Sep 1945+. No. 13 AF Cons Group HQ With First Army 1942-43. Served with 21st Army Group 1944-45. Disbanded Sep 1945+. No. 16 AF Cons Group HQ Served with 21st Army Group 1944-45. Disbanded Sep 1945+. No. 23 AF Cons Group HQ Served with 21st Army Group 1944-45. Disbanded Sep 1945+. Components included 86th and 720th Road Cons Coys RE. No. 24 AF Cons Group HQ Served with 21st Army Group 1944-45. Disbanded Sep 1945+. No. 25 AF Cons Group HQ Served with 21st Army Group 1944-45. Disbanded Sep 1945+. Components included 64th Road Cons Coy RE and 681st Artizan Works Coy RE. Airfield construction groups had a circular badge divided in three segments (red, green and yellow) with a white or pale blue design in the centre similar to the mark for airfields on maps. http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30073135 Airfield Construction Groups were composed of Royal Engineer Road Construction Companies and Pioneer Corps Companies. The red and blue in the badge incorporated the colours of the 'Sappers' (Royal Engineers). Likewise the red and green represented the Pioneers Corps colours. The main task of the units was to construct airfields in forward areas, represented by the white lines representing a typical airfield runway layout. Lots of airfields were built and hardly used - 125 Wing used the following route to get up in to Belgium, from B.19 Lingèvres the route they took was: • Villers Bocage • Aunay-Sur-Odon • Flers • Argentan • L`Aigle • Morlancourt • Thomer-la-Sôgne (B.34) more commonly known as Avrilly • Évreux • Pacey • Vernon (to cross the Seine) • Las Thilliers-en-Vexin • Gisors • Beauvais (B.40) • Amiens • Albert • Bapaume • Cambrai • Euist • Bécourt • Ferrin • Douai/Dechy (B.52) (Douai itself had about 7 ALG's around it up as far as Vitry-en-Artois) • Tournai • Ain • Enghien • Hal • Brucon • Brussels (B.60) (Grimbergen - a small landing ground - whereby the advance party of 125 Wing slept on or under their trucks, because they believed the buildings were booby-trapped, for 24/48 hours awaiting the liberation of Antwerp by 11 Armoured Division. • Antwerp (B.70) (using the civil airport Antwerp/Deurne - which had been a Luftwaffe base) And I have recently placed the ORB details of their move between 29 August - 7 September in The Great Swan up in to Belgium following the breakout on this forum. When a Wing moved in to an ALG the communications were set up by Air Formation Signals, a Royal Signals unit that serviced a few Wings, not just one, in the case of 122 and 125 Wing it was No. 11 Air Formation Signals. Sometimes if the Advance Party arrived first they put the comm's in place. At Y.32 Ophoven Dad was out laying/repairing telephone lines to the dispersals, the Wing itself only arriving the day before, when the Luftwaffe attacked on 1 January 1945 (Operation Baseplate) Unternehmen Bodenplatte, so he looked for a deep snowdrift! Hope this helps? Allan
Thanks Allan! Fast work! A lot of those "addresses" seems to match exactly to the line of the 8th Armoured route following the breakout from Normandy (it's good that they stayed together so well along the way http://www.warlinks.com/armour/8th_armoured/chapter_4.php perhaps for your next trick you could sort this??? Airport expansion: What are the three options? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19570653 ;-) No idea now why some things have to take so long! All the best! Rm.
Hi Rob Living in Cornwall we only have Newquay airport, formerly RAF St. Mawgan, which has a very long runway from the days of Shackleton's and Nimrods, the next one up country is Exeter (about 95 miles away), then Bristol (even further away!) so not too concerned with what happens in the London area, especially as the last time that I flew (to Germany for a TV programme about a Spitfire XIV dig) was from Newquay to Stansted, and then on to Lubeck (where Dad had been in 1945, so that bit was interesting!) in late May 2004, and the last time before that was about 1961 in a Chipmunk, and before that about 1952 in a BEA Elizabethan from London to France, where I was living at the time!! I met the American film star Dana Andrews, at the air terminal in London, who patted me on the head and said what a nice little boy I was, I was about 6 at the time, so obviously I was a nice little boy! He was with his manager and quite "merry" at the time and on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Andrews it states "Around this time, alcoholism began to derail Andrews' career, and on a couple of occasions it nearly cost him his life on the highway" No doubt he was on his way to Paris to film Assignment Paris http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assignment_%E2%80%93_Paris as that fits in to the time span! To solve the London airport expansion problem all they need is another war - and just requisition what they want, no need for all that planning permission and public meetings etc. etc. and get the Army Airfield Construction branch in to do the work!! Saw this today http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/59/a7997359.shtml whilst researching the late brother of the entertainer Bruce Forsyth, whom he stated on TV last night died in a air crash during the war. Turned out he was in a Wellington of the Torpedo Training Unit, based at Turnberry. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?18689-F-Sgt-John-Frederick-Forsyth-Johnson An interesting article - and down near the bottom the author was on Dakota's and writes "I stayed at Down Ampney until August 1945. During this time our efforts were focussed on the invasion of Europe and the ongoing supply of men and materials in support of that operation. One other important function was to land initially at forward airstrips and other bases to bring back the worst seriously injured stretcher cases. For this operation we carried a WAAF Nursing Orderly and could accommodate 12 stretcher cases. This was a very worthwhile and satisfying job" regards Allan