LANGAR AIRFIELD

Little happened in the area between Langar and Harby before the second world war. There seems to have been a church somewhere, dedicated to Saint Ethelburga, and there were activities towards Bingham to do with Wiverton Hall in the Civil War. Then in 1942 George Wimpey & Co. Ltd. were at work constructing an airfield. From its beginning, until 1968, 5 years after it closed as an airfield, the firm of AV Roe had workshops there. At first they were set up to test and repair the Lancaster bombers that came with the Royal Air Force 207 Squadron. This squadron moved to Spilsby in October 1943. In its place came the United States of America Air Force 435 Troup Carrier Group with C - 47 planes and later 441 TCG which supplied paratroops in the Netherlands from July to September 1944. The Royal Air Force came back in October 1944 with its 1669 Heavy Conversion Unit until March 1945. The airfield then closed in 1946 but opened again in 1951 to serve the only Royal Canadian Air Force base in the UK, their primary base in Europe. The Canadians stayed until 1963.   

Harby windmill had its  top storey removed to make it less of a danger to planes taking off  with their heavy cargo of bombs. The sails had been previously wrecked in the wind connected with poor maintenance.

The airfield was closely connected with Harby, at the extreme south the runways extend into Harby Parish. People from the village were involved in building it though much of the labour force came from southern Ireland. The airfield supplied employed for Harby people among the airforce duties and at A V Roes. Very few photographs survive, indeed few were taken as film was scarce during the war and photography on military sites was forbidden.

After the Canadians left part of the airfield was taken over by the firm of agricultural machinery makers John Deere. In 1967 the Nottingham Radio Control Society began to use the airfield for their model aircraft. The British Parachute School began to use Langar in 1977. It has 21,000 jumps a year and is open everyday except Christmas Day. 

The Memorial to the RAF 207 Squadron was dedicated in 1994.

PERSONAL MEMORIES

Four people who served in the forces or were associated as  as civilians  have written down their personal memories. Click to go to them,

Rex Stapleford. 1941 - present. PERSONAL MEMORIES OF LANGAR AIRFIELD AND AVROE CO LTD. Click here.

Ron Buck. 1943. TAKE-OFF TRAGEDY. Click here.

Dora Butcher. 1943. 0-ORANGE REMEMBERED. Click here.

Leslie Cram. 1961. THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE SUPPLY DEPOT, LANGAR. Click here.

Rex Stapleford. 1941 - present. PERSONAL MEMORIES OF LANGAR AIRFIELD AND AVROE CO LTD

My dad was killed in a road accident September 1941 while serving in the Royal Air Force, and, as a consequence of this my mother and siblings came to Harby to live with my maternal grandad Sam Furmidge, who lived at the Bridge House on Langar Lane. I lived at Ab Kettleby with friends of my paternal grandad, and during the war years I used to come to Harby for the school holidays. My first memories of Langar airfield go back to Christmas 1941, by which time work on the airfield, which was started in 1940, was already underway. The design was the standard of the period and it had three main runways with the main one on a north-south axis.

During all of the school holidays, I was afforded a grandstand view of events as my bedroom was the small boxroom which directly faced the airfield. The airfield opened in No 5 Group Bomber Command, and was first used as a satellite for 207 Squadron, RAF Bottesford, who at that time were equipped with AVRoe Manchester twin-engine bombers. During the summer holiday in 1942 I was aware of the activity related to the use of the airfield by 207 Sqdn. In September 1942, shortly after I had returned to Kettleby after the summer holiday, A V Roe & Co Ltd opened an aircraft repair depot on the west side of the airfield, and they carried out major repairs and reconditioning of Lancasters during the war years. Also, at about the same time, No.207 Squadron transferred from Bottesford, by this time flying AVRoe Lancasters, a four-engine version of the Manchester.

Between September 1942 and September 1943, 207 Squadron took part in many major raids, and I particularly remember when I was home at Christmas 1942 and the summer holiday of 1943, watching the aircraft taxiing to the runway and one-by-one taking off on bombing raids during the late evening and returning early in the morning. One of these raids was the bombing of Peenemunde on the evening of the 17th of August 1943. This involved bombing the V1/V2 experimental rocket site located on the Baltic coast of Germany. Nine aircraft of 207 Squadron were involved and they all returned to Langer safely. On this particular raid the RAF lost 44 aircraft and the Luftwaffe 12 aircraft.

