The WW2 Royal Air Force Station at Wing was created at the start of the war. It became an operational unit for aircrew training with Wellington Bombers. The station took trainees from Elementary Flying Training Stations and was one of several Operational Training Units in the UK.
Text From Memorial Sign (above)
RAF Station Wing
No 26. Operational Training Unit
This airfield was built in 1941, to train allied aircrew in operational bombing techniques using the twin engined Vickers Wellington aircraft, designed by the famous Barnes Wallis.
Once trained, the aircrews would either join operational Wellington squadrons or move to further conversion training for four engine aircraft such as the Lancaster, Stirling or Halifax.
No. 26 Operational Training Unit started operating from here in January 1942, with a satellite station initially at Cheddington, then at Little Horwood. A decoy airfield was built near to Wingrave to confuse enemy bombers.
Many thousands of aircrew from the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, U.S.A and other allied nations, came for a minimum of ten weeks each. By 1944, more than 2,000 men and 500 women were stationed at this airfield.
As you look directly at the memorial, 5 large hangars were sited in front of and behind you.
Directly behind you in the distance stood the Control Tower and to your right is the main runway, which runs directly down to the road from Wing to Stewkley.
RAF Wing had a significant supporting infrastructure. This included gunnery & navigation schools, flight simulators, decompression chambers, a cinema, post office, gymnasium, chapel, sports fields, tailors, barbers, shoemakers, radio & telegraph rooms, offices, canteens, rest rooms, blast shelters and a large munitions dump.
Close to 200 men & women were killed while serving with 26 OTU.
Full details of the fallen & hundreds of photographs can be seen on the Virtual Cenotaph at the Aircrew Remembrance Society website simply by scanning the QR code below into your mobile device.
The site also includes veterans’ stories, personal accounts & more details on the rich history of this airfield.
It includes the 1943 crash of B-17 Flying Fortress No. 42-3449 at nearby Kemsall Wood, piloted by the USAF’s most experienced bomber pilot Lt. Col. Immanuel ‘Manny’ Klette
Memorial plaque to Captain Valentine Baker
The Martin-Baker Aircraft Company brought their experimental MB3 fighter aircraft No. R2492 to be tested here in 1942 by Captain Valentine Henry Baker, a legendary aviator and test pilot.
On Saturday 12th September 1942, moments after take off, the Napier Sabre engine seized. With little height and no power, the pilot attempted a forced landing where the Aylesbury Vale Golf Club now stands.
The impact and subsequent fire cost Valentine his life and it led Martin-Baker to create their world-leading ejection seat that has since saved thousands of lives
Memorial plaque to Operation Exodus
In 1945, the rapidly advancing allies liberated many prisoner of war (POW) camps.
Operation Exodus was created to repatriate them, and RAF Wing was selected to be one of the largest receiving airfields.
Between April and May 1945, nearly 33,000 allied ex POWs from 21 nations landed here in 1,269 incoming flights.
So many Lancaster, Stirling and Dakota aircraft landed here, that many touched down before the previous plane had cleared the runway.
Many witness accounts reported the former prisoners laughing kissing the grass and weeping on their return.
Key to Photographs
Anticlockwise from top left
- Sergeant George Baker Mould aged 19, missing over the North Sea 25.11.1943
- Crash of Immanuel Klette’s B17 Flying Fortress, 1943
- Site of memorial in image of 1943 parade by No.26 OTU
- Site of memorial on the early airfield
- QR code to access Aircrew Remembrance Society website
- Vickers Wellington aircraft at RAF Wing, 1945
- Allied ex POWs return during Operation Exodus 1945
- Captain Valentino Baker with the Martin Baker MB3 at Wing Airfield 1942
Meeting with Andrew
I met Andrew at the airfield memorial today 29 Jun 23. He owns the adjacent farm and donated the area of land occupied by the memorial site on the former RAF Wing airfield. He told me a little of the background;
His father flew from RAF Wing in WW2. Andrew bought the farm in the 1970s following the collapse of the Third London Airport project.
The original main east – west runway was dug up and used as foundation rubble for the M1. The line of the runway is marked by a long line of hedges and trees to the north of the memorial which stands on the side of one of the perimeter tracks on the road into the site (2023). There are other parts of runways dotted around the site, mainly occupied by chicken farms and their hen houses.
The Martin Baker company flew their prototype Mk 3 single engined aircraft from the site. The aircraft resembled a spitfire in shape. A test flight crashed after take off and landed in the Aylesbury Golf Club grounds on the Stewkley Road, killing the crew. Memorabilia from the crash are displayed in the club house. As a result of the crash the MB company decided to develop their MB ejection seat at West Drayton airfield near Hounslow / London Heathrow.
Operation Exodus, the wide-scale evacuation of UK personnel from all over Europe in particular used Wing Airfield as one of the repatriation centres for thousands of ex POWs and so forth on their return to the UK.
Andrew Alexander – South Tinkers Farm Wing
The Stewkley, Wing & Cublington History Group on Facebook holds records of the site. See: https://www.facebook.com/groups/httpsaircrewremembrancesociety3.comarmscharit/announcements
Also: https://aircrewremembrancesociety3.com
Wings Over Wing
Micheal Warth, in his book Wings Over Wing, tells the story of the bomber training unit. He tells us that the the RAF Station was established as 26 OTU. The airfield had a succession of aircraft types including the Vickers Wellington, Mk1C and Mk3, Avro Anson, Miles Master, Miles Martinet, Airspeed Oxford, Hawker Hurricane, Boulton Paul Defiant, Vickers Warwick, and Martin Baker MB3. He established the site of the airfield being to the north west of Wing between the Cublington and Stewkley roads. Now in the 2020s, there is little left of the airfield with most of it returned to agricultural land.
The Contents Page of his book is here:
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Introduction
Chapter 1 – Early Days.
The origins of the airfield at Wing – its construction and early developments.
Chapter 2 – The Airfield Site.
A general description of the layout and buildings in the various sites of the airfield.
Chapter 3 – So this is Wing!
Memories of arrival at the Unit, the welcome and the expectations.
Chapter 4 – The Training of Aircrew.
Details and memories of the various aspects of the training programme and crewing up procedures from both the trainees, and the instructors, points of view.
Chapter 5 – Accidents.
Sadly there were many accidents associated with the training of aircrew. The most significant are mentioned here.
Chapter 6 – On the Ground.
Memories of the vital work of the groundcrews which was so important to the success of a Training Unit.
Chapter 7 – On Yer Bike.
Aspects of domestic, social and sporting life at the airfield and in the local area, including the important part played by the bicycle.
Chapter 8 – 26 OTU in Action.
Memories of the Unit’s involvement in the. Thousand Bomber Raids of 1942.
Chapter 9 – The Aircraft and Crews Involved in operations from 26 OTU.
Details of the crew members and aircraft involved in the Thousand Bomber Raids.
London’s Third Airport Site
The area became a contender for the third London Airport in the 1960s. There are several accounts about this on line.