RAF Hurn, Dorset (Hampshire).
Station 492 USAAF.

RAF Hurn,

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RAF Hurn,

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Work started in 1940 and Hurn opened July 1941.

Hawker Typhoon.

B-25 USAAF.

DH Mosquito.

Horsa glider..

Armstrong Whitworth Albermarle.

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley.

RAF Hurn,

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RAF Hurn,

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RAF Hurn,

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The site plan of RAF Hurn, Ministry of Works 4916/44.
46 x Spectacle dispersals.
26 x Circular dispersals.
6 x T2 hangars - St - 3653/42 (1 - foundations only)
3 x Bellman hangars.
10 x Blister 12532/41
2 x Bulk Petrol Installations (Aviation)
1 x Watch Office - 518/40.
1 x Battle HQ - 11008/41.
1 x Cannon test butts - 3884/40.

TB - Temporary Brick.
BH - 'B' type hutting.
M - Maycrete.
T - Thorn.
St - Steel.
N - Nissen.
L - Laing.
H - Handcraft.
T2 - Hangar type.
BS - Blast Shelter.
ARS - Air raid shelter.

Nissen hut.

130 - Battle HQ - 11008/40.

Floodlight trailer and Tractor shed. (not here).

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The wartime control tower has had several modern bits added on.
47 - Watch Office - TB - 518/40

Plan.

Plan.

518/40 watch office front view.

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RAF Hurn,

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Driving along the B3073 from the west, on the left is the first real relic of the airfield is this Type 'A' wooden hut, 10ft wide and built in 5ft bays to any length needed. A standard RAF type wooden hut with a life expectancy of 10 years.

RAF Hurn,

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Next along the left hand side of the road is this set of two temporary brick huts for the crew of an anti-aircraft gun.
Inset: a plan of where the two temporary brick huts are and where the timber hut is.

Bofors Gun.

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Huts for the crew of an anti-aircraft gun site.

There is also another shed in the hedge further along and this is a 2lb ammunition store house. I do not know where the Bofors gun was placed.

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RAF Hurn,

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RAF Hurn,

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Satellite view of the technical site of RAF Hurn, Hampshire showing the hangar layout and the routes we took and what was open access at the time.

RAF Hurn,

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Air photo of RAF Hurn prior to D-Day, showing the sorts of planes here.
There may be more or less, but I counted 135 airframes in the picture. Mostly Horsa gliders, Dakotas and some four engined bomber aircraft.

Horsa glider.

RAF Dakota.

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Entrance to the Technical Site.
221 - Picket Post - TB.
This is the entrance to the wartime technical site and now a modern industrial estate.

Plan.

A Picket post that may have been here.

Plan.

RAF Hurn,

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Petrol Instillation Aviation.
215 - Petrol Installation Aviation - 36,000gal.
The layout of the car park corresponds to the old petrol instillation (aviation) 36,000 gallon Type 'A'.

Plan.

Plan,

Plan of a pump house.

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Aircraft Shed T2.
191 - St - T2 - 3653/42.

Plan.

 

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Type B1 Hangar
Type B1 hangars were built for MAP, Ministry of Aircraft Production and would have been built after the RAF plan (dated Dec 1944) had been made and used by Airspeed/Vickers and BAC to build aircraft.

Now storage.

Plan.

B1 hangar..

B1 inside.

RAF Hurn,

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Type A1 Hangar'
A1 hangar next and they were the assembly sheds for Airspeed/Vickers/BAC.

British Aircraft Corporation.

Above : from Home if the BAC 1-11 website.

Plan.

RAF Hurn,

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T2 Hangar
Next in line is a T2 hangar. All this row of A1's and T2's are actually double in length all added to when aircraft production started here.
I would imagine that the T2's here were built from T2's dismantled from here or other airfields in the area.

Plan.

RAF Hurn,

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A1
This A1 is built on the base of where a T2 has been removed.

Plan.

How it looks today.

RAF Hurn,

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Continuing past the A1 hangar and on the there were several temporary brick and Type 'A' Air Ministry wooden huts.

Type 'A' Air Ministry wooden huts.

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The Airspeed/Vickers/BAC Assembly Sheds
This is the other end of the two A1's and T2. These are all double length hangars.

Plan.

One of the prototype 1-11's outside this hangar in 1963.

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The Vickers BAC assembly Sheds.
189 - Aircraft Shed - T2 - St - 3653/42.

G-AVMM   ChanChangi Airlines Hurn 2000 inside this T2.

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The middle A1.
A close up of the inside of the middle A1 which was built to assemble the post war airliners, Varsity, Viscounts and BAC 111's and now it disassembles any planes for scrap.

Vickers Varsity.

Viscount.

BAC 1-11.

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Another A1 has been built on the site of T2 hangar (152) base.

Plan.

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Next to this A1 is a 32 man blast shelter which had earth bank around it as protection and now bricked over.

Plan 32 men blast shelter 2360-41

An entrance.

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Vickers hangars.

From above.
a small plan of the hangar arrangement.
2 - A1's
2 - T2's
2 - A1 doubles
2 - T2 doubles
3 - Over blisters

Admin offices attached to the hangars.

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Enlarged Blister hangar next to the assembly sheds in line.

RAF Hurn,

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Fromson Massillon Blister hangar.

Blister hangar.

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The back of a double T2 with extensive brick built heating plant along its side.
I think the first half is one of the original T2's built here and another T2 was added on later.

RAF Hurn,

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EWS - Emergency Water Supply
A very large concrete emergency water supply and a pump house.

The other side.

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley parachuting.

