| Inspired by..... Ben
February 23rd 2008
After riding up Sandy scooters I thought I'd go take a few photos at the old WW2 airfield at Tempsford just up the road. It was home to Wellington,Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and Halifax bombers but it is most famous for being the base for the air arm of the SOE, special operations executive,Churchill's secret army. Small Lysander aircraft were used to drop and pick up agents in the dead of night in remote parts of France,Norway and Holland among other countries.
There is a mediaeval looking barn on the airfield (which is now mostly private farm),it was built purposely to look that way at the time in order to fool German intelligence into thinking it is just an old barn from their reconnaissance photos,but it is where the equipment for the dangerous and often fatal missions that spies and resistance heros was stored,in fact for many it is the last place in England they ever saw.
More operations for resistance groups were carried out by 138 squadron than any other squadron,at least 2560 sorties dropping over 40000 packages and almost 1000 agents.
On part of the original main runway.
The Old Barn
Little memorials to pilots and resistance workers dotted around.
Inside the barn,poignant things and the shelving that the agents equipment was kept on prior to being taken and dropped in occupied Europe.
And back out on a bit of the overgrown airfield perimeter track.
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