On night of 3rd of September 1943, Ken Letford and his crew took Wynford Vaughan-Thomas and BBC sound engineer Reg Pidsley to Berlin in their Lancaster ED586, F-Freddie. Before they were taken to Langar, at his Grantham Headquarters the Air Officer Commanding No. 5 Group had told Vaughan-Thomas “all we ask you to do is to describe what you see. No window dressing.” Ken Letford and his crew were not only to bring their two passengers back safely but also shoot down a German nightfighter during the trip, dramatically described in what is now a historic recording.

On the evening of 2nd of October 1943, eleven aircraft were detailed for a target of Munich a nine hour trip, each of the aircraft was carrying a 4000Ib ‘Cookie’ bomb. Tragically, Lancaster DV184 (EM-O) second aircraft to take off crashed in a field between Barnstone Cement Works and the edge of the airfield and exploded killing all seven of the crew. My mother and brother remembered the loud explosion as did others in Harby and the surrounding villages. The cause of the accident was attributed to the fact that the cover was left on the pitot-static tube, the device which allows the airspeed to be measured. The total aircraft losses of 207 Squadron during their time at Langar was thirtyeight. Apart from the one mentioned above and two lost on crash landing, the remaining 35 were lost on operations.

Dora Butcher, a village stalwart, remembered that her husband Jack, who was for several years secretary of the Harby Village Institute, and other villagers, used to put on functions for 207 Squadron and later for the Americans. The dances and whist drives cost sixpence. The hall would be an RAF blue mass and dancing was almost impossible, four square yards at the most. The music was provided by gramophone, or locals playing piano and drums. One of the airman killed in the aforementioned crash was Arthur Archer, the Bomb Aimer, Jack and Dora had be-friended. After the accident Jack and Dora invited Arthur’s parents and his girlfriend up to Harby to see for themselves where the accident happened, and they stayed in Harby for several days. After the war Jack and Dora went to stay with them and for a number of years they corresponded.

In September 1943, the American 9th Air Force had taken over at Langar from 207 Sqdn who had moved to RAF Spilsby, Lincs. The station became No. 490 of the 9th Airforce. So when I came home for the Christmas holiday in 1943, the Americans had taken full control of the airfield from the RAF.

Various TCG’s (Troop Carrier Groups), equipped with Douglas Dakota transport and glider towing aircraft, were stationed at Langar and initially Langar was used as a reception base and training for these groups, prior to moving South to prepare for D-Day, as well as assembling and modifying Waco CG-4A gliders. The Americans left Langar in late September 1944, shortly after 45 Dakota C47 aircraft were used to drop 1,922 American paratroopers at Nijmegan, Holland for their contribution to the ‘Market Garden’ operation. A few days after the dropping of paratroopers, a series of reinforcement operations were carried out from Langar, in the form of C47’s towing gliders. On 17.9.44, 80 aircraft were used and on 23.9.44, 90 aircraft were used. I remember particularly that for the Market Garden operation that some of the paratroopers were accommodated in tents adjacent to the hangar nearest to Harby.

My brother Peter and my sisters Anne and Jean went to the children’s Christmas party given by the Americans in 1943, and they were all presented with a small bible. I also remember going to see the film ‘Jane Eyre’ at the camp cinema, in the summer holidays of 1944, with my Aunt Marion Furmidge. The building, located on Coach Gap Lane, Langar, that housed the camp cinema is still standing over 60 years later. I particularly remember the huts housing the American airmen, which were sited on the left-hand side of the road, past Gale’s Farm.

During the time that the Americans were at Langar my mother laundered clothes for two of the American airmen. I remember they were Master Sergeants. Apart from providing some income for the family they often brought chocolates (which of course were on ration in Great Britain) and tins of fruit.

Not long after the Americans left and between October 1944 and March 1945, Langar became the home of 1669 Heavy Conversion Unit with Lancasters and Halifax bombers. After 1669 HCU had left, the airfield was exclusively used by A V Roe, until the Royal Canadian Air Force came in 1951.

