|
|
|
|
 The Army Air Force's 50th Fighter Group occupied Lymington ALG #551, from April 5, 1944 through June 25, 1944...a total of 82 days! This is their story of those 82 days, taken from some literacy sources, the group and squadrons official histories, as told by 1st Lt. Ernest E. Stowe, the Group Historical Officer; 1st Lt. Gideon W. Waldrop of the 10th; 2nd Lt. Paul L. Nunez 81st, 2nd Lt. Charles B. Alexander Jr. for the 313th FS; and from the Partial History of the 313th Fighter Squadron, as compiled by Ullin Lee Hudson, Editor, Colonel, USAF (Ret). |
|
|
|
|
 The Airfield is situation on farmland 1 mile north of the end of Lymington Ferry Pier, between Walhampton, Newtown and Pylewell Park Estates. Today, the one remaining Blister Hangar, and the north south runway has recently been restored by the new owner of Newtown House Estate and the farmland. Newtown's owner flies his own plane, a twin engine and helicopter from the strip. Originally, the airfield was built by a flight from the Royal Air Force No. 5004 Airfield Construction Squadron, in 1943. One of four ALGs, located near the New Forest, these airfield were temporary 90-day fields, built for the AAF in preparation for the allies return to occupied France. The Lymington site was very flat with a gentle easterly slope down to the mud flats of the entrance to the Lymington River. After preparing the site, removing trees, clearing some hedges, filling in ditches, etc., the No. 5004 Construction Squadron layed Sommerfeld Tracking on the surface to form two runways, an east west runway, 1,600 yards longs by 50 yards wide and a north south runway, 1,400 yards long by 50 yards wide. Taxiways and perimeter tracks were also laid down using the same tracking, which in the wetter areas was reinforced with a foundation of brick rubble, some of which was brought in from bomb damaged areas of Southampton. This rubble foundation can still be seen under the routes of the taxiway to the east west runway today! Although the AAF construction plans of the airfield showed that there was suspose to be a perimeter track on the south side of this runway; aerial photographs taken two weeks before D-Day show that this track was never built, except for a short stretch as far as the gun butts. Possibly the additional tracking was not found to be necesary for the short time the airfield would be used. Sometime, before the arrival of the first aircraft, a Canadian Construction Unit moved in to replace the Sommerfeld Tracking on the east west runway with the stronger Pierced Steel planking. At the same time, the ends of each runway was re-enforced with Bar & Rod Tracking, which was then covered with Prefabricated Bitumen Surface Cloth to give a hard wearing area where the planes turned onto the runways. Today, most of the Sommerfeld Tracking has been removed or has rusted away under the soil, leaving only a few reinforcing rods and pickets showing. The Pierced Steel Planking was taken up as soon as the 50th squadrons moved out (in 1944) to the French ALG A-10 Carentan in Normandy. This PSP was then used to construct other ALGs, as the fighters moved across Europe. In some places, the Bar & Rod Track can still be seen, as it still makes good fencing for gardens and fields. |
|
|
|
|
Four Blister Hangars were situated around the airfield, aerial views in May 1944 suggest that there was also a fifth hangar in place to the south of the gun testing range. This one had a approach that was to narrow for use by aircraft and reports say that it was used as a store and on at least one occasion, as a unit chapel. Wooded areas at South Baddesley in Winters Wood and in the copse to the west of Pylewell House were used for tented living accommodations and to house communal tents, such as the 'Chow Tent.' The tents were erected by a 9th AF Service Unit, just before the 50th Fighter Group arrived. There were also afew farm brick buildings, and out buildings, that were taken over to house some storage and administrative activities. For example, a group of farm buildings on the west end of Lisle Court Lane were used as a ration store and a staddle stone barn nearby was put to use as a debriefing room for pilots returning from missons. Lymington Airfield #551 was ready for occupation in early 1944, but it remained unused until April 4th, when the 50th Fighter Group of the 9th Army Air Force arrived. Even after the skimpy barracks at Camp Shanks, nothing had prepared the members of the 50th for life in tents. And the tents, weren't the only problem for the newly arrived men, for the South Coast in 1944, was still subjected to intruder and reconnaissance raids by the Luftwaffe. Often, there were air raid warnings that caused the men of the 50th to rush to the trenches, but fortunately there were no direct attacks on the field and the use of the trenches quickly diminished! It wasn't long until the squadrons planes arrived, about 80 P-47 Razorbacks, ferried in by WAF pilots. In their first few days at Lymington, members of the 50th squadrons, quickly learnt to improvise. With all the fighter groups arriving in England at about the same time, 9th Air Force Service Command was overwhelmed; and there were shortages of tools and equipment needed to bring the aircraft up to operational standards. It wasn't unusally to see supply personnel in the local shops, buying tools and office equipment ...whatever, that was needed! The difference in attitude of local people and the newly arrived Americans to the south coast at first brought some suprises. Local people were now approaching their fifth year at war and were resigned to difficulties, land and house requisition, air raids and food rationing, whereas, member of the 50th had to suddenly adapt to these