RAF HUCKNALL.
RAF Hucknall dates back to 1917 as a pilots training ground. In the interwar years, the base for the 504 bomber squadron. It played an important role during the Battle of Britain being the Headquarters of Fighter Command 12 Group under the command of Air Vice Marshal Leigh-Mallory. Mallory commanded 12 Group during the Battle of Britain from RAF Hucknall, not Watnall as some choose to believe. With extensive workshops and engineering on site, Hurricane fighter aircraft damaged during the battle were taken to RAF Hucknall for repair, and then flown back to where they were needed by the A.T.A.-, the Air Transport Auxiliary. A new powerplant was designed and built in Hucknall for the Lancaster bomber.
17th December 1940 saw RAF Hucknall's most famous event, the arrival of downed Luftwaffe pilot, Oberleutnant Franz Von Verra. Posing as a Dutch exiled pilot having crashed near Codnor. Later escaping out of a toilet window he made his way over to a Hurricane waiting to be picked up by an A.T.A. pilot, and to the ground crew there, it was not unusual for an exiled pilot to be working for the A.T.A. In the cockpit, just about ready to take off, the Officer who had been suspicious, and then had his suspicions confirmed when he did not return from the toilet, stopped him just in time. It is safe to assume, he would then have been taken to the Guard House near the main road until the R.A.F. Police came to collect him.
In 1941 RAF Hucknall became a training centre for the Polish Air Force, mainly bomber crews. This is relevant as there is great interest in the actions of the WW2 exiled Polish Air Force, the history of which, always of interest to WW2 R.A.F. enthusiasts here,and now much celebrated in Poland since the country regained independence.There are several Polish Air Force graves in the cemetery next to Titchfield Park in Hucknall, aircrew killed in flight training accidents.
After the war, RAF Hucknall again became the base of 504 squadron, and remained a centre for Aero engineering which resulted in its other claim for fame, the vertical take off engine as used in the Harrier jump jet. This fact is acknowledged on the site today as one of the larger new buildings is called "Harrier House".
So, an air base dating back to WW1. During the Battle of Britain, a repair centre for Hurricane fighter aircraft, and the Command centre for 12 group. The location of the famous "one that got away" incident. A Polish Air Force training centre, and the place where the vertical take off engine for the Harrier jump jet was invented.
In the images, the Belfast Truss hanger that was used by the 504 (County of Nottinghamshire) squadron, and the Guard House near the main road.
Some Facebook comments -
"My eldest Brother Bill and his friend,Peter Merriman joined up at Hucknall in 1939.My Brother was an engine mechanic and served in England and Southern Rhodesia.He came out an LAC.His friend Peter went for Pilot training,flying Spitfires with Douglas Bader.He flew escort when a Blenheim flew new tin legs to Bader when he was in a POW Camp.He left the RAF with the rank of Air Commodore but they remained friends."
"My Old Man worked at RR Hucknall. For over twenty years he had the right to ride the company bus to and from RR Victory Road Derby, after his job was moved there.
Living at Rise Park, you often heard engine testing and in Summer various planes from the RAF BofB Flight entering the circuit for the airfield."
"Very interesting. Love Reading your articles. My grandma lived at the Griffins head at Papplewick during the war. I fact my mum was born there. She use to tell me great stories about the war years. How apparently the fighter pilots use to use the Home Ales sign on the roof as a guiding point back to the aerodrome. Also they had a German Spy stay there once trying to find out information. I was told he disappeared one night, just before they came looking for him. I think my mum had a good time during this period, as the American soldiers came to help. They took into the pub lots of goodies and she went to the dances at Papplewick lido. She was engaged to one of the American pilots, but unfortunately he got killed in action."
"Thank you for sharing this - my late father was stationed at Hucknall at the training centre for the Polish Air Force. He met and married a local woman, my mother and they both returned to the area and died in 2013"