When the war in Europe came to an end in June 1945, it was decided that I would re-join the family again. Consequently, I spent my last year at school, travelling by school bus from Harby to Melton. During the summer holidays in 1945 I remember going with my mother to a dance which was held in one of the ex-RAF buildings across the road from AVRoe. The band members were German Prisoners of War musicians, rather incongruously playing Glenn-Miller type music.

It was in 1945, that the then unknown author Alan Sillitoe, was posted to Langar as an assistant air traffic control officer in the control tower at Langar airfield. At the time there was two other assistants, and an RAF Squadron Leader in charge. John Blundy remembers that one of the assistants stayed with his parents during their time at the Police House on Sathern Lane. Alan Sillitoe resigned from his post at Langar in about March 1946, and his autobiography describes how he travelled to work on the AVRoe workers special buses from Nottingham.

I left school in July 1946 and on the 26th of August 1946 I started work as an apprentice at A.V Roe, as did Ron Lamin from Harby and Geoff Daft from Hose. I remember catching the bus across the road from Bridge House and that my overalls were too long in the leg. Consequently, they were turned up at the bottoms to allow for subsequent growth. For the first two years the working week was five and an half days, and my starting wage was 26 shillings per week. The Works Superintendent was Mr Phil Lightfoot, who after the war played cricket for Harby, and his daughter Anne subsequently married local farmer’s son Tom Swingler, who also played for the cricket team.

Major overhaul work was carried out on three aircraft types, that is, the Lancaster and Lincoln bombers, and the York transport. In addition, conversions from military to civilian use were carried out. The works comprised Shed Nos. 1-7, with the latter constructed after I had started work. When I started work they also used four T1-type hangars on the airfield. One hangar was used to prepare aircraft for flight testing, and this was just over the road from the main works. Also, one was located on the Harby side of the airfield. The other two were located on the Barnstone side of the airfield and were referred to as VLR (Very Long Range). So called because, of the proposed fitment of additional ‘saddle’ fuel tanks in the bomb bays of Avro Lincoln bombers. This was to increase their range, specifically for operations against the Japanese.

With the ending of war in Europe and the attention being diverted to the Far East, the need soon became apparent that a British bombing force was needed to supplement that of the United States Army Airforce. Therefore, “Tiger Force” was setup to establish a British presence in the lead up to the invasion of Japan. The Lincoln which, was initially thought of as being a very long range aircraft, was therefore ideal for the purpose. Tests proved that the Lincoln could carry a 4000lb bomb load over an operational radius of 1150 miles, or, if fitted with a 1000 gallon ‘saddle’ tank as experimented with on the Lancaster it could achieve a range of 1500 miles with 7500 lb of bombs

Provision was made for in-flight refuelling one of the earliest concepts of what today has become standard practice. It was thought that a British force would consist of some 40 squadrons, half of which were to be fitted as tankers for raids on the Japanese mainland. But as a result of dropping the two atomic bombs on Japan all of these ideas came to nothing and the Tiger Force was disbanded a month after the first of Lincolns had arrived in service.

My first job was in Shed 5 involving wrapping asbestos string around oil pipes on the Rolls Royce Merlin XX engines fitted to the Lancaster bomber. I was not in this shed too long before I was moved to Shed 1 to work on the ‘Engine Sub Frame’ Section.

The engine sub frame was the means of mounting the engine to the wing and comprised a tubular frame which, was bolted to the wing spars, and a fireproof bulkhead. On the bulkhead were the connections-points of the engine controls and various piping/wiring. Just in front of the bulkhead was the four engine-mounting connection lugs.

During the time I was in Shed 1, I was involved in an accident that could have cost me my life. During the mid-morning break, the apprentices used to fetch cups of tea from the works canteen for the men in their section. This meant passing through Shed 2 and leaving the side exit to cross a road to the canteen. One particular morning early in 1947, on my tea-fetching trip to the canteen, I was run over by a three-wheel aircraft fuel-bowser, which was returning to the garage. The driver’s view was shielded from the side exit of the hangar by a toilet block built at the side of the hangar.

