Only 16 battle of brit displays this year..

[Coltishall. loved it]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs1xZ7WtoAg


Sad old state of affairs. Nice video tho. Enjoy

[Finningley Boy]

16 each September in 1961 and 62. 25 in 1960. The number began 15th September 1945 with 100 stations, then a gradual ebb away to seven by 1970 and four by 1974. Then two from 1991 and alas, just the one, if you discount Waddington, from 1995 to 2013.

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[Planet Basher]

Osbourne will soon sort that excess out.

[Warmtoast]

1953 more than a million visitors visited RAF 70 Stations that were open to the public to commemorate the Battle of Britain - see attached cutting.

[POBJOY]

When we had an Airforce

Great film and with very RAF accents.I think the Spit pilot was AVM Bird Wilson who gave the Hurricane the credit it deserved.
I remember the 59 Biggin Hill 'At Home';Jets galore and the V Force. Mossies from Exeter in formation and still lots of Radials and Griffons.
The next day Spitfire SL574 belly landed on a cricket pitch near Bromley after a power loss.It had been taking part in the BoB flypast over London and prompted a ban on such flights for many years.
This event was subject to a great forum feast back along as the actual location was not certain to start with; but eventually the whole story was pieced together and even the broken cricket stumps found again. !!

[Shackman]

IFIRC The stumps were framed on a wall in the Officers' Mess at Bentley Priory (at least they were in 1969!!) together with pictures of the flypast and the errant Spitfire.

[BlackadderIA]

The RAF Waddington Airshow was called the RAF 'At Home' Day on the Op Order. I always assumed it was some kind of hang over that's been copied from order to order since time immemorial.

[POBJOY]

Stumped Again

THe stumps were held by Air Historical Branch at some time but seem to have ended up at Halton eventually (Still in case).
Spitfire ended up at San Diego Air Museum with 'stump marks' on wing still showing.
Mega discussion ensued (went on for weeks) with 'posters' carrying out experiments on effect of hitting aluminium with wood.
Not only did we identify the location of the cricket pitch, but someone also produced a copy of the pilots notes with a diagram of the errant fuel system.
(extra tank behind cockpit).Re the Biggin Hill 'at homes' we ATC Staff Cadets at Kenley (couple of valleys away) had the fun of seeing PZ865 (Hawkers) and AB910 (Vickers) meet over our airfield Bedford/Quill for a quick practice before running in for the main display.Both a/c now with BoB Mem flight. At Biggin one could fire a bren gun (live ammo) into the a/c butts for 1shilling proceeds to RAFA funds.THe Mossies (from Exeter) were later to feature in 633 S.

[racedo]

The next day Spitfire SL574 belly landed on a cricket pitch near Bromley after a power loss.

I can imagine that led to consternation among some of the old duffers at Cricket Club....

Along the lines of "Well we never stopped playing when the Hun was attacking and now you land on the wicket, I shall write to The Times to indicate my indignation"

[POBJOY]

Old Duffers at lunch !

Actually it was lunch time hence he was able to slide in across the pitch.
There exists a wonderful photo of them playing after lunch complete with 574 on the boundary.
This was nothing compared to his previous escapades in Sumatra defending airstrips against the invading Jap forces;which included using the machine guns taken from crashed aircraft.

[Warmtoast]

Spit Crash on cricket pitch - September 1959

As reported in the press at the time.

[Finningley Boy]

Below are the 16 at home on 16th September 1961;

Abingdon
Aldergrove
Biggin Hill
Chivenor
Coltishall
Cottesmore
Finningley
Gaydon
Leuchars
Middleton St George
Shawbury
St Athan
Tangere
Valley
Waddington
Waterbeach

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