conditions in a few weeks. They often expressed surprise at families still living and working in what they had been led to expect as the 'front lines!' And now, local people had to cope with another area that was 'off limits,' with more checks of identity cards whilst moving along the road between home and work in Lymington ...as the main road between Lymington, Boldre, and Beauleu, just happened to cross the airfield. One local doctor going to an impending birth at East Boldre had to endure so many checks of his ID card, that he arrived long after the baby arrived. There were identity checks leaving Lymington, checks on both sides of the 50th base and then another one near the 365th base at Beauleu. There's many amusing stories about local characters and the 50th FG base. One was about a retired forester, employed as a gardener at Pylewell House, who came to work each day on an ancient bicycle. He always wore his old green uniform foresters coat. Whilst other people were stopped by the 50th sentry for a lengthy check of their pass, the old man got a smart salute from the sentry, who was simply mystified by the uniform coat. And the Lymington District Nurse, on one occasion, was driving across the airfield towards South Baddesley and found that, the sentry wasn't at the regular check point. Driving ahead, she suddenly, to her dismay, found herself amongst taxing P-47s!!! Work, for the 50th at first, was rather hectic, but the general mood was, 'We're here to do a job, so lets get on with it.' There were only alittle more than three weeks between their arrival and the first mission. Air testing of the P-47s soon gave way to small formation flights and in turn, these grew to full group formations. Firing was done both on the range and in the air. The gun range was on the south side of the airfield. At first it had no earth banks behind it and bullets whistled out across the Solent as the Thunderbolts tested their guns. When afew complaints started to arrive from the Royal Navy minesweepers, anchored off Lymington, that they were under fire, an earthen ramp was quickly added to the range. The three squadrons embarked on a period of intensive ground and air training and some officers departed for short courses at 9th Air Force Command (OTC). They in turn would pass on the knowledge to others and so bring the group quickly up to a complete state of readiness. On April 19th, during a practice flight, there was a mid air collision between the P-47s of Captain Richard Fleming and Lt. Edwin Johnston, both from the 10th FS. Captain Fleming crashed into the lake near Pylewell House and was killed but Lt. Johnston parachuted to safety. It is believed, that parts of Johnston's plane, still lie at the low tide mark in the mud, south of the airfield. All three squadrons were now receiving a steady build up of additional P-47s, that provided more work for ground crews, who had to check each out and prepare them for operations. With many pilots now allocated their own plane, there was a desire to name them and apply the appropriate 'nose art.' Not all pilots adorned their aircraft with girls names or the Vaga type pinup. In the 313th Fighter Squadron, one plane was just given the name 'Thunderbird,' while another pilot probably influenced by long hours of flying patrols, painted his plane with the concocted name 'OMIAKINAS.' No doubt, a suitable comment, on an uncomfortable seat! |
|
|
|
|
Starting May 1st, 1944, the 50th Fighter Group was declared 'Operational' and pilots drawn from all three squadrons took part in the first fighter sweep over Caen. This was the usual introduction for a new group. In the case of the 50th, this was an unopposed sweep, but later in the same day, another sweep by the 50th over Rouen gave the pilots their first experience of flak. Later that same week, the group provided escorts for light bombers. Then each squadron started to undertake dive bombing training in mid May; and from then on, dive bombing attacks against communication targets, installations and airfields were added to the other missions, in the build up to the invasion. Bombing missions could pose hidden dangers even on the return trip to base, for over tightening of the bomb support brackets could cause a 'bomb hang up' even though the bomb release had been triggered over the target. An unfortunate pilot on the return to Lymington with a 'hang up' was instructed to embark on a whole series of drives and sudden pull outs over the water, in an effort to try and shake off the bomb. One occasion, a bomb fell off into the river and exploded to throw mud over the houses in Spa Road. If a 'hung up' bomb failed to release, the pilot was given the options, of trying to land with it and hope it didn't drop off on landing; or turn the plane out to sea and bail out. Both options had their dangers. Bailing out would of course mean the loss of an plane and to land with the bomb, would cause the ground staff to run for their lives!  