I was taken to the Nottingham City Hospital, treated for my wounds which as it turned out were not too bad, x-rayed and then taken home. I was away from work for a few weeks recuperating. Subsequently the AEU (Amalgamated Engineering Union) took the company to court and I was financially compensated. However, I could not touch the money (I think it was £125) until I was 21 years old. The case was based on the company’s admittance of negligence on account of the changes made immediately after the accident. These involved putting up a barrier to stop anyone running straight out of the hangar and sending all vehicles in the opposite direction.

After returning to work following my accident I did suffer a bit from fainting fits, attributed to the delayed shock of the accident. As a result of this, it was thought I would be better working in the VLR hangars. The majority of the work carried out at VLR was concerned with major overhauls of the Lincoln bomber.

During 1947/48, 30 Lincoln Mk I’s were delivered to Grupo 2 of the Argentine Air Force at Buenos Aires. It was reported that over the ensuing years that 19 of the original 30 aircraft had crashed. Also the Argentine National Airline, FAMA (Flota Aerea Mercante Argentina) also purchased a number of Lancastrians, which had been converted at Langar from Lancaster bombers. I particularly remember the latter doing ‘circuits and bumps’, flown by Argentine aircrew prior to flying to the Argentine. FAMA also bought five Yorks from AVRoe. These were used for associated services in conjunction with BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation).

It was during 1948 that the Russians closed all the rail and road links into Berlin, this meant that all essential supplies to the British, American and French sectors had to be ferried by air. On June 23rd 1948, operation ‘Plainfare’ got underway, and the RAF used 40 Yorks which carried the bulk of the British contribution. These used to fly into Langar for overhaul, with traces of coal and flour covering the passenger compartment (with all seats removed). I remember standing outside one of the VLR hangars watching a York flying in from Germany, and saying to one of my colleagues that ‘it seems to be going slow’. This was followed by an inevitable stall, and a heavy landing on one wheel, with a resultant collapsed undercarriage and the aircraft veering off the runway.

We had three famous York aircraft at Langar in 1946/47. Firstly, LV633 ‘Ascalon’ was the aircraft used by Winston Churchill (and sometimes King George V1). This particular aircraft was unusual in that it had square windows, not the normal round ones. We also had the Yorks of General de Gaulle and the Duke of Gloucester (when he was the Governor of Austrailia). Quite a few Yorks were converted at Langar from military to civilian use. For example, these were carried out for civilian airlines such as British South American Airways and Skyways.

The Chief Test Pilot at Langar was Sdn Ldr Peter Field-Richards; he could probably do more spectacular flying manoeuvres with Lancasters, Lincolns and Yorks than most pilots. During 1947, I had my second ever flight in an aeroplane with Peter in a Lancaster, mainly flying over Nottingham. His particular stunt after most flights was to beat up the airfield and pull the stick back to climb for a wingtip turn. This was a most unpleasant experience at the time for a young lad. Peter and his wife Jesse were also the landlords of the Nags Head pub in Harby.

Peter was born in 1910 and had been in the army before serving in the RAF. He had got his pilots licence in 1929. He also raced cars and aeroplanes before the Second World War. In the early days of AVRoe Langar he was posted in as the Test Pilot. When the Americans arrived at Langar, Peter was told that they had never towed gliders before. So one morning he showed the two Flight Commanders how it was done and that afternoon they were instructing their own pilots. There are quite a few anecdotes concerning Peter. It is said that he regularly borrowed an American Dakota (C47) to get home for the weekend. At that time his wife was living in Christchurch, Hampshire. When the Americans left Langar for the last time they cleared out their PX Stores and gave chickens, tinned fruit, chocolates and sweets to the local villagers. Peter was the recipient of cigars and cigarettes, which was enough to last him for two years.

A few months before I left AVRoe in March 1950, I was transferred back to the main site and worked in Sheds 3 and 5, working exclusively on the York aircraft. About a year later the airfield was surveyed and found to be suitable as an air materials base for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Work began almost immediately and No. 30 Air Material Base moved in during October 1952. The site comprised 44 buildings, 25 being new. The domestic site had 11 buildings while on the Personnel Married Quarters site was situated at Radcliffe-on Trent with 41 houses. A further 200 married quarters was completed in January 1958 on a 27 acre site just off the road to the village. To the locals it was known as ‘Little Canada’.

