A THIRTY SECOND MEMORY OF STREETLY

[ChrisM]

There’s a distant roar, ever growing. It seems to be approaching us. Dad and I are in our dining room, at the back of the house on the Chester Road in Streetly, where we spend most of our evenings because there are easy chairs there and a table and the wireless set. And it’s a warm room in winter because there is a fireplace there which heats the water as well.

We barely have time to rush to the bay window and look out. It’s early evening and the sun is behind us as we look down the garden. The noise by then is reaching its crescendo. It is the roar of eight Merlins, running probably at full throttle. Two aircraft flash past from the left, from the north. From over Mr. Lyon's little market garden, next-door-but-one to us. Lancasters. One slightly behind the other. We seem to see them through the branches of the two apple trees at the bottom of our garden. (They are much taller now, compared with this picture which is six or seven years old and taken the year I was born).



And the Lancs seem almost to clip the roof of my sister's Wendy House; but they must surely be a bit higher than that. Although not by very much. A glimpse of cockpit, engines, fuselage with its RAF roundel, an oval tail fin. Followed immediately by a second tailfin, a little further away, that of the other aircraft. All in green and brown camouflage but gleaming in the sun.

In a split second they have gone. Off to the right. To the south, towards Castle Bromwich and Birmingham. Immediately the roar fades into the distance and in moments it has disappeared entirely. Beneath them, where they have passed, roof tiles in Kingscroft Road have been dislodged, here and there a pane of glass has cracked, a TV aerial leans at a crazy angle. Or at least, these things would have happened, had Kingscroft Road existed, now.

But it doesn't and so they haven't. There's just a field of spring wheat there which no longer ripples and the treetops nearby are still again. All is now tranquil in this rural part of Streetly, as it normally is.

Where have they come from, these two roaring monsters? What are they doing, where are they going?

Perhaps they are two aircraft which only days previously have been rolled out from within the factory on to the apron at Castle Bromwich and are on their last stage of a test flight. When the pilots have decided that all is well and that they'll indulge in a spot of exuberant low-level flying before returning to the aerodrome and signing off the aircraft.

Or perhaps they are not new, but well-used and veterans of visits to Berlin and the Ruhr. Could they even be a pair from a Lincolnshire squadron flying a route which today has been to the south, including a pass at 50 or 60 feet down Derwent Reservoir? And then following a circular course, hedge-hopping their way over Streetly and round in a big loop to the south of Birmingham and finally back northward, over Staffordshire and Derbyshire, back to Scampton. All this prior to more low-level flying practice around the country, tomorrow, and every day; and then, next week, next month, attacking the Möhne and Eder dams.

I have no idea. And never shall.

Chris

 

[John L]

I wonder if those aircraft may have been flying from or back to RAF Lichfield Chris? I spent many a weekend during the 60s at Fradley Airfield with my Mom and Dad, exploring the abandoned airfield (photographs below of a hanger, the control tower and a pillbox).

The airfield was constructed in 1939 and the runways were initially turfed, rather than concreted (as they were later), which had led to Wellingtons & Lancaster bombers getting stuck. The RAF moved into Fradley with their Hurricanes, Anson & Oxfords in August 1940, followed by Spitfires the following year and Wellingtons in 1942. RAF, Australian, Canadian and Czech airmen were trained there during WW2. The RAF left Fradley in 1958 and the site was sold by the Air Ministry in 1962.

 

[ChrisM]

Could be, John, who knows? Such a pity I can't remember the squadron markings on the fuselage. If I ever even noticed them. But it WAS an awfully long time ago!

Still like to dream that they MIGHT have been a couple from 617 Squadron.....

Chris

 

[Penns]

It’s very unlikely that two Lancasters in close formation at low level would be test flying as with test flying the pilot needs a lot of heads in time to ensure all gauges and instruments are working correctly and that everything is within limits. With formation flying it’s essential that following pilots are mostly heads up to ensure safe spacing. Lancasters were not only test flown from Castle Bromwich but also from Elmdon and occasionally also from the maintenance unit at RAF Lichfield

Of course it’s difficult to say with any certainty why two aircraft would be over Streetly at low level, especially as Lancasters were primarily used for high level night bombing raids. Solo aircraft were sometimes used to beat up areas or airfield in fact in one such beat up at RAF Lichfield, conducted by a former RAF Lichfield instructor, the aircraft clipped some trees at the side of the A38 and ended up inverted outside the site of what is now a pub on the A 38 near the Fradley turn, all on board were killed.

Training routes were largely standardised so this event was most likely a one off and my guess is they may have just used the bombing range at Cannock Chase.

In relation to RAF Lichfield:

RAF Lichfield, known locally as Fradley Aerodrome, was constructed in from mid 1939 to 1940. The airfield was set out in the usual triangular pattern with two runways 1 km in length and a main runway of 1.46 km.[1] Initially it operated as a maintenance site, being home to the No. 51 Maintenance Unit from August 1940.[2] Manufacturers sent newly built aircraft to Fradley to carry out any modifications before delivery to squadrons. After the war, large numbers of aircraft were broken up and many aircraft were prepared before being sold to the air forces of other countries. The unit remained active until the closure of the airfield in 1958.[3]

27 OTU (Operational Training Unit) was formed on 23 April 1941 (2016 was the 75th anniversary of the formation); its role was to form and train aircrew for front line bombing operations using Wellington bombers. The crews, largely from Australia and other Commonwealth countries, were then posted to their allocated squadrons, mostly in Lincolnshire.

The above is from Wiki, Spitfires and Hurricanes were never based at RAF Lichfield but may have been seen there at the Maintenance Unit. The mainstay of all OTU’s was the Wellington, sadly the Lichfield MU was one of the main airfields used for their disposal after the war.

RAF Lichfield was built with hard runways from its inception as were all airfields intended for use by Operational Training Units. Because of its dual use as a MU and an OTU Lichfield was one, if not the busiest airfield in the U.K. and had more hangars than any other U.K. airfield. Because it was so busy it needed a relief training airfield and Tatenhill was chosen but this was found to be unsuitable so when Church Broughton was opened 27 OTU used it as a relief landing aerodrome. Church Broughton also became a top secret aerodrome when Rolls Royce moved its Jet development unit to the airfield from Hucknall. Some of the first test flights of jet aircraft were conducted from this airfield from a dedicated hangar which still stands to this day! Church Broughton was also used by the Americans to ferry in patients for transfer to their hospital site at Sudbury which became a prison after the war.

 

[Eric Gibson]

Maybe the ladies making a delivery.
In November 1939, Commander Pauline Gower was given the task of organising the women’s section of the ATA. The first eight women were accepted into service on New Years Day 1940, initially cleared only to fly Tiger Moths. They were Joan Hughes, Margaret Cunnison, Mona Friedlander, Rosemary Rees, Marion Wilberforce, Margaret Fairweather, Gabrielle Patterson, and Winifred Crossley Fair. Although at first seen as less-skilled than their male counterparts, in time they fly all types of aircraft, from Hurricanes and Spitfires to four-engine heavy bombers such as the Lancaster and Flying Fortress.

 

[Penns]

Or the men, don’t forget the ATA had 1,152 pilots male pilots and only168 female pilots.
However it’s very unlikely that ATA pilots would fly a large heavy bomber in formation as ATA pilots had very limited type experience on the aircraft they flew plus it would be against regulations.