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Memorial planned to remember
the RAF aircrews
Flying enthusiasts at Hunsdon airfield are resigned to it being turned
into a 25,000 home extension to Harlow.
But they say they are still determined to create a memorial there to the RAF groundcrew,support staff ,pilots and navigators who served on the wartime fighter station.
Hunsdon Airfield Memorial Group (HAMG) has joined forces with the airfield manager in the hope of raising funds of £2000 for the project.
Manager Chris Hasell told The Herald "we have been approached by
staunch airfield enthusiasts and they cannot understand how the airfield is without a memorial and wish to create one. We hope this can be a fitting
monument worthy of the sacrifice of brave aircrew from Hunsdon, not so very long ago".
They have permission from airfield owner Ropemaker Properties. The Mosquito museum at Salisbury Hall, London Colney has donated a propellor and reduction gear from a crashed Mosquito which will become the centre of the memorial.
It is hoped there will be flagstones around it with the airfield layout etched on. It is also their intention to erect a bronze plaque.
A spokesman for HAMG whose members are Michael Dent, Denis Sharp, Steve Foster, John Knight and Jim Cosgrove said that although there was an excellent memorial plaque on the wall of the village hall, they wished to see a memorial placed on the airfield.
"Sixty years ago the airfield played it's part in the biggest aerial conflict ever seen, men and women served their country's armed forces in a way that can only be imagined by today's generation. The sad thing to us is that in another 20 to 30 years probably all trace of theses once historic sites will have eroded and so too will the memory of those gallant people.
" For this one reason alone a permanent memorial is enough to promote and preserve local history in the face of development".
"Eventually another historical site will be lost, we can only hope it will take another 10 to 15 years" added Mr Hasell.
The Group hope to erect a similar permanet structure at the former Sawbridgeworth airfield and hope someone can donate a P51 Mustang blade for it.
The Herald, Thurday August 19 2004 |
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Call for memorial at wartime airfield
A striking war memorial is set to be erected on Hunsdon’s historic airfield.
The plinth will commemorate all those who served at the airfield during the Second World War. Campaigners hope to obtain planning permission from East Herts Council in February.
Local military history enthusiasts have formed the Hunsdon Airfield Memorial Group to put the plan into action.
Wormley resident Michael Dent, who submitted the plans to the council, told the Mercury: “The funny thing is none of us live in Hunsdon.
“We just thought it was something that should be done — these places should not be forgotten.
“There’s a fine memorial in Hunsdon on the outside wall of the village hall. But we felt there should be something on the airfield itself.”
The proposed memorial will be a pyramid-shaped concrete plinth.
“The tip will be cut off and in its place will be the propeller of a Mosquito aircraft used in the war,” said Mr Dent.
“The plane crashed and the tip of the propeller is missing, so it will look quite dramatic.
“There will be plaques to various squadrons from the RAF and the Royal Australian Air Force.
“Canadians and New Zealanders were there for periods so there will also be mention of them.
“It was quite a busy place and I don’t think a lot of people realise that.”
The group formed in February after Mr Dent met fellow enthusiast Dennis Sharp at a military vehicle road run shortly after the 60th anniversary of what was perhaps the airfield’s greatest moment.
On February 18, 1944, 19 Mosqitoes flown by RAF, Australian & New Zealand crews took off from Hunsdon for Amiens in northern France, where their pinpoint bombing of a prison wall enabled 200 resistance fighters to escape. Many of the prisoners were due to be executed the following day.
“Operation Jericho really captured the imagination of the British people,” Mr Dent said.
He and Mr Sharp decided the airfield deserved a memorial and the lobby group is now 10-strong.
A model of the memorial is being made by group member Geoff Robertson, who grew up in a house on the outskirts of the airfield.
The model will then be taken to a specialist in Haverhill, Suffolk, who will provide an estimate for the cost of the project, which is to be met through a fund-raising campaign.
A council spokeswoman said a decision on the plans should be made by February 3.
Herts and Essex Observer, January 2005
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Memorial for Hunsdon?