RCAF Langar came under No.1 Air Division HQ at Metz, Moselle, France, and was the only UK base. No. 30 AMB was made up of Base HQ and four different sections, integrated to form an efficient unit. These were the 312th Supply Depot, that covered seven and an half acres of warehousing and held 80,000 different items, needed to support the operations of the Air Division as well as F86 Sabre aircraft spares for the air forces of Turkey and Greece and CF100 aircraft spares for the Belgian Air Force. An emergency demand made at 08.00 hours could be delivered the same afternoon.

The efficiency necessitated close liaison with the second section, 137 (Transport) Flight, equipped with five Bristol Freighters and one Beech C45 passenger aircraft. The third section was the 314 Technical Services Unit which was responsible for getting repairable items to the UK and assisting in the supply of spares. The fourth section, 5 Movements Unit co-ordinated all passengers and material both in and out of Langar.

The other unit at Langar was the Langar Detachment of 426 Transport Squadron that serviced all visiting Dakota, North Star and Comet aircraft, but this did not come under the controls of No.1 Air Group.

The Canadians were very much liked in the Nottinghamshire countryside and towns and became an integral part of the Nottinghamshire community. In 1960 a maple tree was planted in Granby, presented by the people of Granby, Quebec. For 11 years the base throbbed with life, then, in 1963 RCAF Langar, which had spread over 377 acres, closed down. Three years after the Canadians left, in September 1968, AVRoe closed down. The post-war years had seen AVRoe Yorks, Lancastrians, Shackletons and Gloster Meteors pass through the establishment.

In about 1985, a DC3 aircraft owned by Air Atlantique of Coventry was based at Langar in connection with the filming for TV of their version of the film Casablanca.

In the 28 years, from inception, up to the closure of AVRoe, Langar Airfield provided employment for many of the local villages, plus many from Nottingham and Melton Mowbray. When I worked at AVRoe there used to be at least a dozen double-deck buses from Nottingham, picking up people en-route. One bus returned to Nottingham with the drivers, returning at finishing time to take the workers home.

At the time of writing this article, the airfield is use by the British Parachute School which has been a professional Sky Diving Centre since 1977. It provides training for beginners and experienced sky divers all year round. The ex-AVRoe buildings on the west side of the Harby/Langar road are now used as an industrial estate. The land is owned by Roland Gale, whose family farmed there before the airfield was requisitioned by the Air Ministry in the early years of the Second World War.


Ron Buck. 1943. TAKE-OFF TRAGEDY.

Ron Buck, rear Air Gunner in Peter Drane's crew, rented a cottage in Harby from a Mr Starbuck during his time at Langar. Ron recalls: "On the 1st October 1943 my wife and I had a nice sociable evening at the White Hart with one of our pilots, "Jock" Bremner, and his wife who had come to stay with him for the weekend. The girls talked about the baby Jock's wife was expecting.

The following morning I cycled over to the airfield and learned that I was down to fly on an operation that night. As it was a nice evening I suggested that my wife and Mrs Bremner came to watch us take off: Jock was also flying. Back at the airfield, with the rest of my crew I prepared for our forthcoming long, very cold trip to bomb Munich. As usual, the scene in the dressing room was chaotic; men in various forms of disarray; voices raised in excitement; nerves showing through the banter and conversation. The feeling before going out to face the perils of flak, searchlights and nightfighters was, to say the least, traumatic: the butterflies were always there.


After donning our flying gear, we each were given our escape kits, containing a map, various European currency notes, iron rations and water purification tablets. The Medical Officer was in attendance to supply vitamin tablets and caffeine tablets to those who desired them. Normally I never bothered but on this occasion, since we were scheduled for a flight of almost 9 hours, I accepted caffeine tablets to help me keep alert.

We boarded the aircrew transport and reached our designated Lancaster, DV 243 which was coded P-Peter. On arrival we lit a cigarette - the last for nine hours - and climbed aboard. Jock Bremner's DV184 0-Orange was to be No 3 aircraft to take off. We were supposed to be No 2 to take off, but as we taxied out Pete Drane moved temporarily onto the grass so as to allow Jock to go before him. We then got back into line behind 0-Orange and moved down in procession to the runway in use. As. we travelled parallel to the Langar to Harby Road I could see my wife and Mrs Bremner standing by the gate. I noticed Jock Bremner wave to his wife as he passed by.

