Bovingdon Memories
I was deputy Satco at Bovingdon 67 to 69 and while there I worked closely with the MOCA civil Fire Crew who had been there for years previous. They told me that before the USAF left they buried tons of spares in the grass areas as well as burying a complete Lightning aircraft adjacent to the fire ground. I never got to excavate, but there will be some interesting finds if ever it is dug over. When the Battle of Britain filming finished the film company buried their dummy bombs in the grass adjacent to what was the underground avaition fuel storage facility. The fuel tanks were removed in 69 by flooding the gravel pits in which they were buried, then the empty tanks floated to the surface for removal. The largest aircraft that visited when I was there was a DC6 which came in to have seats fitted by a local firm. The Fouga Magister was resident as were Bassetts Ansons Pembrokes & Devons. The Ansons were sold off from Bovingdon in 68 and two went to Biafra flown by some intrepid pilots from Elstree who did their tail dragging conversions with the RAF before departing. Another Anson set off in the hands of a PPL accompanied by an air hostess from Luton for the States and on the first leg to Prestwick ended up in Ireland. I don`t know if they ever crossed the real pond. My time at Bovingdon was interesting as 3 films were made there during my time these being Mosquito Squadron, Battle of Britain & 633 Squadron. Mitchell, Messerschmit, Spitfires and Hurricanes were all mustered by Grp Capt Hamish Mahaddie as needed.