RAF Desford

[motherbird]

I am writing a book about my father and uncle's time as pilots in the RAF in WWII and want to find out where RAF Desford was located. My uncle was there from 30.6.40 to 17.8.40 (No 7 EFTS) before moving on to RAFC FTS Cranwell. Any info about the place would be fantastic.

[Mark Nine]

8 miles west of Leicester. Lots of results to a google search.:ok:

[Green Flash]

Hello mb

Try here (http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=447500&y=303500&z=5&sv=447500,303500&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf&ax=447500&ay=303500) for a map

[SirToppamHat]

A couple of months ago I downloaded a brilliant overlay for Google Earth. It was to be found at this site:

http://tinyurl.com/2xnejw

which is a Google Earth forum discussing RAF Stations in Great Britain. You will need to have Google Earth installed, then click on the 'View in Google Earth' version of the file to download it.

The thing is, and I may not have the latest version of the overlay, I can't find an RAF Desford. There is an RAF Defford three miles SW of Pershore (26 miles SSW of Birmingham.

However, if you do a search on Wikipedia you will find this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desford

Relating to the Village of Desford in Leicestershire.

'Outside the village a grass airfield was developed in 1939 as a first stage flying school for the RAF.'

I think this second one is probably the one you are looking for, though why it isn't on the GE Overlay I can't say.

Good Luck.

STH

[Mumby]

Hello,

According to this site
http://www.hinckley-info.co.uk/village_information/history/desford_200709201030/
Caterpillar Inc are now on the site of the airfield. The Caterpillar Inc plant is easy to find on google maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=desford&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=65.183764,79.628906&ie=UTF8&ll=52.612951,-1.291451&spn=0.013576,0.040812&t=h&z=15&om=1

Good luck,

Mumby

[ZeBedie]

Geoffrey Wellum mentions doing some training at Desford (Harvards) pre BoB in his book; First Light.

[motherbird]

Thanks for all the info. I had looked on the maps but was foolish enough to hope that there may have been some trace of the airfield left. :sad:

motherbird.

[papajuliet]

There's a recently published book [available from Amazon ] - "What did you do in the war daddy?" by Dennis Berry covering his life at Desford as a pupil and an instructor. I recommend it