Crash landings and RAF activities on Merrow Downs

1 SSuurrrreeyy AAddvveerrttiisseerr13th April 2007 GGCC1166 ADVERT NOT FOUNDUrn: 839882 Revision: 8 Section: ROP Size: 6 cols x cm'sName: Surrey Police AuthorDURING the Second WorldWar, a field on Merrow Downsat Burwood Farm was used bythe RAF as a landing ground. The field is situated to thenorth of White Lane and is thefirst field a mile westwardsfrom Newlands Corner alongthe Drove Road (marked Trackway on the OrdnanceSurvey map). It was known as 40 Acre Fieldand may have been used forone of the touring air displaysor flying circuses in the an air display washeld in a field about a quarterof a mile to the east of the A25at Newlands Corner in Farm at this timewas occupied by the Whitefamily, J.

2 White & Son, runningWarren Farm Dairy andThomas Charlie White, oper-ating a machinery hire busi-ness. The 1944 Kelly s Directoryof Guildford and Godalmingstates that he was a steamroller contractor. Apparently, Charlie and hismale siblings were all namedThomas and were thereforeknown by their second , seemingly in an effortto ensure that his horses werenot requisitioned for war useand were given rations, organ-ised a mounted section of theHome Guard to patrol thedowns and the landing ground wasused by DeHavilland DH82aTiger Moth training bi-planesfrom No. 18 Elementary FlyingTraining School (EFTS).

3 This training unit opened onOctober 2, 1937, by GeneralAircraft Ltd, and was takenover by the RAF in September1939 and was situated atFairoaks aerodrome nearChobham. To relieve the pressure atFairoaks No. 18 EFTS used fourother landing grounds. Therewere two Relief LandingGrounds (RLGs) at which air-craft were based, one was atSmith s Lawn, Windsor GreatPark, and the other in a field atWinkworth near Bracknell. (Inuse from May 1941 to July1945). Two further landinggrounds, were used to practiseforced landings (EmergencyLanding Grounds (ELGs)) oneat Bray near Maidenhead, andthe one at Merrow Downs .

4 At Merrow Downs there wereno facilities at all, only a wind-sock on the highest point of thewestern field regular use of the fieldappears to have been on a veryinformal basis with seeminglyno documentary evidence of alease or agreement. The first mention of MerrowELG in No. 18 EFTS s opera-tional record book is onNovember 12, 1943, (althoughit had been in use by themfrom at least 1940), when itsays Morrow (sic) force land-ing field has been washed out .Given the proximity of theSpecial Operations Executive sspy training school at TytingHouse, it is interesting to spec-ulate whether the field mayhave been used to pick up ordrop off agents by aircraft.

5 If so,probably of the WestlandLysander single engine mono-plane type aircraft. For a while in 1943 or 1944,the landing ground was used,simultaneously with No. 18 EFTS, as a base by a flight ofabout three RAF TaylorcraftAuster aircraft (light singleengined monoplane aircraftfor artillery spotting). They were parked in thenorth-east corner of the fieldand had at least three tentserected for personnel. It is like-ly that these aircraft left afterD-Day to assist the BritishArmy in local RAF presencein 1940 was at NewlandsCorner where a radio tender(truck) was positioned. Early inthe wat two- way communica-tions between fighter aircraftand their controlling RAFF ighter Command SectorStations was carried out usingCrash landings and RAF activitieson Merrow DownsLocal historian and aviation enthusiast Frank Phillipsonhas beenresearching RAF wartime activitieson Merrow Downs near GuildfordThe Merrow Downs landing ground on the horizon to the left and the slope of St Martha s can just be seen to the right.

6 Viewed from The DeHavilland DH82A Tiger Moth with camouflaged upper surfaces and yellow under was principally aircraft liked these that used the landing strip at Merrow by Philip Stevens, January 1941, a Bristol Blenheim Mk I made a forced landing at Merrow Blenheim pictured is a later Mk IV. Photo by Colin Work, radio signals. These signals had limitedrange and therefore mobilerelay stations (radio tenders)were set up to extend the areaof communications. These relay stations wereconnected to the sector sta-tions by a high-quality tele-phone line. The one atNewlands Corner was initiallyused by Tangmere Sector butwas transferred to Northolt fol-lowing a request on June 22,1940.

7 On the subject of radio, PeterStanley of Merrow remembersthat there was a rectangulararea of telegraph poles with anetwork of wires strungbetween them for radio pur-poses situated between thethird hole or the fourth tee ofthe golf course and TroddsLane. Vehicles and trailers forequipment were positioned atthe north-east corner of thissite. In 1945, a section of the RAFR egiment was in a camp onMerrow Downs near NewlandsCorner possibly in connec-tion with the radio station. Their presence noted by theMerrow Downs ConservationCommittee, who asked theirclerk to write to the command-ing officer to arrange for rub-bish, that had been dumpednearby, to be a few people remem-ber Tiger Moth aircraft activityon the Downs during the war,but one story stands out.

8 It was about 1940, andMichael Knight, who was sevenor eight at the time, was walk-ing on Pewley Downs whichwere at the back of his recalled: I saw three air-craft flying (from the east)down the valley starting fromthe little church of St Martha s(and Merrow Downs ). Behind us a yellow biplanewas doing loops above an RAFtraining station which wasbased in a field nearby. The three aircraft were aHeinkel (111) bomber flankedby two Me 109s. They flewdown the valley so low that wewere looking down on thepilots. The bomber dropped abomb on the main line railway,but missed.

9 The biplane con-tinued doing loops and thethree enemy aircraft flew off. It has been possible to tracefour accidents at or near theMerrow Downs landing groundduring and after the January 1941, a BristolBlenheim Mk I of RAF. No. 2 School of Army Co-operation(SAC) made a forced landingpossibly due to poor was left there while its crewreturned to their airfield byother means. On January 17, 1941, an AvroAnson Mk I (serial number:W9553), a general purposetwin-engined monoplane, of CFlight No. 2 SAC, brought backan aircrew so that theBlenheim could be flown out. According to the officialreport, while attempting totake off again, the Anson failed to become to the smallness of thefield, lack of wind and heavysurface (snow).

10 (and) struckwindward hedge , and crashedat into outbuildingsof Whiteways, a house south ofWhite Lane. The aircraft was wreckedand written off. Fortunately,there were no injuries. The pilot, Flying Officer , said that in addition tothe above adverse conditionshe could not get throttle intoemergency position, as it waswired up this done by themakers . There was no disciplinaryaction against Stewart as hewas found not entirely toblame. After the Anson s Crash itseems likely that the pilot ofthe Blenheim decided againstattempting a take off and thatthe aircraft was probably dis-mantled and taken away byroad.