Lympne.
 

During the 1930's, Lympne had been a thriving airfield and had hosted many meetings, trials and air-races. Private Civil flying was banned upon the outbreak of war in 1939. On the 15th August 1940, the airfield was attacked by the Luftwaffe and the hangars destroyed. Although some civil a/c had been evacuated to Sywell and other locations, many aircraft were destroyed inside Lympne's burning hangars.

I'm looking for photos taken at Lympne airfield in the 1939 - 1940 period, in particular which show resident a/c, especially in the hangars. I'm also especially interested in any images of the damaged hangars after the German raid of 15th August.

Any photos or leads to them would be much appreciated. :)

Booiinggg...
 

Any photos taken at Lympne just before the War...? Especially the resident a/c...?

Try a search on Flightglobal archives...

Two 'elderly gentlemen' returning from a visit to a French airfield in a non-radio aircraft, with the intention of refuelling at Lympne. Crossing the channel, they were discussing how to pronounce the name 'Lympne'. They couldn't agree, but decided to ask the refueller when they landed.
They duly landed and re-fuelled then asked the re-fueller the question.

He looked at them in rather a puzzled way and said 'Shoreham'!

I'm told this is a true story; I'm sure I read it in Pilot magazine about 30 years ago.

Best book is "Lympne Airport" in old photographs by David G. Collyer ,1992 by Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd Phoenix Mill,Stroud,Gloucs, A softback book 60 pages retails at £7:99p.
On page 104 there is an aerial view of the aftermath of the bombing raid.

Lympne Damage.
 

T-21;- Thanks for that. I have had that book for some years, but I'm really looking for closer detail of the damage etc.
The wartime magazines were not really allowed to show damage.
Perhaps there are some other books....

I was going to try this photo in What Aerodrome a while back, until I discovered Lympne had already been covered.
Unfortunately it is captioned as 1926. Possibly illustrated in the book above?

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/9607/img080it.jpg

Lympne.
 

Thanks for that! The date looks about right, judging by the ladies fashions. What smart hangars, I wonder how old they were at that time...? (The hangars I mean...) :)

My wife recently bought me a copy of Detling Airfield - A history 1915-1959 which was published last year by Amberley Publishing and written by Anthony J Moor. Given the relative proximity to Lympne, the author might have some info that might be useful.

My only visits to Lympne (Ashford) were in May 1969. Does anyone have any aerodrome charts for this period? i.e. after the tarmac runway was built. Thanks for any help.

"Two 'elderly gentlemen' returning from a visit to a French airfield in a non-radio aircraft, with the intention of refuelling at Lympne. Crossing the channel, they were discussing how to pronounce the name 'Lympne'. They couldn't agree, but decided to ask the refueller when they landed.
They duly landed and re-fuelled then asked the re-fueller the question.

He looked at them in rather a puzzled way and said 'Shoreham'!"

The one I heard was a wartime american bomber limping home and deciding to land at Lympne and as they taxied in asking the same question to a man cutting the grass and getting the answer "Manston".

Yes, yes and yes again - but how should Lympne be pronounced?:confused:

"Lim" is how I always understood it to be pronounced.

Shortly after this it was re-named 'London/Ashford'.
Skyways coach/air ran '748s from Lympne to Paris (Beauvais) and were regulars on London Info, as were the Carvairs on the Southend - Rotterdam services of BAF(?) when I was an assistant at West Drayton from Mar '69 to Sep '71.
I think Skyways were taken over by Dan Air in 1972 who terminated the service in 1974 and regretfully, Lympne was officially closed to commercial operations although it was still used by some private aircraft until 1984 (according to Wiki) and in the early 80s, Pat Luscombe based his developments of the Luscombe 'Rattler' and similar types of microlights there.

Thank you, treadigraph. I rather thought that might be the case, but it's nice to have confirmation. :ok:

I've known both "lim" and "lime" and this limerick seems evidence for the latter:

There was an old fellow of Lympne
Who married three wives at one tympne.
When asked "why the third?"
He replied "one's absurd,
And bigamy, sir, is a crympne."

But:
There was an old fellow of Lympne,
Who said "How I wish I was slympne!"
So he lived for two weeks
On a nut and two leeks
And that was the last heard of hympne.

Brilliant! Thanks Allan!

We are all agreed it's not Limp Knee (of which I have two...)

Limp-knee.....!!!! LOL

Didn't Skyways manage to land a 748 upside down at Lympne? A Sunday evening if I recall and caused by a strong gust under the port [?] wing at a critical moment. If I remember correctly a National newspaper photograph gave a whole new meaning to 'strap-hanging'! Sometime mid 1960s?

No serious injuries if I seem to recall.
H49