Mystery airfield solved?

With a little help from various friends, including Graham and Amanda of GA Promotions (Militaria Fairs). I think I have now identified Dad’s ‘mystery’ airfield. On his list, I picked out the 60 UK airfields where he landed during the war, all except ‘Uppingdon’. There were several contenders for this, including ‘Uppingham’ north of London, suggested by several people. But this didn’t open until 1943, and it’s pretty clear (because he listed them in chronological order) that Dad’s visit to ‘Uppingdon’ took place in 1941-2. It was in the list next to RAF Shawbury and RAF High Ercall, so I identified the nearby village of Uppington as a possibility. But…no airfield at Uppington. However, RAF Atcham, also a US air base at one stage, was in the same parish district, only a few miles away from Uppington village. My father wrote his airfields list neatly in the back of his log book at the end of the war, and he might well have known the airfield by the name of Uppingdon/Uppington as well as RAF Atcham. Besides, what more natural that in recording a single stop-off at Atcham, he remembered it by an evening in the pub at nearby Uppington?

5 responses to “Mystery airfield solved?”

ejhalls

04/04/2015 at 10:35 pm

Their ghosts are in many places in the countryside. I remember my father used to take us to a disused airfield somewhere in Derbyshire when it was time for us to learn to drive. That’s probably all under the turf, now.

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aviationtrails

04/04/2015 at 7:23 pm

Sounds like an amzing trip you are embarking on, good luck with it, enjoy the nostalgia!

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- ejhalls
  
  04/04/2015 at 10:23 pm
  
  Thanks – I will!
  
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ejhalls

03/04/2015 at 5:15 pm

Yes, the Google satellite view shows them up well, once you have an idea where they are.

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Dave O.

03/04/2015 at 2:28 pm

Haha! Too right. I’m always looking at Google maps looking for signs of old airfields, and i am always amazed at how many there are, or rather were, embedded into our countryside. In fact when driving around I sometimes see concrete roadways to farms and what not, and immediately start thinking it is 1940’s era concrete and was it an airfield? Also, reading historical stories in the Aeroplane magazine, when old airfields are mentioned I immediately look for it on the same Google maps to get a view and imagine what it might have looked like.

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