Army Liaison strips

During WW2 there were a number of US Army liason strips in Hampshire,Dorset and Devon. Those I know of include (Hampshire)Breamore House,Barton Stacey,Bournemouth,Damerham/Fordingbridge,Lopcombe Corner, Rockbourne,Southwick Park , Winchester. For Dorset Charborough Park,Merley Park,Piddlehinton,Poole,Sandbanks and Wimborne .In Devon - Barnstaple, Bradninch Paignton , Slapton , Torquay and no doubt others.
Firstly - does anyone have any info on based units (other than what is on my website) and does anyone have or recollect seeing any photos of the strips in use in the 3 counties?

Secondly, British strips : The Army strip at Longmoor and the strip at Starve Acre ( nr Farnborough).Once again any record of use by whoever/whatever at either of these places would be very welcome. Aircraft identities seen at these places ....Longmoor seems possibly to have received visits (or at least very low flybys maybe lo-level para-drops/) by Hercules...and probably a bit of Helo traffic.

Given that both these are in fairly well frequented location , surely someone must have seen something.

I know we have discussed Starve Acre before and that pictures of the runway have been posted - it would be nice to see something actually using the runway!

Oh well ...I can wish...................

daveg4otu wrote:

During WW2 there were a number of US Army liason strips in Hampshire,Dorset and Devon. Those I know of include (Hampshire)Breamore House,Barton Stacey,Bournemouth,Damerham/Fordingbridge,Lopcombe Corner, Rockbourne,Southwick Park , Winchester. For Dorset Charborough Park,Merley Park,Piddlehinton,Poole,Sandbanks and Wimborne .In Devon - Barnstaple, Bradninch Paignton , Slapton , Torquay and no doubt others.
Firstly - does anyone have any info on based units (other than what is on my website) and does anyone have or recollect seeing any photos of the strips in use in the 3 counties?

Secondly, British strips : The Army strip at Longmoor and the strip at Starve Acre ( nr Farnborough).Once again any record of use by whoever/whatever at either of these places would be very welcome. Aircraft identities seen at these places ....Longmoor seems possibly to have received visits (or at least very low flybys maybe lo-level para-drops/) by Hercules...and probably a bit of Helo traffic.

Given that both these are in fairly well frequented location , surely someone must have seen something.

Longmoor, a grass strip known as 'Gypsy Hollow' was too short for a Hercules; any paradropping at the adjacent Hankley Common DZ was usually mounted from Farnborough; it was occasionally used by Beavers though and there were plans to take an Andover in there at one time too
There was a plan to resurrect the strip (I saw the site plans) when the paras started training on Skyvans at Hankley instead of balloons at Queens Parade, the Skyvans also operating from Farnborough, however on the one hand, the previously excellent surface was ruined by construction traffic when they re-routed the A3 road, and in any case the paras moved to Colchester.
As regards Hawley Lake, (2 hard runways) i'm not sure when it was first used but it saw infrequent use during the 34 years (1974 - 2008)I was at Farnborough just to the south.
.There was a Harrier role demo every couple of years but I don't recall any fixed wing AAC aircraft using it, only helicopters.
On one occasion in the mid/late 90s, a major deployment of both AAC and US Army helicopters was planned.
The helicopters (30 - 40) came down from Colchester or Wattisham and one or two landed, but the rest just circled overhead. When the noise complaints started, I asked what the problem was; it apparently turned out that the RE engineers at Hawley were only expecting 3 helicopters, not 3 squadrons, and had not prepared enough landing pads.!
I suggested to the rest that they land at Farnborugh until the mess was sorted out and this is what they did.(probably bursting for a pee).
The aforementioned Queens Parade, between Farnborough airfield and Aldershot, is a large polo field and has been used by borh fixed wing and helicopters, the most notable f/w aircraft being the Islanders belonging to the 'Red Devils' parachute team, initially GAXDH which was replaced by GORED. GAXDH was sold to an army person who started para training at Arborfield and he flew out of a private strip et Theale/Englefield just west of Reading, this being an establshed civil airstrip.
There was also at one time a 'light aircraft landing area' depicted in the 'Minor Airfields' guide at Colchester barracks.

netcompsys wrote:

This request for information about a strip at Southwick appeared in a local Portsmouth newspaper

www.portsmouth.co.uk/retro/does-anyone-r...smouth-1-8955994/amp



Anyone ?

From my website...
SOUTHWICK PARK.50.51.51N/01.06.15W.(5 km ene of Fareham).During the pre D Day build up the US AArmy used an airstrip located at New Barns Farm,
a short distance from Southwick House (the Forward HQ of SHAEF).
This strip was used by L-5s of the attached 112th Liason Squadron.
Pilots and other personnel were accommodated in tents along the east hedge of the field.
The strip was also used by visiting L-4s and L-5s of other US units, and RAF Austers.

There was also a strip at Bushy Park (now known as NPL), Middlesex operated by USAAF, and another at Foliejon Park, west of Ascot, presumably for the benefit of King Haakon of Norway who resided there from Mar 1942 to Jun 1945..

On a 1972 map of the Sennybridge range there is a landing strip marked by overprint as "Clawdd ALG and H Strip". it is at SN 861370. GE coverage only goes back to 2006 and the strip cannot be seen. Well at least I cannot see it !

I would imagine this is not pithing the scope of what Dave is looking for as it most certainly post war

kebecker wrote:

On a 1972 map of the Sennybridge range there is a landing strip marked by overprint as "Clawdd ALG and H Strip". it is at SN 861370. GE coverage only goes back to 2006 and the strip cannot be seen. Well at least I cannot see it !

I would imagine this is not pithing the scope of what Dave is looking for as it most certainly post war

I'm pretty certain it was depicted in the RAF 'Minor Airfields Guide' of the time, however don't forget Sennybridge is well used by a certain unit based in Hereford (I actually entered Stirling Lines while at camp with my cadets at RAF Hereford back in 1984); maybe 'they' don't want you to see it!.

I can recall seeing Sennybridge in the minor airfields. As for Stirling Lines, thats in the heli landing sites book, or it was in my day.