Any ideas on the location???

Can anyone help with the identification of the hanger type or better still the airfield location? I'm not sure if it's in England or Germany.....

Thanks,

Tim.

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Thanks,

I'm thinking Germany too either very late war or just afterwards in the BAOR area. The auster on the left NJ703 is currently being restored so it would be nice to piece together her history.

Certainly looks like German airfield architecture, but due to the layout of the buildings I can eliminate Detmold and Hildesheim from the list of possibles. I'm going with Celle at the moment, as THIS photo shows the offset to the hangars and the 'T' shaped building in the NE corner, with accompanying trees, as does THIS ONE. .

THIS link lists units based at RAF Celle, including units with Spitfires and Austers.

Best of luck with the Auster. Be nice to see another one airborne.

You can rule out Gutersloh - it is definitely not there.

Tom

If the hangar type building with offices above and tower like corner is anything to go by and the Luftwaffe used a similar approach to the RAF in building airfields and buildings then my guess is that the front left corner of the building is the control tower with the operations offices stretching away to the right in a similar fashion to the tower and offices I worked in at Gutersloh 30 years ago.

Tom

Gents,

Absolutely chuffed to bits, thanks very much for your help. The Auster belongs to 652 Squadron RAF (Next question, when did they become AAC as i'm sure Glider Pilot regiment was still going then?)....

The actual photo comes from a taxying PR19 spitfire from 2 Squadron that is either carrying out a pre or post flight camera test, the spitfires in the background are also camera equipped so it pin points the picture to 1945-1947.


Thanks again,

Tim.

History of AAC, GPR and AOP Sqns can be found here. In summary, the AOP Sqns were administered by the RAF, aircraft flown by Army pilots from the Royal Artillery in the main, groundcrew being RAF. GPR was Army NCO aircrew in the main, until post Market Garden when large numbers of RAF pilots were remustered to make up the numbers for Varsity and ops in the Far East.

The AAC as originally formed comprised the GPR and the Parachute Regiment. Disbanded after the War, the AAC as we know it today came into existance in 1957.

It is Celle and the pic dates from sometime after September 1946, I believe they are 2 sqn spitfires in the background.