RAF Broadwell, now home to a massive solar farm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Broadwell

YLSNED ... I had always understood that RAF Stations were named after the Parish in which they were located. Railway Station it is, then ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming...tary_air_bases

I remember receiving my arrival booklet for RAF Saxa Vord.

Nearest train station - Bergen, Norway.

Nice one!

I heard that Odiham was meant to be RAF North Warnborough after the name of the parish...but it was a mouthful so they went with the name of the village instead.

622 - there you go: https://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/ai...der/broadwell/

Wikipedia quotes:No. 512 Squadron and No. 575 Squadron were based here, flying the Douglas Dakota.

In February 1944, No. 512 Squadron was transferred to No. 46 Group at RAF Broadwell. It was a tactical Dakota squadron and started training glider towing and parachute dropping. Its first operation in the new role was a leaflet drop on 17 April 1944 over France; this was followed by intensive flying in and out of France, including dropping parachutists at Arnhem. In fact, 512 Squadron can claim that they were the first planes over on D Day as 3 Dakotas piloted by Fl Lt Hyde, W.O. James Proctor and a C Flight Flying Officer dropped a specialist team at 00.02 on 6 June to try and disrupt the Merville Battery before the main assault.

Broadwell took part in the D-Day assaults alongside nearby RAF Down Ampney and RAF Blakehill Farm. On the eve of D-Day, No. 575 Squadron dropped 5 Para into the invasion drop zone. On 6 June, it towed 21 Horsa gliders into France. In the next few weeks it started a casualty evacuation service from France back to England. In September 1944, it was involved in operations at Arnhem where the squadron suffered severe casualties.

The airfield continued to be a terminus for long-range transport operations to Europe, the Middle East and India.

The following units were here at some point:[1]

• No. 6 (RCAF) Casualty Air Evacuation Unit
• No. 10 Squadron RAF
• No. 21 Heavy Glider Conversion Unit RAF
• No. 76 Squadron RAF
• No. 77 Squadron RAF
• No. 91 (Forward) Staging Post
• No. 92 (Forward) Staging Post
• No. 94 (Forward) Staging Post
• No. 104 Terminal Staging Post
• No. 105 (Major) Staging Post
• No. 126 Staging Post
• No. 271 Squadron RAF
• No. 512 Squadron RAF
• No. 575 Squadron RAF
• No. 2792 Squadron RAF Regiment
• No. 2807 Squadron RAF Regiment

During my 37 years service I was always 'stationed' at an RAF Station.
Therefore if I was caught displaying excessive 'high spirits' after Happy Hour in the Officers Mess I'd be on the Station Commanders carpet on Monday morning. The Americans have Bases and it's the Army who have 'Camps' however it was quite common for non commissioned personnel to use the word 'camp' when referring to an RAF Stations and hence this became a common colloquialism.

It's all in the Crest!
 

Seems clear to me:
https://www.raf.mod.uk/sites/raf-bet...662_source.png

I think most RAF stations are similarly named.

As were Topcliffe and Tockwith (which became Marston Moor).

Following the Broadwell/Brize Norton diversion ... I went to Google Earth to have a look [as on does]. Drag the imagery timeline back to 1945, and there's a very clear B&W image o Broadwell ... but Brize seemingly does not exist! Just a patchwork of fields [which look as though they're photoshopped in], despite Brize having been there since 1937.

Why "hide" Brize, in that 1945 imagery? What was so 'special' there? There are plenty of other airfields displayed in their full glory [eg Alconbury, Wyton etc.]. But then go to Kent, and the entire county seems to be covered with 'cut and paste' imagery!

Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice.

Shirley an RAF station should have an SHQ whereas a base doesn't?

What about the ones with an SHQ and a BSW? :ooh:

I recall reading about 'self mobile squadrons', title may a bit wrong.
Was WW2 era.
When they re-located themselves was that a base ? How did the rest
of the R.A.F know where to find them ?

Rumoured to be so named because somebody, having been posted there, asked "who's the tw*t that had the bright idea of putting a staion here?"

Or was it "base" that he said ?

My Record of Service (RAF Form 543R) that I requested a copy of quite a few years ago shows that I was posted to a "Unit" - not a Base or Station- see attached.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6aec98859f.jpg

Ken Scott #17 & MPN11 # 22
The name of the railway station by the South East (Brittania) gate on the RAF Brize Norton airfield boundary at the time the airfield was built was "Bampton" even though Bampton is 5 miles away. Carterton at that time was merely a crossroads with a shop and a few smallholdings established by Mr Carter. Brize Norton Parish and Village were well estabished centuries before. I have a map of the area dated 1828 showing Brize Norton and Bampton, but No Carterton. The railway station was renamed "Bampton and Brize Norton"in 1944 to reflect the new importance of the RAF station.
The railway station closed in 1962.

MPN11,

When the USAF extended the Brize runway, did they ever consider the effect of having a railway across it? On the face of it, it is apparently a somewhat silly thing to do: if you have an aircraft needing an emergency landing and there's a train in the section, it may not be possible to stop the train in time....

The Army are now based at Leuchars Station…

radeng … also Ballykelly, IIRC. Perhaps the USAF had spoken to Dr. Beeching?

Tengah Type

If staish was in use in the sixties, it certainly passed me by. At Waddo we talked of Bootsie, Mike or Des (RIP all of them).

Sorry, should have mentioned Viv - still with us, I hope.