Bishops Hatfield
BISHOPS HATFIELD: Military Landing Ground
Military user: RFC (Royal Flying Corps)
39 [Home Defence] Sqdn (Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 and B.E.12 types)
Location: More of less in the SW corner of the later HATFIELD airfield, as expanded after WW2,
Period of operation: 1916
NOTES: This, to me at least, is a very interesting military airfield site, (Landing Ground), which only seems to have existed from April to October 1916. It seems they gave up using this site as it was prone to fog.
I’ll bet this ‘proneness’ to fog didn’t just occur suddenly in 1916, and I’ll also bet this was often the case for years and years before. But this does raise the question by which criteria suitable airfield sites were being selected during WW1. I wonder, did anybody think to consult local people before deciding on the site? Or was the decision taken by paperwork bound administraters working from an office, looking at maps, possibly in Whitehall ?
It is of course on record that HATFIELD, even in its heyday period, was prone to becoming fog bound. But of course, even when de Havilland made the decision to move here from STAG LANE in the 1930s, all the aerodromes in the greater London area were afflicted with this problem. And, that included CROYDON airport which was selected to hopefully avoid the worst of the London smog problems.
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