Goldhanger Aerodrome

[stephen p nunn]

To link with my earlier thread on Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome, here is a similar approach with images of 37 (HD) Squadron's Flight Station at Goldhanger....First up, the Aeroplane Sheds taken in 1919...

[stephen p nunn]

And a surviving building as it appeared in 1978....

Flying over in the late-1990s....

[stephen p nunn]

[stephen p nunn]

The Sergeants' Mess (moved to Heybridge Basin for use as a church)....

[stephen p nunn]

Two CWGC graves to Goldhanger pilots in the churchyard....

[stephen p nunn]

Pilots at Goldhanger during the winter of 1917/18....

[stephen p nunn]

Mannock flew into Goldhanger in March 1918 and caused trouble in the local pub!

[stephen p nunn]

The road to the Aerodrome....

The only flying from the site today......

[stephen p nunn]

KNIGHTS OF THE AIR

The RFC at Goldhanger from 1916

 

The pilots of 37 Squadron

            Picture the scene; a school assembly hall, bedecked with colourful bunting and balloons. A group of local amateur musicians perform some of the popular dance tunes of the time, including the rather risqué ‘Any time’s kissing time’. Local girls, the daughters of fishermen, shopkeepers and farmers, dressed in their Sunday finery, dance with dapper looking pilots wearing their best khaki, tunics, bearing the distinctive Royal Flying Corps wings on the breast. The happy event is made complete with a home-made buffet put together by the locals and bottles of ‘bubbly’ supplied by the airmen. For a brief moment in a difficult age all is fun and happiness. This is no imaginary picture - it really happened. The venue was the relatively new Maldon Council School in Wantz Road. The date was the 22^nd March 1918 and the accommodation had been booked by the RFC flying personnel from Maldon’s own local aerodrome, at nearby Goldhanger. They were well known in town, both on the ground and flying over head. They had even dropped posters on High Street from their aircraft on 11/3/1918, appealing for people to buy War Bounds to help supply six new aerolplanes! The hall had cost them 5 shillings, which they paid to the Essex Education Committee, via Mr. Moss, the headteacher - an important figure in our story (see casualty numbers 87 and 88). The pilots in question were part of 37 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps (Royal Air Force from 1/4/1918) re-formed as a Home Defence unit in 50^th Wing on 15/9/1916 with a brief to guard the northern portion of the Thames estuary and to prevent enemy aircraft and those dreaded Zeppelins from penetrating inland. They were assisted in their task by searchlights stretching from Dover right up to Edinburgh. Squadron Headquarters were established at ‘The Grange’, an attractive red brick, Queen Anne residence on the old Southend Road, in Woodham Mortimer, and requisitioned from the then owner, Charles Bentall, for the duration. (Headquarters would move to Stow Maries in June 1918). Under the overall initial command of Major W.B. Hargrave, operational flights of eight aircraft each were deployed at aerodromes at Rochford (‘A’ Flight), Stow Maries (‘B’ Flight) and at the village of Goldhanger, near Maldon (‘C’ Flight).

 

Goldhanger aerodrome

            The small aerodrome at Goldhanger actually pre-dated ‘C’ Flight’s arrival and was first used as a Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) Home Defence night landing ground from the August, or October of 1915 until the early Spring of 1916. The RNAS personnel, dressed in naval uniform and under the command of Lieutenant Frank Smythe, made use of the farmhouse, did very little building work and practically no flying and it was down to the RFC to develop the site. The station was located along the southern line of the main Maldon to Colchester road (the B1026), just to the east of Wash Bridge, stretched down to the marshes on the north bank of the River Blackwater and centred on Gardeners Farm (then owned and worked by the Dobson family). The overall site occupied about 100 acres and the basic landing strip was of grass. There was a machine gun range to the south-east and a dump (partly excavated by the Essex Aviation Group in 1978, revealing 250 live .303 cartridges, aircraft wing strut stays, clay pipes and a brass cockpit lighting plate). Approximately 30 buildings were constructed in the western zone of the aerodrome and these included; technical buildings, stores, billets, four massive wooden “aeroplane sheds” and a small guardroom, converted after the war into a private bungalow. That distinctive building could still be seen in its original form on the site throughout the 1980s, but has since been replaced by a much larger, modern private house of at least no external resemblance. The original Sergeant’s Mess building still survives as it was moved to Heybridge Basin in 1920 and now serves as St. George’s Church.

