RAF Tempsford
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RAF Tempsford in Bedfordshire, England was perhaps the most secret RAF airfield in World War II. It was home to the Special Duties Squadrons, 138, which dropped Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents and their supplies into occupied Europe, and 161, which specialised in personnel delivery and retrieval by landing in occupied Europe. Adolf Hitler personally knew of the existence of an airfield from which the RAF was carrying out these activities, but the Germans were never able to find its location in order to bomb it.
RAF Tempsford is very close to Little Gransden Airfield and can be clearly seen by departing pilots climbing out from the westerly runway 28. Other active airfields nearby include the former RAF bases at Gransden Lodge and Bourn.
A visitor to the site in 2002 reported as follows:
"It is possible to visit the site today. It can be accessed from the south from Tempsford Road or from the north from Station Road, although there is not much to be seen on the north side, except a farm adjoining the site. The railway station is still visible, but is now closed.
One part of the former airfield is now a large concrete-making facility. Some of the main airfield buildings have now been incorporated into a small industrial estate and visitors to this are not encouraged. Permission to enter may be obtained at the farmhouse in front of the locked gate that leads to the industrial estate. It is known that one person using the industrial estate has a collection of relics which have been recovered from around the site.
There is a public footpath to the east of this entrance. It leads to the end of a runway which appears to be substantially intact and then on to Gibraltar Farm. This was the final dispatch point for the agents who were about to be taken into enemy territory. There are several plaques and memorials in the barn to the brave men and women who were flown from here, many of them to meet terrible deaths at the hands of the Germans.
Inside the church in the nearby village of Tempsford there is a memorial to the people who used the airfield and there are many moving comments in the visitors' book. The church is kept locked, but there are instructions in the porch as to how to obtain the key from the warden across the road".
[edit] People
- Andrée Borrel and Lise de Baissac (Odile), were the first female SOE agents to be parachuted into occupied France. They flew out from RAF Tempsford on 24 September, 1942.
- Flying Officer Gerald Cruwys was awarded the Croix de guerre for his work with the French Resistance while at RAF Tempsford.
- Group Captain Edward 'Mouse' Fielden, Station Commander of RAF Tempsford (1942-1944) and a former royal pilot
- Group Captain Percy Charles Pickard was awarded a second bar to his DSO in March 1943 for his outstanding leadership in command of 161 Squadron
- Group Captain Hugh Verity, author of We Landed by Moonlight
- Violette Szabo flew out on both her missions from RAF Tempsford.
- Wing Commander F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, otherwise known as the White Rabbit, was dropped in France on 27th February 1943 having been flown out from RAF Tempsford by Pilot Officer Foster.
[edit] External links
Details about Tempsford on the Bomber Command section of the MOD website.
A non-commercial website about the secret wartime activities of this R.A.F. airfield in Bedfordshire, England
The unofficial history of the squadrons which operated from Tempsford Airfield
- [http://www.161squadron.org/ Final Flight of Hudson FK790
In memory of F/Lt J W Menzies DFC, his crew and agents.
Recollections from the war years.
A chronology of some of the main events at RAF Tempsford.
[edit] Bibliography
- Clark, F. Agents by Moonlight: The Secret History of RAF Tempsford during the Second World War. Stroud: Tempus Publishing Ltd., 1999.
- Clark, F. Peter Five. Bromley: Independent Books, 1993.
- O'Connor, B. Tempsford Airfield: Now the story can be told… 1998. ISBN 1-902810-03-1
- Verity, H., We Landed By Moonlight (revised edition). Manchester: Crecy Publishing, 2000. ISBN 0-947554-75-0.
