Of course Marham was/is known as El Adem with grass and Bentwaters is also known as cripple creek!
Many a time in the days before direct dial telephone in the RAF when asking for West Drayton I got West Raynham and vice versa. Digby was originally called Scopwick and Sealand was called Shotwick so they were changed. And not related to RAF airfields but I believe the RAF changed the term airscrew to propellor after a unit asked for fifty aircscrews and got fifty pilots!!!!!!!!!!!
And not related to RAF airfields but I believe the RAF changed the term airscrew to propellor after a unit asked for fifty aircscrews and got fifty pilots!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought that was going to end up being rude, but that's even funnier It's probably a myth but let's hope it isn't.
No Amount Of Evidence Will Ever Persuade An Idiot (probably not Mark Twain)
And not related to RAF airfields but I believe the RAF changed the term airscrew to propellor after a unit asked for fifty aircscrews and got fifty pilots!!!!!!!!!!!
Lucky this unit didn't ask for fifty propellers, only enough for 12 and a half Lancasters, Halifax's or Stirling's, though the extra two could go on a Mosquito.
Whilst flicking through some old documents I noticed a map of airfields and some names that didn't immediately click. It's not often you see a map with the original names for airfields rather than the later, more common name. Those I spotted were:
Wakerley - Harringworth
Ely - Witchford (didn't know that was Witchfords original name)
Hadstock - Little Walden
West Wickham - Wratting Common
Hepworth - Shepherds Grove
Winfarthing - Fersfield
I can't recall seeing Ely before but the others I knew and I believe some used the original names for a while but couldn't tell you which ones or for how long.
I left Great Saling off the list because I felt that was more common knowledge.
No Amount Of Evidence Will Ever Persuade An Idiot (probably not Mark Twain)
As an ex-Supplier I was well aware of the protective propensity of my colleagues to preserve stocks of kit. One couldn't allow users to spoil the symmetry of stores by their irresponsible & unthinking use of said kit!!
Best cartoon I saw on the topic was of a techie chiefy addressing a stores erk beside an open crate that contained a teapot. Chiefy: "I don't care what it says on your **x%%!!%* computer, - that is NOT a Vulcan Maxaret unit!"
I used to dish out all sorts & only drew the line if I knew the widdle was being taken. Nearly melted down at Tengah, though. The last two Javelin Sqns, - 60 & 64 were on their last legs in '67, & strove to keep flying, albeit almost always on the red line. We couldn't get much stuff because, typically, the rest of the RAF had stopped using Javelins, & had got rid of the spares, & our lead time was weeks, if not months, even on priorities. The Sqns were only allowed to ring in 6 demands at a time, to "stop them from monopolising the 'phone". It didn't work as they simply sat there, rang in 6, then the other lot would do the same, then the first one again, & so on. The poor clerk on Section 26DA (me!!) was snowed under, as the manual system couldn't cope. When a Javelin flew a sortie & landed back it was instantly robbed to get the next one up. I did, however, witness the last Diamond 19 of Javelins flown when 64 packed up. We always reckoned that the one in the middle had no engines & was towed by the others.
back to the topic: Why did airfield builders choose a name for it that was usually a village on the far side of the place? Was it something to do with parishes? For instance, RAF North Luffenham's main gate decants you straight into the village of Edith Weston.
I worked in Progress chasing and production control at Hawkers Ham Cross roads, 1972? . We had Harriers in production, Swiss Hunters being refurbed, and dual-seat Harrier in Experimental. My friend was working on the Hawk design in the drawing office.
We used to get tickets for Harrier spares marked AOG. If it was AOG, Aircraft on Ground) it meant we needed to find one. It often involved lots of frenzied running about and finding a batch of those parts going through the factory for production aircraft, so we would part batch the batch to get the smaller batch accelerated to meet the AOG ticket. That meant creating a new ticket to plug the gap left by the original part batch, so the production requirement now arrived on the line in two batches some days apart. Then some "clever dick" would part batch a part batch and create another ticket and so it went on. It was all done by hand and a total bloody shambles.
AN ASIDE: We had a young lad in production control who used to go on about " you have no idea what its like to fly in the man's air force". He had done about two years RAF service and got some sort of discharge ( could mean anything!). Anyway this particular day one of the older guys really ripped into him and there was shouting, pointing and swearing and the man got very heated. I went off and made him a cup of tea and brought it back. He calmed down and said a few more choice expletives about this young chap. "Talking to me about that nonsense. He goes on about flying across the North Sea with nothing on the clock but the makers name. I've done it for real on active service in a Lanc with an engine on fire and it is no F*****G laughing matter". Makes me feel really humble when you get to find out what really happened.
It's a lot later than my time (the dual seat harrier was still in the experimental hangar at the back of the factory) but I do recall John Farley would push the Pegasus to the absolute limit to do some of the vertical take off stuff at Dunsfold and John "Harrier" Fozard would go totally ape. "OOOH Mr Fozard won't like that". My guess is he feared an engine fail and the inevitable hull loss.
... original names for airfields rather than the later, more common name...
Frequent references I've come across in TNA files which sometimes throw me for a while are: Bridlington (Carnaby), Atherstone (Stratford), Brackley (Croughton), Elswick (Inskip), Holwellhyde (Panshanger), Isle Abbots (Merryfield), Stannington (Morpeth), Novar (Evanton) and Winslow (Little Horwood). All were in common use.
And from your list Wakerley / Harringworth is usually Spanhoe
Plan A is always more effective when the problem you are working on understands that Plan B will involve the use of dynamite
I think all the Stratford plans I have are all labelled Athertone. Elswick was the name used for Inskip's ranges as well, it's even written on the chart as such. As the FAA ranges started off by using the parent station name it's not a surprise but I did think Inskip opened with that name with Elswick being the pre-build, pre-opening name.
Novar/Evanton may be more of an issue as I think it was Novar for almost as long as it was Evanton?
No Amount Of Evidence Will Ever Persuade An Idiot (probably not Mark Twain)
I have posted a list of alternative airfield names taken from a small book I purchased in 1965. Clearly a lot of work went into compiling the list but I can't vouch for the accuracy of the entries, so take it for what it is.
I think I recognise those pages, are they from the Merseyside Aviation Society booklet? Mine was from 1972 and one later one (197?) but the numbers look similar to those on the map that came with the later edition. That was my most thumbed book of 1972 and caused me to buy loads of Ordnance Survey one inch maps, many second hand to plot their locations. Although the later booklet had a fold out map I still wanted to know which field. At that stage I didn't know that all those USAAF airfields in Kent didn't have hard runways and large hangars! I cycled around the Ashford area ones and saw nothing except at Lashenden/(Headcorn) which had a V1 with a cockpit.
I had totally forgotten it had an alternative names appendix - if indeed it is the same booklet
No Amount Of Evidence Will Ever Persuade An Idiot (probably not Mark Twain)
That sounds like the very same book Peter. The pages in my copy are also well thumbed and when you think about it, it was cutting-edge information at the time, until the Action Stations series came along. How I longed to get all the way to East Anglia to explore those sites, but a 10 mile away trip from home in Hampshire was a big adventure in those days. Now, thanks to a car, a tent and The Willows Camp Site near Mildenhall I have visited all the East Anglian bases apart from a few in the south of Essex. My big regret is having lived a mile from Greenham Common in the 1950s and now having only vague memories of the B47s and their impressive 'approach chutes', and all because I wasn't allowed near 'those noisy Americans!!'
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It's probably a myth but let's hope it isn't.
