ex-RAF Burn in news

Discussion in 'The War In The Air' started by jettisoning, Jan 1, 2013.

  1. jettisoning

    jettisoning Member

  2. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    As far as I know there has not been much, if any industrial development at Burn.

    Know the place pretty well as a schoolboy at the end of the war when the main runway was the parking area for a multitude of tanks,awaiting disposal.No security and we were able to ride our bikes from tank to tank,enter them and play with the controls.At that time for a number of years, a T2 hanger used to dominate the village where the airfield jutted up close to the A19.

    The airfield was in a very good condition in the 1960s when we lived for a couple of years on a small estate created from the old domestic site.Looking at the village now,it has been kindly treated since those years and little development has been allowed to take place.During this time the villagers resisted plans for the airfield to be used for dust disposal from the commissioning Eggborough power station...pity parts of the old airfield might now become an eyesore.

    The other interesting thing about Burn in those days was that the licencing hours were the same as Selby which were aligned to the shipbuilding industry.So the village pub was allowed to open at 1030 in the morning...may have been the same in the wartime days.....off the airfield and within 50 yards you were in the pub.

    Remember the airfield well, my wife while learning to drive nearly achieved lift while hurling down the main runway...only trouble she was in 1st gear on our Corsair..gives a good laugh even after all these years.At the time the MT Section had a large servicing ramp still usable and I used to take the car there for engine oil changes.

    Once had half term job lifting potatoes on contract, adjacent to the airfield....did the hard work of handling the lifted crop into wagons.Interesting aspect was that one of the permanent farmworkers was a Canadian, ex RCAF who had been stationed at Burn during the war and had married locally.

    RAF Burn ,not cockstride from RAF Snaith to the south was the home of No 578 Squadron begat from No 51 Squadron based at Snaith. Cyril Barton of No 578 Squadron won the VC returning from the disastrous raid on Nuremberg in March 1944.

    For many years,there used to be a memorial seat donated by No 578 Squadron outside the Selby Londesborough Hotel.Checked if it was still there in 1994 when passing through the area....alas gone, although I think there is still a No 578 Squadron Association.

    RAF Burn, still a good example of a BC station despite the passing years, unlike RAF Snaith (Pollington) which has been carved up by the M 62 and industrial development.
     
    Anne-Marie1 likes this.
  3. Anne-Marie1

    Anne-Marie1 Member

    Thank you so much for pointing me in the direction of this thread. I have the Based at Burn book (2nd edition). It’s signed by Jim Allen & it has photos of him with it. Cynthia my aunt (Cyril’s sister) put Mein touch with Jim’s son & he confirmed it was his dad (Jim).
     

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