Debden
*DEBDEN: Military aerodrome
Note: This picture (2018) was obtained from Google Earth ©
Military users: From 1937: RAF Fighter Command
29 Sqdn (Bristol Blenheims)
37 Sqdn (Gloster Gladiators)
80 Sqdn (Gloster Gauntlets)
85 Sqdn (Gladiators later Hawker Hurricanes)
87 Sqdn (Hawker Furys, Gloster Gladiators later Hurricanes)
WW2: *RAF ‘Battle of Britain’ fighter station 12 Group
17, 85 & 257 (Burma) Sqdns (Hawker Hurricanes)
OTHER WW2 USERS
25 Sqdn (Bristol Blenheims later Bristol Beaufighters)
29 Sqdn (Blenheims later Hurricanes)
51 OTU [Operational Training Unit] (Blenheims)
52 OTU (Miles Masters & Hurricanes)
65 Sqdn (Vickers-Supermarine Spitfires)
71 & 133 “Eagle” Sqdns (Vickers-Supermarine Spitfires)
157 Sqdn (DH Mosquitos)
Later used by the 8th USAAF 65th Fighter Wing 4th Fighter Group
334 & 335 Sqdns (North American P.51 Mustangs)
Note: It appears that 335 Squadron were first issued with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts after relinguishing their RAF Spitfires - and they weren't much impressed by and large. Except that the Thunderbolt could out-dive even the Focke-Wulf FW190, and it packed a considerable punch with .50 calibre machine guns.
As described in James Hollands most excellent book, The War in the West, (the second of a triology); "Among the first to fly the new fighter in the 4th was Jim Goodson, who then checked it out with Don Blakeslee, now CO of 335 Fighter Squadron. It was, Goodson had to admit, daunting to haul 7 tons of plane around the sky after the finger-tip touch of the Spitfire, but he also recognized its advantages. Blakeslee, however, was grumbling. he liked his Spit. 'For one thing', Goodson told his friend, 'they'll never be able to dive away from us again.' "
"Blakeslee was leading the group on 15 April as the flew over Belgium. Suddenly they spotted a couple of FW190s and they attacked; as usual, the FWs dived away. The Americans followed and, although it took them a while, they managed to catch them. Blakeslee opened fire at 500 feet and literally blew his victim out of the sky."
"Back at Debden, Goodson caught up with the man who had scored the group's first victory on a P-47. 'I told you the jug could out-dive them!" Goodson said."
'Well, it damn well ought to be able to dive,' muttered Blakeslee. 'It sure as hell can't climb.'
Here we can see the constant dilemna all pilots face, even when flying either airliners or light aircraft. The whole business of designing aircraft is based around a compromise.
336 Sqdn (Vickers-Supermarine Spitfires, later P.51 Mustangs)
Gliding: From the 1970s ?: 1981: 614 Sqdn Air Cadets Gliding School
Location: SW to W of the A130, (a road number which has disappeared from modern maps in this area - now the B184 ), 2.5nm SSE of Saffron Walden town centre
Period of operation: 1934 (?) Certainly 1937 to 1977
Runways: WW2: 10/28 1463x46 hard 17/35 1189x46 hard
NOTES: There appears to be an interesting history as to how DEBDEN first became a military aerodrome. It seems that the idea to build an aerodrome here occurred in 1934 after a Bristol Bulldog crash landed here on a farm owned by Mr Kettley. During the recovery of this aircraft it is said that the RAF thought it would make a good airfield - so it was compulsorily purchased.
GRUDGING ASSISTANCE
This airfield was in 12 Group (and therefore in a mainly supporting role to 11 Group) under Leigh-Mallory. It appears, when at the height of the ‘Battle of Britain’ Leigh-Mallory was asked to send some squadrons to support 11 Group, it was very grudgingly given. Leigh-Mallory had his own ideas about how fighter aircraft could defend the UK, his main idea being the ‘Big Wing’ with hundreds of fighters attacking in formations, and seen with hindsight a strategy that would have been disasterous. Indeed, it was mostly because the Luftwaffe under the direction of Hermann Göring employed the ‘Big Wing’ strategy that led to their defeat. It took up so much time to deploy these huge echelons, the fighters and the Bf.109s especially, were left with insufficient fuel to adequately defend their bombers engaged on longer range targets, especially when London became a target.
If it seems doubtful that London could be viewed as a ‘long range target’ when you read that the Bf.109 of 1940 had a ‘supposed’ range of 528 miles, which might seem more than enough, it needs to be borne in mind that when climbing to over 30,000 ft and then engaged in combat manoeuvres, the range quickly becomes severely reduced. Perhaps a useful comparison is the utterly artificial ‘Government Approved’ fuel consumption figures given by car manufacturers in their advertising, compared to the results owners usually achieve, which are invariably a much, much higher rate of consumption. In fairness of course, how else can you make any comparison if not in strictly controlled laboratory conditions?
TWO EXTRAORDINARY VISITS
In their excellent book ESSEX: A Hidden Aviation History, Paul Bingley and Richard E. Flagg, have these two stories to tell:
"Having attracted a number of German bombers during the Battle of Britain, Debden drew two extraordinary visits at the start of 1941. On 28 January, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth travelled to the station for an inspection." I now wonder how many of those attending realised that King George was from a German royal family who had changed their name to Windsor in 1917?
"Six days later, a German He111 bomber made an equally eye-opening arrival. After landing at Debden and taxiiing to the watch office, one of its crew members jumped out and approached an RAF officer to ask where they were. He did so in German. Immediately realising the gravity of his error, he raced back to his aircraft, which rapidly swung round and took off. Despite the best attempts of the watch officer to raise the alarm, the panicked Germans made good their escape."
BLENHEIM NIGHT FIGHTERS
This seems to be interesting - when No.51 OTU were formed here in July 1941 as a night fighter training unit they were mainly equipped with Bristol Blenheims, both Mk.1s and IVs. In December 1941 the first squadron of night-fighter Mosquito NF.Mk.IIs was formed, No.157, also using DEBDEN’s satellite CASTLE CAMPS.
However, getting back to No.51 OTU they also had a few American Douglas Havocs which had, of course, a tricycle undercarriage - pretty rare in those days. To help crews initially adapt to this new technique of ground handling this type of aircraft a single-engine, (and British), General Aircraft Owlet was used. It is probably difficult to imagine today, but in those war years a considerable controversy raged over these two basic types of aircraft design, tail-dragger versus tricycle. It might be imagined that soon after it’s introduction, and the advent of hard runways, the tricycle type would soon dominate.
In fact nothing could be further from the truth, because British aircraft designers, well after WW2 had finished, still often clung to the tail-dragger concept even for large transport types, both civil and military. For example, the Avro Tudor and York, Handley Page Hastings and, for shorter sector work, the Vickers Viking. Indeed, a couple of jet fighters were designed as tail-draggers initially.
The Americans by comparison were already pretty much totally convinced about the benefits of a tricycle arrangement during WW2 and produced, (during and after of course), the Douglas DC-4, DC-6 and DC-7, Lockheed the Constellation series and Boeing the Stratocruiser, which dominated post-war long distance airline routes for just about all operators. The same applied to American bombers and, if you are thinking about the B.17 Fortress, it needs to be remembered that this was a 1930s design.
St JOHN PATTIE
Serving with No.80 Squadron, (in 1937?) was F/Lt (?) M T St.John Pattie, a South African. I found a report written in 1967 that a claim was being investigated regarding whether it was St.John Pattie who made the the greatest number of “kills”for the RAF in WW2 rather than “Johnnie” Johnson. He was a Squadron Leader when killed flying in Greece. Serving with No.87 Squadron in those days was another young pilot who did well in France and the Battle of Britain and later as an “Ace” with Typhoons, Canberras and Lightnings. He become the test-pilot of the “controversial” TSR.2, the cancellation of which was surely a “major crime” against the UK aviation industry? His name? Wg.Cdr “Roly” Beamont, DSO & Bar, OBE, DFC & Bar, DFC (USA), ARAes - perhaps he was in the AA or RAC too?
Note: This great picture was very kindly provided by Richard E Flagg from his own collection. The caption in their excellent book, ESSEX - A Hidden Aviation History, by Paul Bingley and Richard E Flagg is: "Former RAF 'Eagle' pilots swarm their P-47s around Debden's main runway in preparation for a 4th Fighter Group mission over Holland in May 1943."
THE EAGLE SQUADRONS
Also at DEBDEN was No.71 “Eagle” Squadron flying Spitfires. The “Eagle” Squadrons , 71, 121 and 133, were mainly made up of American pilots flying alongside many other pilots from both European and British Empire countries before the USA decided to join forces in this ‘World War’. In September 1942 the three “Eagle” squadrons met up at DEBDEN and were transferred to the U.S. Army Air Force with equivalent ranks to those held in the RAF. They then became the 334th, 335th and 336th USAAF squadrons and formed the 4th Fighter Group of the 8th U.S. Air Force. Needless to say the Americans enjoyed far better accommodation and vittles than most British aircrews. This said these Americans appeared to have been far from happy to give up their lean and mean Spitfires for the P.47 Thunderbolt “T-bolt” or “7 ton milk bottle”. Incidentally, if anybody was caught by the American authorities when arranging a passage to assist the Brits, the punishment was very severe indeed.
Re-equipped later with P.51 Mustangs the 4th became the USAF's highest scoring Group in WW2 claiming 1016 German aircraft. (550 shot down, 466 destroyed on the ground). Perhaps I should explain that after dispensing with their bomber escort duties on raids over Europe it was the normal policy to allow these fighter escorts to do low level attacks, especially at enemy airfields, on the way home. This gives rise to a simply fantastic and heroic story - hard to believe but apparently true. In March 1945 the 4th Group were attacking an aerodrome near Berlin. Major McKennon C.O. of 335 Squadron had to bail out near this German airfield. One of his pilots, a Lt. Green landed, discarded his parachute to make more space, and flew back to DEBDEN sitting on the Major’s lap!
It is now recognised that the long range ability of the P.51 Mustang to accompany USAAF bombers deep into Europe made a critical difference to the effectiveness of American ‘day-light’ bombing raids and DEBDEN based Mustangs were the first to escort a B.17 Fortress raid on Berlin on the 4th March 1944. Trying to unfold truth from fiction about the bomber raids into Europe in WW2 must surely be a lifetimes work?
Popular British myths were that the ‘Yanks’ were scared of flying at night for example, totally disregarding the fact that daylight bombing should obviously be far more accurate. Not often the case it appears, as accurate high level bombing was still in its infancy. We Brits didn’t have long-range fighter escorts and so evolved the Pathfinder squadrons to illuminate targets. On balance it seems the joint efforts were highly effective and the strategy worked very well and neither approach was superior. Both having merits and detractions.
ANOTHER NOTE
According to James Holland in his fabulous book, The War in the West, the second in a triology; "At Debden in Essex, in eastern England, a grand ceremony had been held on 28 September to formally transfer the American volunteers of 133 Eagle Squadron RAF over to the embyronic US Army Air Force 4th Fighter Group." This was in 1942. The ceremony was headed by Air Chief Marshall Sir Sholto Douglas, the Commander-in-Chief of RAF Fighter Command.
"Yet despite this formal handover and although they had officially become 336 Fighter Squadron, the switch from RAF to USAAF had, in reality, been a little more gradual. Through October they continued flying the RAF Spitfires, although the roundels were gradually replaced with the white star used by the USAAF, and in ones and twos they trooped off to London to pick up khaki green jackets and A2 leather jackets to replace their RAF blues and Irvin sheepskins."
"The first two Spitfires to be given US markings were those of Dixie Alexander and Jim Goodson. They had not stopped flying, but the new squadron had not been on an official USAAF fighter mission yet, so Goodson and Alexander started badgering the CO, Don Blakeslee, to let them head over to France on a 'rhubard', or nuisance raid, as a pair. Blakeslee liked the idea well enough and so put it to Brigadier-General 'Monk' Hunter, the C-on-C of Eighth Fighter Command, the US Eighth Air Force's fighter component. Hunter, who expected the 4th needed to harness a bit of identity and spirit, agreed."
And so, on the 29th of October at around 14.25, Goodson and Alexander headed off to France, into south west Belgium and did a bit of straffing along the way, and landed back at Debden at 16.10. "They gave the intelligence officer an appropriately modest report, forgotting this was the 4th's first mission and there was a host of newly arrived press men hungry for news. 'At dawn today,' ran a piece in the US forces newspaper, Stars and Stripes, 'fighter planes of the US Eighth Army Air Force carried out daring low-lvel attacks on rail, road, and water transport in Northern France and Belgium, leaving behind a trail of destruction.' "
"Blakeslee was furious. He'd been in the RAF long enough to know that a fighter pilot should never boast, or 'shoot a line'. Seeing Goodson, he said, 'All right, where's the other half of the Eighth Air Force?' Both Goodson and Alexander protested their innocence. 'All I claimed was one bicycle damaged,' Goodson told him."
"It hadn't been quite the glorious level of destruction claimed by Stars and Stripes, but the 4th Fighter Group was now up and running, with its first combat mission under its belt." What this does so clearly illustrate, especially in those years but also the case even today in some quarters, is that so many in the press and media, (very much so on social media today of course), is that the truth should never get in the way of a cracking good story.
Another aspect of WW2 history is that even today, (2018), some three quarters of a century later, it is only due, still, to people like James Holland beavering away, that anything like a comprehensive and accurate (as far as is humanly possible) picture starting to emerge. This said of course, there has been an astonishing amount of very well researched work taking place for decades, but largely as far as I can see, regarding very specific aspects of WW2.
A SPOTTERS NOTE
In 1977 the DHC.1 Chipmunks G-BBSE and G-BCEY were based here.
Alan Hillman
This comment was written on: 2020-02-04 10:55:17I was based at RAF Debden as a National Service airman. Did Debden have an ICAO code - and an IATA code? If so, what were they? Sincerely, Alan Hillman
Charles Perrett
This comment was written on: 2020-09-17 15:28:35Hi, I was a National Serviceman SAC 1955- 1957 stationed at at Debden after my Initial training at West Kirby. I worked in Air Traffic Control under a very special Officer called Zelensky .... worth having a look at his history.
Charles Perrett
This comment was written on: 2020-09-17 15:41:45Sorry I got the name wrong he was Squadron Leader 'Zeke' Zeleny. Czech born. His life would make a good book or film. His obituary was in The Times Feb 2010
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