HIGH FLIGHT

At East Boldre (Beaulieu) McArdle and Drexel open the New Forest Aviation School. McArdle entered and Drexel competed in, the Bournemouth Centenary Air Meeting held between Southbourne and Hengistbury head in July 1910. The Hon Charles Rolls was killed whilst flying at the meeting.

1913

Calshot opens as a water aerodrome operated by the Royal Naval Air Service, developing military floatplanes and flying boats and exercising them with ships at sea.

East Boldre was used by the Royal Flying Corp as a flying training station. From 1917 East Boldre was also used by RFC and RAF squadrons to work up before going to France. These included No 84 squadron with SE5s, 103 squadron with DH9s and 79 squadron with Sopwith Dolphins. The airfield was virtually unused by 1920, the RAF having left and most its buildings had been demolished.

Calshot remained in use by the Navy with a variety of types being used for development, and on anti submarine duties. In 1918 Calshot became a RAF station and a centre for flying boat operations and crew training.

Calshot continued in use as a RAF water aerodrome with, in addition to its crew training role, the School of Naval Co-operation and Aerial Navigation, a Reconnaissance Flight and Marine Craft. The RAF high speed flight was also based at Calshot and it was this unit, flying Supermarine float planes over the Solent, that won the Schneider trophy outright for Britain in 1931.

Christchurch opened in the 1930s as a civil airfield serving not only Christchurch but also Bournemouth. Commercial routes were flown along the south coast, to the West Country and to the Channel islands. Sir Alan Cobham’s flying circus were frequent visitors and an Empire Air Day was held each year demonstrating the latest RAF aeroplanes.

Within two years of the war starting several RAF aerodromes were being built, at Ibsley (opened Feb 1941), Hurn (July 1941), and Beaulieu (Aug 42), Holmsley South (Sept 42)and Stoney Cross (Nov 42). However both Christchurch and Calshot were heavily involved in the war effort from the beginning.

In 1939 Calshot was home to the Flying Boat Training Squadron but in June 1940 this moved away to Scotland to be further away from attack leaving just the Marine Craft. These were joined later by a small number of ex Norwegian Heinkel 115 flying boats. One of these was used for covert operations landing and collecting agents from occupied Europe. In 1943 Calshot was a Flying Boat Service Unit supporting RAF Sunderland operations. Calshot continued as an operational and training base for RAF Sunderland flying boats until 1953.

Christchurch closed temporarily in 1939 but reopened in 1940 as a RAF airfield as the home of a Special Duty flight. This flight supported the nearby Air Defence Experimental Establishment and the Telecommunications Research Unit at Worth Matravers in Dorset in the development of radar. Later Christchurch was home to an Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit, and a detachment from HMS Raven specialising in the installation of air to surface radar on Fleet Air Arm aircraft. In early 1940 Airspeed opened a factory at Christchurch to build Oxford and later Mosquito aircraft and Horsa gliders. Many Spitfires were converted to Seafires at the factory.

Ibsley was always a fighter aerodrome, filling the gap between Middle Wallop and Warmwell. Although most famously associated with the Spitfire, RAF Hurricanes and Whirlwinds and USAAF Lightnings and Thunderbolts were also based there. By mid 1944, after D Day, Ibsley, like most other New Forest airfields, was surplus to requirements and after intermittent use the airfield ceased to be a flying field in 1946.

Hurn was home to the Special Duty Flight previously based at Christchurch. Its principle use in the first two years of its existence was in Army Co-operation flying, including a major role in developing glider operations, and as a VIP aerodrome for long distance flights by (amongst others) Churchill and Eisenhower and as a base for wartime BOAC flights. Late in 1943 the Army co-operation work ceased and the units involved moved north to allow Hurn to become a fighter base in advance of D Day. Canadian Hurricanes (later Typhoons) and Mosquitos arrived as did a RAF Typhoon wing and a Mosquito squadron. After D Day, US B-26 Marauder bombers and P-61 Black Widow night fighters were based at Hurn for while. By the end of the year the airfield had been handed across to BOAC as a training and engineering base and for use as the UK’s premier long haul passenger airfield.