When 0-Orange, with engines on full power, started its take off run, we moved into position on the start of the runway, and awaited the signal that would send us hurtling down it. Suddenly my skipper's voice came over the intercom "My God he's going to prang". From my rear turret I could not see forward, but over the noise of our engines I heard a loud explosion and our aircraft shook. Since this meant that the aircraft's bomb load had gone off I felt sure that there would be no survivors. Everyone stopped engines and the crews ran to safety since each aircraft carried a "Cookie", which were very sensitive 4,0001b bombs.

Sitting on the grass with our crew, cigarettes were again passed around as we viewed the terrible tell-tale cloud of black smoke at the far end of the runway. Within minutes however the CO drove across and said that as 0-Orange was not blocking the runway we should all get back in and take off. Not a single man hesitated and as we got airborne we passed over the wreck of 0-Orange. It presented an horrific sight; the shattered mess was lying in a field between the cement works and the airfield. My worst fears were confirmed - clearly no one could have survived.

We flew to Munich and saw that place burn, came through the usual dangers and returned to Langar. Then we learned the cause of the disaster - the canvas cover had been left on the pitot head, a hollow tube located on the port side of the forward fuselage which enabled the airspeed of the aircraft to be measured. It was heart-breaking news and it took me some time to accept Jock's death: it always does when you know someone well. Some crews were not with us long enough to get known but the pain of witnessing such an experienced and familiar crew die on home ground did have a lasting effect."

The late Wing Commander Jennings was the CO to whom Ron refers. Peter Jennings added the information that he was standing by the control tower when Jock Bremner started his take-off run. Noticing the coloured streamer of the pitot head cover, Peter told the Flying Control Officer in the tower, who fired off a red flare to tell the pilot to abort takeoff. Jock Bremner apparently closed down his engines but, being some half-way and realising that that he would not be able to stop before the end of the runway, opened up again and managed to claw some 50ft up. The airspeed was, however, insufficient to keep the heavy laden Lancaster airborne and the aircraft crashed back to the ground.

Peter Drane and his crew completed 10 ops from Langar, moved with 207 Squadron to Spilsby then, shortly after, transferred to the Pathfinders.


Dora Butcher. 1943.0-ORANGE REMEMBERED.

Dora Butcher also recalls; "My husband Jack was for several years Secretary of the Harby Village Institute. This used to put on functions for 207 Squadron personnel, such as dances and Whist Drives, all for sixpence. The hall would be an RAF blue mass. Dancing was almost impossible, four square yards at the most. The music was supplied by gramophone, or local farmers playing the piano and drums (in great demand around the villages of Melton Mowbray).

One evening, Jack was working in the lane, when a young airman came by walking a bike. Jack spoke to him and remarked on his flat tyre. The airman said that he was on his way to Stathern to take some books back. He had no puncture kit so he couldn't repair his tyre. My husband offered to fix it for him. When he called in on the way back, we invited him in for supper. His name was Arthur Archer - he was the Bomb Aimer on Bremner's crew - such a nice chap. After that, he often called in for a chat. He spoke of his parents and girlfriend down in Chingford, Essex and gave us their address if we ever wanted to contact them.

We heard the explosion when 0-Orange crashed. We were stunned and shocked when we found out later that it was our friend Arthur's aircraft. Such was the force of the explosion that four members of the crew were never found and are listed as having no known grave. Arthur Archer was one of them. We had only known him for such a short time but he had become dear to us.

After the accident, I wrote to his parents and invited them up to see for themselves where it happened. They both arrived with Arthur's girlfriend and stayed several days. After the war they asked us down to stay with them and we had a lovely week. They took us to many places of interest, such as Windsor. But sadly, we lost touch as the years went by. We always remember Arthur with great fondness."

Flying Officer Archibald Ferguson Bremner and his crew were the last fatal 207 Squadron casualties at Langar: they were more than half-way through their operational tour, having completed 17 "ops" in a period of just over 3 months.

Leslie Cram. 1961.THE ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE SUPPLY DEPOT, LANGAR.

