Northolt Airfield

[303_Kermit]

Dear Gentlemen!

First of all I want to thank you for your amazing job by Normandy 2. Man has to use 1 000 words to describe one Photo. Your job is then beyond any description. I felt like becoming whole new game. Thank you for that. Being a fan of WW2 planes and history, I couldn't  help myself not to travel around Great Britain and then Normandy, all the coast lines... Amazing job. I still like to take a Jeep and just ride.... What a shame that there is no "de Havilland Tiger Moth" or "Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann" in DCS  P-47 was way too fast to enjoy it properly. Around London however I discovered strange aberration. To be more precise "W" of London I found to my amusement....

Let's check one after another:

A Heathrow airport or Great West Aerodrome?!?
Lets start from the beginning
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_West_Aerodrome

"The Great West Aerodrome was not an active RAF airfield, but sometimes in World War II RAF fighters or bombers needing to land, landed there, and their crew sometimes found a bed for the night in Heathrow village. "

So what about Heathrow ?

According Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathrow_Airport
By the time the airfield was complete, World War II had ended, and the UK Government continued to develop the site as a civil airport. The airport was opened on 25 March 1946 as London Airport. The airport was renamed Heathrow Airport in the last week of September 1966, to avoid confusion with the other two airports in London, Gatwick and Stansted.

...To my bigger amusement I didn't found ... a Northolt Airfield.

Soooo.... what about Northolt?

Its location:

Direction	Length and surface
07/25	1,684 m (5,525 ft) Grooved asphalt

Northolt in 1939 had a 800-by-50-yard (732 by 46 m) concrete runway. Wikipedia names Runways:
- 07/25 concrete runway (currently)
- 08/26 concrete runway 800-by-50-yard (732 by 46 m) was extended 1841-yard (1684m) in February 1943 to accommodate the larger transport aircraft required by the Command.
- 02/20 (smaller) runway closed in April 1944.
- 31/13 runway built March 1946

Site history
Built	1915
In use	1915–present

During WW2 A Homebase for daytime fighter operations of:
During BoB
RCAF No. 229 Squadron
No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron
No. 504 Squadron
and part of No. 264 Squadron

according to https://www.ukairfieldguide.net/airfields/Northolt

Battle of Britain RAF Sector Station    (10th July 1940 to 31st October 1940)

1 Sqdn    (Hawker Hurricanes) 
18th June 1940 to 23rd July 1940, then 1st August to 9th September, and then again from the 16th August 1940 to 11th October 1940
Note: Later to become 401 RCAF Squadron.

43 Sqdn   (Hawker Hurricanes)
23 July 1940 to 1st August 1940

229 Sqdn  (Hawker Hurricanes)
9th September 1940 to 15th December 1940 

257 Sqdn    (Hawker Hurricanes)
4th July 1940 to 15th August 1940

264 Sqdn   (Boulton Paul Defiants)
29th August to 29th October 1940

302 (Poznan) Sqdn   (Hawker Hurricanes)
11th October 1940 to 23rd November 1940

303 {Kosciusko] Sqdn   (Hawker Hurricanes)
22nd July 1940 to 11th October 1940

604 (RAuxAF) Sqdn   (Bristol Blenheims)

Later during Wartime:
No. 302 Polish Fighter Squadron,
No. 229 Squadron
No. 615 Squadron
No. 308 Polish Fighter Squadron
No. 306 Polish Fighter Squadron
No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron during 1941 to form the No. 1 Polish Fighter Wing.

Also Homebase for Reconnaissance squadrons:
No. 16 Squadron
No. 140 Squadron
No. 69 Squadron with their Vickers Wellingtons modified for photographic reconnaissance that arrived later.
All three reconnaissance squadrons were combined to form No. 34 (PR) Wing.

Polish Fighter Squadrons based at Northolt in 1942 took part in Operation Jubilee (the raid on Dieppe) on 19 August alongside Nos. 302 and 308 from nearby RAF Heston. (that's another mystery?) Reconnaissance squadrons No. 16 Squadron and No. 140 Squadron operating Supermarine Spitfires and de Havilland Mosquitos moved to Northolt in 1944. No. 69 Squadron with their Vickers Wellingtons modified for photographic reconnaissance arrived later. All three reconnaissance squadrons were combined to form No. 34 (PR) Wing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Northolt

And it is not "Just another Airfield"  Northolt was important:

In 1943, the station became the first to fly sorties using Supermarine Spitfires (Mk IXs) in German airspace in support of bomber operations (it's kind that Wikipedia don't give the name of the squadron). On 25 March, RAF Ferry Command became RAF Transport Command and thereafter used Northolt as a London base for the transfer of new aircraft from factories to airfields. Runway 26/08 was extended in February that year to accommodate the larger transport aircraft required by the Command. Northolt continued as a Sector Fighter Station until February 1944. As a result of this and the new larger runway, the smaller 02/20 runway closed in April 1944.

RAF Northolt became home to Prime Minister Winston Churchill's personal aircraft, a modified Douglas C-54 Skymaster, in June 1944. The aircraft was used to fly him to meetings with other Allied leaders. Between 20 and 21 July 1944, a converted Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber named "Marco Polo" made the first non-stop intercontinental flight, flying from London to Washington, DC, then returning to Northolt from La Guardia Airport within 18 hours. In November of the same year, an Avro York flew non-stop from Northolt to Cairo in 10 hours and 25 minutes. A new runway, 31/13, was surveyed the following month and built in March 1946

Im curious... What period of time actually recreates Ugra media map? W of London seem to be somewhere in 1946-47, except of Northolt which is apparently in 1914, and Normandy seem to be some in July 1944... Can you please explain it to me and other WW2 DCS Fans?

RAF Northolt website today:
https://www.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/stations/raf-northolt/

Northolt during WW2
Northolt in 1939

RAF Northolt 1945
(source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RAF_Northolt_1945.png)

Northolt in 1950's

Northolt in 1954

And at the end I found that:
Approach chart May 1951 Northolt




With my best regards
Green Ugly Fellow

Edited June 30, 2023 by 303_Kermit

[yautay]

+1

[303_Vins]

+1

[Mike Ethanol]

+1

 

[Eldritch1]

+1

[dedBaron]

+1

[Camille88G]

+1

[Morphine77]

+1

[Klaiber]

+1

[Eldorado]

+1

[303_HOLY]

+1
I hope Ugra Media you will add this perfect airfield ASAP.
Regards.
HOLY

Edited June 30, 2023 by 303_HOLY

[Mentos]

+1

[Brigg]

+10

[Walshtimothy]

+1 , or as an alternative , provide mission tools to allow the addition of user created airfields with editable runways etc .   This could be an easier option for ugra also.

[elewarr]

+1

[EAF51_Jimmi]

+1

[Cliffhanger31]

I’ll always rep for a new airfield. Northolt would be great!

Edited July 2, 2023 by Cliffhanger31

[303_Kermit]

I am kindly asking all of you, to place here any founded valuable material about Northolt Airfield. It will surely help Ugra Media to put these piece of history on Normandy 2.0 map.
here:
RAF Northolt 1940 from German reconaisance!

Plane on approach to Northolt. See houses?

RAF Northolt open day

Edited July 2, 2023 by 303_Kermit

[PFT_Orph3us]

+1 . Dear Ugra Media, please make it possible!

[Miro]

+1

[303_HOLY]

Why Northolt RAF base...?
Because Northolt is the oldest (so rather important) base in England.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Northolt

[Raptorattacker]

[303_HOLY]

This is what I found recently as perfect info for Northolt altitude net.

[ciekma]

+1 

[skybaby68]

+1