The first users of Beaulieu were Coastal Command Liberators to be joined later by RAF and Canadian Halifaxes and Czechoslovak Liberators. In 1944 Coastal Command moved out to allow the airfield to be used to support the forthcoming Normandy invasion. Beaulieu was used by RAF Typhoons, Tempests and Bostons but later it was handed over to the USAAF using P-47 Thunderbolts and later B-26 Marauders. In September 1944 the USAAF had gone and Beaulieu reverted to a flying training station and then became home to the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment. The work of this establishment kept Beaulieu busy until 1950 when flying ceased.

Like Beaulieu, Holmsley opened as a RAF coastal command airfield with RAF Wellingtons, shortly to be reinforced with a unit of USAAF Liberators. When the Liberators left RAF Whitleys and Halifaxs arrived. Additional Halifaxs and Whitleys were involved with glider towing training glider crews for the long ferry tips to North Africa for use in the invasion of Sicily.

At the end of 1943 the airfield was transferred to the RAF’s 2^nd Tactical Air Force and RAF Typhoons and Canadian Mosquitos arrived and for a short time in 1944, Polish Mustangs. In mid July 1944 the airfield was handed over to the USAAF for use by B-26 Marauder units. By the autumn of 1944 Holmsley once again had RAF units based there flying Warwick, Liberator, Halifax, York and Skymaster transport aircraft. In 1946 flying ceased.

First users were RAF Army Co-operation Mustang units reinforced with a Canadian Hurricane unit, but then came glider tugs and troop carrying aircraft, Albermarles, Whitleys, Venturas and Stirlings. In the spring of 1944 the USAAF arrived with P-38 Lightnings, and when the P-38s moved to Ibsley, B-26 Marauders arrived. In November RAF Wellington and Stirling transports commenced operations, to be augmented with Yorks and Dakotas. In 1946 the airfield closed for flying.

At various times during the war the RAF identified the need for temporary airfields. The first of these locally was at Sway, which was used between 1940 and 1941 to act as a dispersal and storage airfield for Christchurch. By Autumn 1941 it was no longer used.

To prepare for the Normandy invasion, large numbers of fighter-bombers were needed to support the ground troops. These units would move to France as soon as possible after the invasion, so permanent airfields were not required. So called Advance Landing Grounds were built at Winkton, Bisterne, Needs Oar Point, Lymington and Christchurch. This last site was actually alongside the existing airfield and later the two sites were merged. Needs Oar point was used by the RAF, and operated Typhoons, whilst the others each had one USAAF fighter group equipped with P-47s. These airfields were not minor units, Winkton for example was used by the 404^th Fighter Group with its three squadrons (506^th, 507^th, 508^th) had 75 P-47s and over 1000 US servicemen on site. Needs Oar point, during one frantic spell, was home to two RAF Wings, six squadrons, over 100 aircraft. These landing grounds all opened during the spring of 1944 and were empty by the end of July.

Christchurch continued as a constructor’s airfield building Airspeed’s Ambassador airliner and several de Havilland designs including the Vampire, Venom and Sea Vixen. The factory closed in 1962 and after a few years as a civil light aviation airfield it too closed in 1967.

The sole survivor is Hurn, which has had a mixed history since 1944. Its first few years as a civil airport were glorious, serving as the UK’s main long distance airport. This period was soon over however when Heathrow opened in 1947. For the next few years Hurn was principally a constructors’ and contractors’ airfield. Both Vickers and de Havilland had factories and several military support units including the Fleet Requirments Unit operated from Hurn. Varsitys, Viscounts and the BAC–111 were built at Hurn and it is now the home of Flight Refuelling Aviation and a number of other specialist civil and military servicing companies. There has always been some commercial air transport operation and this continues to this day with scheduled, charter and air freight services to many destinations in the UK and abroad.

Using the Multimap web site on the Internet it is possible to view the airfields from the air, as they are now (2004).

click here for details