Eight in the morning, Monday to Friday, was the start of the working day at the Royal Canadian Air Force base at Langar in 1961. Most people arrived by bus, there was certainly one from Bingham where I was living then. Some came in their own cars and I and a few others preferred to cycle. The entrance was the same then as the main entrance to John Deere works is now. There was a military guard in the check point but for us workers it was a matter of taking our individual card to put through the clocking-in machine recording our time of arrival and leaving it ready for the reverse process at the end of the day. I left my bicycle in the stand and went to start work in the shipment-reception hangar.

I had just found myself a place at university and had left school to spend the summer earning a bit of money and doing something different before starting more studies in the autumn. My father suggested I follow my being born in Canada to work at Langar and he had contacts through which he arranged it for me. My boss at Langar was Bill Yeomans. He and I got on excellently together. I knew how to take orders and be disciplined from school. Bill was not a university man but he had the job well in hand, was softly spoken and used to flatter me by saying from time to time “Isn’t that right, Les”.

The hangar had been converted into three sections from the one open space to take aircraft. One end was still an open space but marked into four areas each with a desk at one end with staff lockers where we kept the overalls we wore at work and personal items. We were not issued with special steel-toed footwear but then our job did not involve any lifting or moving items. Stretching out from each desk was yards and yards of space which was sometimes completely empty, at other times full of a shipment of equipment flown in from Canada. The centre of the hangar had toilets and a tearoom, then at the far end were the rooms of the Canadian Air Force officers who were in charge of us. Langar was the supply depot for the RCAF in Europe. Equipment was flown from Canada in to Langar where it was checked, stored and flown out for use around Europe when needed. After the touch down of a supply aircraft the shipment was transferred to wooden pallets on four wheeled trolleys which were towed into our hangar by a mini tractor and laid out stretching from our desk along the hangar floor by a JCB.

Bill and I were presented with the shipment papers. We had to find and remember the location of each item in the shipment. When each item on the shipment list had been located we brought in the RCAF officers to check each item against the description on paper. In its simplest form the number on the item tallied with the number on the paper, for every part of the Royal Canadian Air Force had its own unique number. But sometimes the number on the paper was part of a longer number on the item or was so difficult to find that we used the description in words to track it down. Bill had a knack of reading the paperwork and immediately putting his hand on the item when I went to him after puzzling unsuccessfully for half an hour to find it.

When all was accounted for the pallets were again transferred to trolleys and taken for storage by one particular member of staff whose job it was, holding tightly onto the paperwork with the signature that all was correct. They were bound for somewhere called building 84 but I never got to know where this was or what happened there. Between shipments we needed to clear away any packing materials or loose papers from the shipment before. I soon came to realise how vital it was to have a completely clear floor area for a new shipment so that we could be sure that anything loose on the floor came from that shipment and not from the previous one.

Half way through the morning we had a tea break and most went to the tea room in the building staffed by one lady. At midday we had an hour for lunch and I went over to the main canteen for a cooked meal which you queued for with your tray as in a motorway restaurant today. There was a swimming pool on site which we could use but I never did. Halfway through the afternoon there was another tea break. The working day ended at 4.30 and I was often away and passing Langar village on my bike before the various buses had taken on their passengers and passed me.

The work force dealing with the shipments was entirely male, from drivers of the tractors, to those like me on the hangar floor to the RCAF officers. Serving of any food and drink was entirely done by women. In the canteen over lunch there were a number of ladies who I took to be secretaries and typists. People were of all ages and as far as I knew a teenager was paid the same as someone approaching retirement. There were few from “ethnic minorities”. I was struck by how each person was treated for being him or herself. The RCAF officers set the tone by being polite to everyone, simple and clear in any instruction given. Each had his own personality but none of them had moods. I heard it said that working at Langar was like being in a rest home. Certainly there could be day after day after finishing one shipment before the next came in. At these times we were massively over staffed. But at other times there were yards and yards of stuff needing days before it was all cleared and out into store to be available around Europe. If the staffing level was decided upon to deal with the busiest times then we were about right.

Payday was Friday. It was good cycling home on Friday evenings with the cash in my pocket. I put the bulk of it, after I had paid my share of the housekeeping to my parents, into a Post Office account to use when I had the opportunities at university. It served me well and in the years ahead I always had a bit of capital behind me. On leaving the air base I always turned north so never came into Harby and of course had no idea that I would eventually retire so near to where I worked for those few weeks.






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Revised: July 07, 2011 .