The first 37 Squadron aircraft landed at Goldhanger in November 1916. About 50 personnel – officers, their batmen and other ranks were deployed at the aerodrome, with a brief that the aircrew should fly standing patrols to the adjoining airfields. By May 1918 the patrol route changed and took them from Northey Island to Tiptree and over the Jam Factory there. The pilots included individuals like; the well-respected Captain William “Fred” Sowrey (who was in charge of the station and took over as squadron CO on 20/2/1919); Captain Blake (another one-time station CO); Lieutenants Keddie, De Fleur and Blatchford; 2^nd Lieutenant S. Hay and; Captain A. Dennis who had a lucky escape during an engagement out of Goldhanger on 28/1/1918 when his aircraft was riddled by gunfire in combat with a German ‘Giant’. Then there was Canadian born, 2^nd Lt. L.P. Watkins, who took off in his BE12 aircraft (serial number 6610) from Goldhanger at 2am on 17^th June 1917 and shot down newly commissioned Zeppelin L48 at Holly Tree Farm, in the village of Theberton, Suffolk.  Captain Alexander Bruce Kynnock was not so fortunate when he took-off from Goldhanger on the night of the 17/3/1918 to attack some German raiders but collided over Dollmans Farm, Shotgate, Wickford, with a British SE5a, flown by Captain Stroud, NRC, RFC, of 61 Squadron. Both pilots were killed and there is a propeller blade memorial at the site where Captain Stroud’s aeroplane fell at Rawreth. Up the hill a granite block marks the spot where Captain Kynnock crashed. He was buried in Golders Green, London, but two other pilots; 2^nd Lieutenants Crowley and Armstrong lie next to each other in Goldhanger churchyard. Of these, Frederick Augustus Crowley, was the son of Matthew and Mary Crowley, of Adrigole, Bantry, Co. Cork. He had only been at the aerodrome for two days when his aircraft was seen to lose control, narrowly avoiding the village, before crashing. He died on 26/2/1918, aged 20. His adjacent comrade is recorded as 2^nd Lt. Armstrong. At 11 o’clock on the evening of February 17^th 1918, Sydney Armstrong, formerly of the Royal Field Artillery, took off in his primitive BE12 biplane (the same 6610 previously flown by Watkins) in search of enemy aircraft believed to be attacking the capital. By 1 o’clock the following morning the body of the 18 year old pilot had been discovered in the shell of his burnt-out machine, which had ended up in a field at Tolleshunt Major. No-one ever really discovered the actual cause of that fatal crash. At first it was thought that a German fighter had been responsible, but later engine trouble was said to have accounted for the tragedy.

 

To ‘Fear no Man’ – a visit by 74 Squadron

            Although the 37 Squadron pilots would later be equipped with Sopwith Pups, 1½ -Strutters, Camels and Snipes, Sydney Armstrong’s aircraft, the B.E.12 with a top speed of 102mph and fitted with a .303 Lewis machine gun, was a far cry from the model flown by some unusual visitors to Goldhanger on March 27^th 1918. During that morning twenty SE5a’s of 74 Squadron flew from London Colney and landed at the field. This state of the art aeroplane had a 1x200hp Hispano-Suiza engine, it could reach speeds of 132mph and, as well as a machine gun, it could carry 4 x 25lb bombs under the fuselage. If the Home Defence pilots were thought of by the locals as “cocky” then the elite members of 74 Squadron were the very epitome of arrogance. Even the squadron motto; ‘I fear no man’ announced that confidence. They were a hand-picked squadron, highly trained and equipped with the most robust and powerful flying machines available at the time. One of their flight commanders was the young Irishman and famous flying ace, Captain Edward ‘Mick’ Mannock (later Major Mannock, VC, DSO, MC). Credited with an unofficial tally of 73 kills, making him the probable top scorer of English pilots during World War I, Mannock was like a cat on hot bricks from the time he landed at Goldhanger. He couldn’t wait to take off again and continue on his route to the front. He wrote a quick note to one of his friends explaining that he had been; “…ordered here at the last moment after all our baggage and transport had been dispatched to France. Shall be here probably a week until they can find an aerodrome for us. I suppose this big Germans attack has thrown them somewhat off their balance. Anyhow, I am sick of waiting and want to get out there. There must be lots of fun out there now, in view of the scrap….”. The night before his squadron finally left for France, Mannock and his confederates decided to have a farewell drink at the Goldhanger ‘Chequers’ public house. The apprehensive landlord, Henry Hind, tried to make the men as comfortable as possible, but the “great big chief of the village” (could this have been Dr. Salter or was it, as some sources suggest, the local Bobby?) objected to the airmen singing some of their renowned and somewhat bawdy ballads. Mannock resented the intrusion and gave the “big noise” two choices – to be thrown out or to have a drink. He chose the latter! On March 30^th, 74 Squadron left Goldhanger for good. For many it would be their last flight and Mick Mannock himself was shot down and killed between Calonne and Lestreme in the July. (He was awarded a posthumous VC). Just four months later it would all be over and in the following February (of 1919) 37 Squadron moved out of Goldhanger. Buildings were dismantled and sold to firms like May and Butcher, from Heybridge Basin, and the Crittall Company at Witham, and the fields of the little saltwater village returned once more to the plough.

 

[GROBBY]

An excellent article .Thank you very much for giving us all a very full history of one of the important defence airdromes of the time.I know the area and its good to know what it was like then

[stephen p nunn]

Thanks GROBBY - kind of you. Regards. Stephen (Maldon).