Tranwell Airfield

Tranwell Airfield, real name RAF Morpeth, is a former World War II Airfield in the English county of Northumberland, is situated 3 miles SW of Morpeth and was an air gunners school. The site was home to No.80 (French) Operational Training Unit. Today the site has reverted to agriculture, several of the buildings remain and are used for storage. Parts of the hard standing remain and are used for a weekly car boot sale every Sunday.

The official title of this airfield during WW2 was Royal Air Force Station Morpeth, or more commonly known as RAF Morpeth, and initially housed No 4 Air Gunnery School (4 AGS). Accommodation was in 10 dispersal sites to the north and east of the airfield near Tranwell village and The Whitehouse Centre (following the war this area became a children's hospital). The main aircraft used during its early existence for teaching air gunners was the unpopular Blackburn Botha, which was very heavy and under powered, often taking the whole of the runway to get airborne. Following several crashes and collisions, it was eventually replaced with the Avro Anson. Most of the air gunnery practice occurred off shore at Druridge Bay where several of the original war time structures still exist at the National Trust site, and flew between Newbiggin By The Sea and Coquet Island near Amble. Many of the airmen who flew here were Polish and several settled in the Morpeth area following the war. A large number of Polish casualties including airmen from this base are buried in St Mary's Church, Morpeth.

There are still a number of buildings in the outlining fields and an underground control room hidden in the small group of trees behind the actual airfield.

Collisions

Monday, 16 November 1942. A Botha took off on the wrong runway at Morpeth airfield and collided with another similar aircraft. One man was killed and another injured.The following article appeared in the 2 September 1992 edition of the Northumberland Herald and Post:'50 years on ... an airman remembers' - A longed-for visit to the grave of a wartime friend was paid last week when ex air-gunner Saul Muller returned to Morpeth. Saul, a British national who was born in Belgium, decided when he retired that he would visit the graves of his wartime comrades and try to trace any who may be still alive. In an emotional tribute Saul, now sixty-eight years old, laid flowers at St Mary's Church at the graves of friends and room-mates who died during a training flight over Morpeth on 29 March 1943. Saul had escaped from Le Havre as the Germans occupied Europe when he was a teenager. In the spring of 1942 he heard from the Red Cross that his sister and mother had been arrested and taken to concentration camps. This led to him volunteering for the RAF and eventually he joined the Royal Netherlands Naval Air Service. He was given a train ticket to Morpeth where he would be trained by the RAF to become an air-gunner. One week before passing out, an Air Vice Marshal visited the Morpeth aerodrome. It was a cloudy morning and the trainees would not normally go up in such conditions, but because of the visit, they did. On board each Botha aircraft was a pilot, an instructor and three trainee air-gunners. The plane which took off after Saul's crashed into another, which was coming in to land. Ten people died, five of them Dutch trainees and one English. Their average age was twenty. Two of the dead were Saul's room-mates. " It was a moving experience for me to visit their graves " said Saul " the memories flooded back, when the funeral was held at St Mary's, the entire town seemed to be there. Everyone was moved by the circumstances of their death " On the 29/3/1943 Blackburn Botha Mk I W5137 and Botha Mk I W5154, both of 4 AGS (Air Gunnery School), collided over base. Of the 10 dead, five came from The Netherlands.
Their names are:
*Rudi van den Bron, Lac, born 28/11/1925 in Soerabaja, Java, NOI (Nederlands Oost Indië, Dutch East Indies), grave A/E/35.
*Arie Willem van Egmond, Lac, born 4/7/1921 in Batavia, Java, NOI, grave A/E/41.
*Daniël Johannes Kooij, Lac, born 2/12/1919 in Rotterdam, NL, grave A/E/37.
*Bernardus Eduardus van Opdorp, Lac, born 8/12/1920 in Hoek, NL, grave A/E/39.
*Frans van Westenbrugge, Lac, born 29/9/1920 in Den Haag, NL, grave A/E/33.
*Daniël Kooij is recognized as an 'Engelandvaarder', a person who escaped from occupied territory to the UK, to fight the enemy. All are buried at SS Mary & James Churchyard, Morpeth, GB, grave references above. None of them are known to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

External links

* [http://sine.ncl.ac.uk/sine_search_map.asp?di=965&clickbehaviour=centreonstructs Map]
* [http://www.wartimememories.co.uk/airfields/tranwell.html Wartime Memories Project]
* [http://www.nobles-promotions.homecall.co.uk/index3.html Tranwell Car Boot Sale]