A consortium called the Hunsdon Airfield Memorial Group has been formed to raise funds to establish a monument on the former RAF Hunsdon airfield in Hertfordshire.
The site is currently under threat of being developed for housing.
While there is a very well presented plaque to the station on the local village hall, nothing marks the airfield itself.
Philip Birtles of the de Havilland aircraft hertage museum has kindly donated the reduction gear and single propellor blade from a DH Mosquito
crash site for inclusion on the monument.
The group aims to have the structure completed in time for the anniversary of the Amiens gaol raid that was undertaken from Hunsdon on February 18th 1944. Alternatively the opening may be delayed until May 4th to mark the 64th anniversary of the airfield opening.
Flypast Magazine, December 2004
Memorial to war heroes gets all-clear
Hunsdon:
Planning permission has been granted for a memorial on the village's historic airfield.
The Hunsdon Airfield Memorial Group was given the green light by an East Herts Council planning officer and now intends to unveil it on May 22.
The 8 ft (2.44m) tall memorial, a pyramid shaped concrete plinth topped by the propeller of a Mosquito, will commemorate all those who served at the airfield during the Second World War.
The 10 strong group must now raise more than £1000 for the five plaques that will be on and in front of the memorial, but has been spared the extra cost of the building materials for the base. They have been donated by Frazer of Foxholes Business Park,Hertford. The memorial team plans a number of events about the history of the airfield.
Perhaps the airfields greatest moment came on February 18 1944 when, under 'Operation Jericho', 30 Mosquitoes flown by RAF, Australian and New Zealand crews took off from Hunsdon for Amiens,France where their pinpoint bombing of a prison wall enabled 200 resistance fighters to escape.
The first event is a speech by aviation author and historian Ron Mackay on the operation and other Mosquito raids during the Second World War in the village hall next Saturday.
The May 22 unveiling will be marked with a flypast by a Lancaster bomber.
Hertfordshire Mercury
February 11 2005
Wartime parachute hut in developer's sights
HUNSDON: The fight is on to save one of the few surviving Second World War buildings on the village airfield.
Landowner Ropemaker Properties wants to demolish a 1940s hut,used to store and pack parachutes for aircrews who flew from Hunsdon.
The controversial developer, which has earmarked its site for thousands of new homes, claim the building is a health and safety hazard.
But Hunsdon Airfield Memorial Group, which organised the unveiling of a war memorial at the airfield on Sunday last week, believes the parachute hut is an invaluable piece of heritage and of historical significance.
Group member Michael Dent said: "It would be such a shame if it were to go. It's still pretty complete - you can see the pulleys which they used to pull up the parachutes."
He said the group wants to restore the building and turn it into a small museum, a project which could be eligible for a grant from the Countryside Agency.
But its request for Ropemaker Properties to put its demolition plans, scheduled for late summer, on hold was flatly refused.
"They said they wouldn't want to spend thousands of pounds on it or have people coming onto their property if it was a museum," said Mr Dent.
"But they didn't give us a chance to explain that any museum would probably only be open one Sunday morning a month, or that we could get a grant."
Second World War pill boxes on the airfield have listed building status, but the parachute hut is not protected by English Heritage.
However, county planning archaeologist Jonathan Smith is looking into making a preservation order, a move backed by district councillor Deb Clark (Con, Hunsdon), Fred Hitching, who wrote a history of the airfield entitled The RAF at Hunsdon 1941-1945 and the parish council.
Cllr David Gibbs, who was appointed parish council chairman on Monday last week, said: "It's not exactly the Taj Mahal of Hunsdon, but it's unique and one of the few buildings that remind us of how important that land was."
John Wootton is property manager of the Gilston Park estate, which includes the airfield, on behalf of Savills, agents for Ropemaker Properties.
He said: "The building is a health and safety risk and in a poor standard of repair. We asked English Heritage about demolishing it and they didn't object."
The memorial group's rescue plan was not "realistic or practicable", he said.
He added that the demolition was scheduled to go ahead "later this summer", after a bat survey had been conducted on another property where it is hoped to re-house microlites stored in the parachute hut.
Hertfordshire Mercury 3rd June 2005.
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