One of the luckiest pilots in the 'bomb hang up' situation, was Lt. Pat Ness, of the 81st, who came in to land with a hung up bomb. As he touched down on the runway, the bomb fell off and exploded with a blast, that was felt even in the tent lines, knocking people off their feet and damaging sections of PSP runway. Mean while, Pat Ness, unaware of the explosion, continued with his successful landing. On May 19th, there were diving bombing attacks on marshalling yards at Lille, France. Generally, there were one or two missions each day. Some of these attacks, were taking place as far as a hundred miles, anywhere from Holland to the Atlantic Coast. This broad spread of targets, was all part of a plan to confuse the Germans as to the actual location of the invasion. There had been some crashes during training, with afew planes hitting trees around the ALG, but now P-47s were returning with damage from heavy flak. For the longer sweeps, the Thunderbolts began carrying long range drop tanks under the fuselage or wings. Some of these tanks were dropped off near to the base...to the delight of the local schoolboys, who soon discovered that they made quite good boats. There would always be casualties during such high pressure flying. The awards of the first DFC's to the 313th, took place among the trees of their site, with Lt. Roger Neilsen being one of the proud recipents. Sad to say, he was killed in action, the very next day over France. By early June, all the signs were evident, that it was about time for the big invasion! On June 4th, Charles Marks, a pilot from the 81st, arrived at Brockenhurst station after a few days leave and tried unsuccessfully to phone the airfield to get ride back. Failing to make a connection, he started the long five mile walk back to Lymington. Arriving there, he discovered that the entire base was under a strict curfew. Soon afterwards, the final word of the impending invasion came! All over southern England, the order was given to paint black and white stripes on the wings and fuselages of all allied planes, to ensure that there were no mistakes made in aircraft indentification by anti aircraft gunners. The present Lord Teynham's mother, returning from Lymington railway station glimpsed the feverish activity through a hedge, as every brush that could be found was applying the paint. On commenting to the CO about this activity, the lady was told that she should not have seen it. Wet weather added to the difficulties with fan heaters being used to help dry the stripes. To add another safeguard from friendly fire, the Thunderbolts of the 9th Air Force were used as top cover over the invasion beaches; leaving the more distinctive P-38s of the other groups to give low cover. At 3:40 a.m. on June 6th, just before dawn, the first fighter sweep of 48 aircraft, drawn from all three squadrons, took off from Lymington, led by Colonal Greenfield. The planes roared out over the Solent with their navigation lights on, below, the invasion fleet covered the sea with ships. The return to France was on!!! |
|
|
|
|
June 6th - As the planes returned from the first sweep, the pilots were mobbed by the ground crews, who were anxious to know how the invasion was progressing. It was difficult for the pilots to tell them anything, hard to tell from 2,500 feet up. Pilots from the 10th FS chased a Fw 200 Condor into the clouds on the way back to Lymington, but no other German aircraft were seen on the first mission. The group flew a total of four missions. June 7th - Three missions, from dawn to dusk, one German Me 109 was shot down. June 8th - Two missions, dive bombing attacks against rail bridges, transports and troop concentrations. More opposition from the Germans, the 10th lost their first pilot when F/O Ginder was hit by flak and had to 'belly in.' June 10th - Two missions, the 313th encountered some German aircraft and Captain Billy Bryan met up with four Me 109s. In the next few minutes he shot down one, probably destroyed another and damaged a third. Out of Ammo, he had to use all his skill to get away from the last one. June 12th - Target was a road bridge, on the 13th a rail bridge and in the next two days, there were attacks on troop concentrations. June 15th - The 10th FS was attacked by two Me 109s and Lt. Chapin's plane was badly damaged. He returned to England but his plane was to damaged to land. He was advised to turn it out to sea and bail out, but as he did the tailplane cut off his leg. He parachuted down near Corfe Castle and only his quick action in applying a tourniquet saved his life. June 18th - and June 19th brought more attacks on troop concentrations, as the Allies advanced out from the beaches. Now, it was time to leave Lymington Advance Landing Ground #551 and move to France. Before the move could take place, the ground personnel were divided into two groups. One group went across the Channel by LST to help prepare the ALG facilities for daytime use by the squadrons between sorties; whilst the other half of the group stayed at Lymington to service the group's planes when they returned to the base each evening. When the field at Carentan A-10 became completely operational, those in Lymington closed up and rejoined the rest of the group in France. On June 27th, the group resumed it attacks in support of the ground forces. The men of the 50th were still living in pyramid tents, eating K-rations, and trying to stay warm. But now the war was moving on and in the next eleven months, the 50th Fighter Group would advance across France and on into Southern Germany ...the 81st and 313th Squadrons having occupied nine different airfields since they first arrived in England and the 10th FS eight different ALGs. The 50th Fighter Group had conducted over 62 missions, in a total of fifty-five days, whilst stationed at Lymington ALG #551, England. 3 missions had been called off before completion, 8 were fighter sweeps, 12 were escort missions to bombers, 9 were beach area patrols on or near to D-Day; also there were 2 other missions and 28 dive bombing attacks on enemy troop positions or rail targets. An average of more than one attack each day. Acknowledgement: Our heart-felt gratitude goes to Alan Brown for use of some material from his book: 'They Flew From The Forest;' to John Levesley for the blister hanger today photo; and the official records of the Army Air Force during World War II; plus the 313th Fighter Squadron Partial History, Volume 1, 1991. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|