Bentley Priory
BENTLEY PRIORY: Military airstrip/airfield
Military users: HQ RAF Fighter Command
Later including The Allied Expeditionary Air Force HQ prior to and after the D-Day invasion
Location: S of the A4140, (The Common), E of the A409, (Common Road), roughly 1.5nm NW of Stanmore, 1.25nm NNE of Harrow Weald
NOTES: It appears that a two-strip airfield was laid out in 1944 by US Army Engineers at RAF HQ, Fighter Command. Mainly for use by the Staff of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force presumably. They even had a hangar built. It seems the strips were closed in February 1945.
The RAF Museum at HENDON has a picture of an Army Auster (Taylorcraft?) which landed and nosed over, thought to have been taken around 1943/44
I would have thought that British military light communications aircraft would definitely have been visiting this site, possibly since 1940 or thereabouts? It simply makes so much sense, especially because the road network was so inadequate. But finding any proof appears difficult, to say the least. And indeed, according to Wikipeadia, the facility did not exist.
As said so many times throughout this 'Guide', the so often exhibited almost total lack of basic common sense, existing throughout the upper echelons of the RAF during WW2 seems, today at least, to beggar our imagination.
Incredibly, it appears that the War Department insisted it would take six months to lay out a couple of roughly E-W 300 metre grass strips, and that is why help from the US Army Engineers was sought.
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