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Double Extra Over Blister hangars.
These also do not show up on the plan. Again used by Vickers/BAC for aircraft production. This whole side was taken over after the war for BAC's production.
Both now removed.

Being removed.

Plan.

RAF Hurn,

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Maycrete Road.
182 - Laboratories - TB - 5455/41.
Although it says Maycrete Road, there are no Maycrete huts here at all ?
What a fitting name for this road, several temporary brick huts interspersed with latrines and on the plan they were all Laboratories?

167to170 - S.A.A. Store - TB.
174 - Bellman Hangar - St.
175 - Technical Latrines - TB - 17036/40.
176 - Maintenance Block - TB - 5455/41.
177to184 - Laboratories - TB - 5455/41.
185to186 - Technical Latrines - TB - 17036/40.
187 - Stores - FPB.

TB - Temporary Brick.
St - Steel.
FPB - Felt covered plasterboard construction.

 

Maycrete is a concrete paneled building, totally unlike the temporary brick types here.

RAF Hurn,

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Maycrete Road.
185 - Technical Latrines - TB - 17036/40.

Latrine.

Latrine.

Armstrong Whitworth Albermarle.

Airspeed Horsa glider.

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Maycrete Road.
180 &182 - Laboratories - TB - 5455/41.

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Bellman Hangar.
174 - Bellman Hangar - St.

Handley Page Halifax.

Plan.

Bellman hangar.

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Danger Low Flying Aircraft.
Bellman and T2 here are original and the other end of the T2 were originally situated the main workshop, main store, fuel store, parachute store, dinghy repair shop and still being used are several Small Ammunition Store.

To the right of this T2 was a glider tow cable building.

RAF Hurn,

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Plan of this area.

207 - Workshop & Laboratory & Store - TB - 5457/41.

20th December 1967 showing some of the building behind the plane.

RAF Hurn,

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207 - Workshop & Laboratory & Store - TB - 5457/41.

207 - Workshop & Laboratory & Store - TB - 5457/41 inside.

Hawker Typhoon.

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Super Robins Hangar
I think this is a Super Robins hangar by the design of its outriggers for the doors and the stanchions have been added to strengthen them?
Not on the original site plan.

RAF Hurn,

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Super Robins & a Bellman Hangar
208 - Bellman Hangar - St.
One of the original Bellman hangars looking in very good condition.

The hut on the left, although TB design. Is not on the site plan.

Plan.

RAF Hurn,

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Moving over to the other side, there are some modern hangars for FR Flight Refueling, etc. but still retains some of its hidden past.
Arrows the route taken.
Yellow - TR3107 building.
Red - Cannon Butts.

RAF Hurn,

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The rear gate
From the old tech. site continue past the airfield on to Hurn village (the roundabout) take the Ringwood road and then left by the main runway threshold. You cross the 'Bridge Over The River Kwai' as it is nick named and through the rear gate. The road turns onto the dispersals track leading all the way to the top of the N/S runway.

Plan.

RAF Hurn,

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The Dispersal Track
There are many large bomber pan dispersals left and right. Some had Blister hangars on them (about 9) at Hurn altogether.

Plan.

Circular dispersal.

Spectacle dispersal.

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Bournemouth Flying Club
86 - RDF Workshops -TB- 7352/42.

Plan.

Plan.

A1 radar unit.

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A1 hangar
Sat on a set of four spectacle dispersals.

Plan.

Plan.

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Big Jets
European Jumbo G-BDXF in 2004

Now in new livery.

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143 - Bulk Petrol Installation (Aviation) - 72,000gal - 9846/41.

9846/41 pump house.

Plan.

Plan.

RAF Hurn,

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101 - MG (Cannon) test butts - 3884/40..
Many machine gun and Cannon armed fighters would park here and fire their guns into the butts.

Plan.

A Spitfires testing its cannons.

Barrel of a Spitfires cannon.

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101 - MG (Cannon) test butts - 3884/40..

Bullet/cannon strikes on the wall.

DH Mosquito firing its cannon & machine guns.

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101 - MG (Cannon) test butts - 3884/40..
These rear & side walls had to be strong to hold back cannon shells.

Plan Left - Cannon Test Butts 3884/40.
Right - M.G. Range 147/41..

Cannon fire into a butt.

The upper steel door.

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100 - M.G. Range - 147/41.
The firing butt building, note the slits in the rear wall. These were to allow smoke from continual rifle fire, showing that the RAF did not use smokeless powder.

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100 - M.G. Range - 147/41.

Plan Left - Cannon Test Butts 3884/40.
Right - M.G. Range 147/41..

 

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TR3107 Radar Homing Beacon hut
TR. 3107 was a wartime navigational radar beacon, FGRI (Fixed Ground Radio Installation)
102 - Flight Office - & Crew Room - TB - 9526/40.
103 - General Purpose Hut - H - Standard.
104 - Anti-gas Clothing & Equipment Store - N - 9526/42.
105 - T.R.3107-TB-15761/41.
106 - Sleeping Shelter - TB - for 33men - 11047/41.
107 - Drying Room & Latrine Block - 9526/42.

N - Nissen hut.
H - Handcraft hut. (Asbestos curved roof).

105 - T.R.3107-TB-15761/41.
The tower is for water header tank.

Plan.

 

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TR3107 Radar Homing Beacon hut
105 - T.R.3107-TB-15761/41.
Generator room.

Inside.

Plan.

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106 - Sleeping Shelter - TB - for 33men - 11047/41.
Built as a sleeping shelter for 33 men, this one has been converted to an office at some time.

Plan.

 

RAF Hurn,

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106 - