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RAF Wing
Royal Air Force Wing or more simply RAF Wing is a former Royal Air Force station, situated just west of the village of Wing, in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England.
RAF Wing was built on a parcel of land between North Cottesloe and South Cottesloe. Construction included five hangars for the aircraft, three concrete runways, offices, a canteen, rest rooms, blast shelters, ammunition and bomb dumps, radio and telegraph rooms, a library, Link trainer, gunnery and Celestial Navigation training rooms, a chapel, gym, squash court, rugby and football field, tailors, barbers, shoemakers, Post Office, a cinema, and stores. The main entrance to the airfield was via an already existing farm lane off Cublington Road, where a guardhouse was constructed. This road passed through the Instructional Site and on to the Technical Site. It now leads directly to the airfield memorial (see later item).
Opposite the main entrance is the lane leading to the Communal Site, on which the gym and a few other airfield facilities still survive as business units. The original Church of England chapel has recently been replaced by a metal industrial building, but still sits on the same foundations. The chapel was dedicated on November 1, 1942, by the Bishop of Buckingham, the Right Reverend Philip Eliot, in a service with commanding officers from the overall 92 Group and from RAF Wing. The Bishop was accompanied in the service by Group Captain J.F. Cox who was the Assistant Chaplain General and would in 1943 become appointed as an Honorary Chaplain to the King.
Further down Cublington Road towards the village of Cublington, another entrance gave direct access to hangars and stores at the western end of the main runway and a direct route to the bomb and ammunition dumps.
By 1944, over two and a half thousand personnel were stationed on site - approximately 2000 men and 500 women. Thirteen sites of living quarters were erected and dispersed over a wide area, each with up to 20 Nissen huts, some toilets, and one or two air-raid shelters. Members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force had their own site close to Wing village on Cublington Road, much of which can still be seen today. There was also a hospital and mortuary constructed close to Cublington that is still partially standing. [page needed] A new sewage works was also constructed just south of Cublington Road to serve the airfield and its associated sites. These sewage works still exist today and serve local communities.
RAF Wing airfield opened on 17 November 1941, although the upgraded runways were not finished and the first flight was not until March 1942. The station was used primarily as a ‘crewing up’ and operational training facility, but Bullseye, Nickel Raids and operational missions were also flown including participation in the majority of the ‘Thousand Bomber Raids’ during which multiple crews and aircraft from the unit were lost. No. 26 Operational Training Unit RAF for Bomber Command was formed at Wing on 15 January 1942 as a 2/3 status unit (means the unit was formed with one less flight than other OTU's) within No. 7 Group, equipped with Vickers Wellingtons, Avro Ansons and six Hawker Hurricane fighters to train night bomber crews.
The two operational squadrons who came for a short period were No. 268 Squadron RAF and No. 613 Squadron RAF. 613 Squadron arrived on 1 March 1943 with North American Mustangs, and 268 joined a day later with the same type of aircraft. On 6 March 1943, 268 Squadron left, and 613 Squadron left one day later, going to RAF Bottisham.
RAF Cheddington opened in March 1942 as the early satellite station to RAF Wing, but this was soon replaced by a dedicated airfield, RAF Little Horwood which was constructed a few miles north-west of RAF Wing. RAF Little Horwood also housed part of the Special Operations Executive, whose work included building radio devices for the resistance and covert agents and dropping them into occupied Europe. A Q-type decoy airfield was constructed between Wingrave and Rowsham just off the Aylesbury to Wing road to confuse enemy bombers.
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RAF Wing
Royal Air Force Wing or more simply RAF Wing is a former Royal Air Force station, situated just west of the village of Wing, in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England.
RAF Wing was built on a parcel of land between North Cottesloe and South Cottesloe. Construction included five hangars for the aircraft, three concrete runways, offices, a canteen, rest rooms, blast shelters, ammunition and bomb dumps, radio and telegraph rooms, a library, Link trainer, gunnery and Celestial Navigation training rooms, a chapel, gym, squash court, rugby and football field, tailors, barbers, shoemakers, Post Office, a cinema, and stores. The main entrance to the airfield was via an already existing farm lane off Cublington Road, where a guardhouse was constructed. This road passed through the Instructional Site and on to the Technical Site. It now leads directly to the airfield memorial (see later item).
Opposite the main entrance is the lane leading to the Communal Site, on which the gym and a few other airfield facilities still survive as business units. The original Church of England chapel has recently been replaced by a metal industrial building, but still sits on the same foundations. The chapel was dedicated on November 1, 1942, by the Bishop of Buckingham, the Right Reverend Philip Eliot, in a service with commanding officers from the overall 92 Group and from RAF Wing. The Bishop was accompanied in the service by Group Captain J.F. Cox who was the Assistant Chaplain General and would in 1943 become appointed as an Honorary Chaplain to the King.
Further down Cublington Road towards the village of Cublington, another entrance gave direct access to hangars and stores at the western end of the main runway and a direct route to the bomb and ammunition dumps.
By 1944, over two and a half thousand personnel were stationed on site - approximately 2000 men and 500 women. Thirteen sites of living quarters were erected and dispersed over a wide area, each with up to 20 Nissen huts, some toilets, and one or two air-raid shelters. Members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force had their own site close to Wing village on Cublington Road, much of which can still be seen today. There was also a hospital and mortuary constructed close to Cublington that is still partially standing. [page needed] A new sewage works was also constructed just south of Cublington Road to serve the airfield and its associated sites. These sewage works still exist today and serve local communities.
RAF Wing airfield opened on 17 November 1941, although the upgraded runways were not finished and the first flight was not until March 1942. The station was used primarily as a ‘crewing up’ and operational training facility, but Bullseye, Nickel Raids and operational missions were also flown including participation in the majority of the ‘Thousand Bomber Raids’ during which multiple crews and aircraft from the unit were lost. No. 26 Operational Training Unit RAF for Bomber Command was formed at Wing on 15 January 1942 as a 2/3 status unit (means the unit was formed with one less flight than other OTU's) within No. 7 Group, equipped with Vickers Wellingtons, Avro Ansons and six Hawker Hurricane fighters to train night bomber crews.
The two operational squadrons who came for a short period were No. 268 Squadron RAF and No. 613 Squadron RAF. 613 Squadron arrived on 1 March 1943 with North American Mustangs, and 268 joined a day later with the same type of aircraft. On 6 March 1943, 268 Squadron left, and 613 Squadron left one day later, going to RAF Bottisham.
RAF Cheddington opened in March 1942 as the early satellite station to RAF Wing, but this was soon replaced by a dedicated airfield, RAF Little Horwood which was constructed a few miles north-west of RAF Wing. RAF Little Horwood also housed part of the Special Operations Executive, whose work included building radio devices for the resistance and covert agents and dropping them into occupied Europe. A Q-type decoy airfield was constructed between Wingrave and Rowsham just off the Aylesbury to Wing road to confuse enemy bombers.