memories of Bovingdon Airfield

[poetpilot]

Does anyone have memories of RAF Bovingdon, near Hemel Hempstead? I solo'd in a glider at age 16 there in 1968, and was lucky enough on the last day of gliding school operation there to get the very last flight in a RAF registered aircraft out of Bovingdon.

Additionally, I first flew as an air cadet passenger there in a Pembroke (WV753), Basset and an Anson (TX227 I think) when the Southern Comms Sqdn were based there. Happy days, when you could cycle up there and hitch rides if you were an ATC cadet... I got to see Leuchars, Wattisham, Thorney Island, Watton, Northolt, Topcliffe and others on my little jaunts...

...I was also there when the last Ansons to fly with the RAF were decomissioned, doing a six-ship formation flypast on a rather cloudy day. We nearly made it on as passengers but rules & regs prevented it in the end. "My" Anson went to Biafra on mercy flights where it ended up getting wrecked.

...Plus the arrival of warbirds there in connection with various films (BofB, 633 Sqdn, Mosquito Sqdn).

To this day, whenever I hear a heavy piston a/c pas over at night, it takes me back to my childhood, snuggled up in bed listening to the southern comms doing their night circuits (& probably in my younger years the USAF DC3s and things that operated out of there - I vaguely remember an open day in the 50s when I was very young).

[Wycombe]

Poet....

Wasn't Bovingdon used during the filming of the recent (and very good) Spielberg/Hanks epic "Band of Brothers", or was that Leavesden?

[CamelPilot]

I think you will find that it was neither. It was Hatfield. Where Spielberg made "Saving Private Ryan". I think that's right.

However, Bovingdon WAS the home to a Steve McQueen movie called "War Lover" about B17's. The late, and great, John Crewdson gathered together the machines and the pilots for some breathtaking flying and filming. He did the same with "633 Squadron" too - this time with Mosquitoes.

[poetpilot]

..sorry, now living in Manchester I dont get to pass by old Bovingdon these days ('cept when as a pax on the shuttle in the hold for LHR). As far as I knew, there's no flying there at all now, just a VOR, prison and I believe a Sunday market? I did hear rumour of it becoming a new GA base at one time, and I think someone operated a single aircraft out of there.... maybe someone can clarify its use & ownership now?

[Boss Raptor]

Think Bov also did the film 'Mosquito Squadron' as well...I have been told with the RAF Met. Flight Mossies based there...

My father told me once that he had been at scout camp nearby in the late 40's and their had been B17's there at that time...

[poetpilot]

Yep, I do remember seeing 4 Mossies and a Mitchell camera ship flying over Hemel Hempstead when they filmed Mosquito Sqdn. One of the times I went up there as a cadet I saw a Mossie parked by the tower in a sort of yellow ochre primer colour scheme. I took a snap of it with my box brownie camera but didnt get the number in the photo. There was also a Mossie in a hangar at one time..... camouflaged one.

When I was on the gliding school (617 GS, ex-Hendon, later moved to Manston) the Battle of Britain film aircraft were hangared there prior to diposal.

These included 2 CASA 111s, ME109s (well the Hispano Buchons actually), 2 seat Spit G-AVAV, a Proctor converted to look like a Stuka (affectionately known as a Proktuka) & various other bits n pieces.

Great fun for a young cadet to explore all this (the gliders were kept in the same hangar). When 617GS moved to Manston I transferred to 613GS at RAF Halton. They had lots of interesting old airframes too. At the time I went there they had 3 very old Vulcans, at least one I think with the straight leading edge delta (which would have made it one of the prototypes).

Happy Days. Even learnt to drive on those airfields before I was let lose on the public highways... mind you, I've paid back for it in income tax ever since!

[ 09 January 2002: Message edited by: poetpilot ]</p>

[pulse1]

The pilot of one of the Mossies (owned at the time by the City of Liverpool)joined our club after the film was finished. He put lots of hours on the club DH82 and then disappeared without paying his bill. If anyone knows him tell him to pay up. £3 an hour seemed like a lot of money in those days!

[DOC.400]

Seem to remember that a planning application was put in about a coule of years ago for an airfield at BNN, but I believe the backers pulled out. 'Tis still a prison, VOR, Sunday market and large car park for new cars. What a waste of a runway....

Also a very useful landmark when u r VFR north about the London TMA!!

DOC

[ 09 January 2002: Message edited by: DOC.400 ]</p>

[BEXIL160]

I seem to recall going to a rather run down Bovingdon in the late 1970s to see the FIVE B25s involved in the making of a film ("Hannover Run" springs to mind but I'm not too sure).

Were these the same B25s whose ferry trip across the pond was made into a documentary?

Apologies if the memory is a little hazy...

Rgds BEX

[poetpilot]

..Anyone know what happened to the Proktuka? Was it a flying aircraft, or just a ground prop?
I must admit, I never spotted it in the B of B film. I guess it must have flown because it was sitting in the hangar at Bovingdon complete and rigged (as opposed to being in bits). I have a faded photo of it somewhere...

[Dr Jekyll]

Bexil

I think it was "Hannover street", and yes on the documentary.

[Wycombe]

....think some of these B25's subsequently ended up at Blackbushe (see my separate thread asking for Doug Arnold anecdotes)

....thanks Camelpilot for putting me right re. the location for "Saving Private Ryan" & "Band of Brothers"

[ 10 January 2002: Message edited by: Wycombe ]</p>

[FNG]

A bit of pedantry re the Band of Brothers query earlier in the thread: the location for the filming was North Weald. Such a pity that Leavesden and Bovingdon no longer open and we have to make do with grotty Elstree instead.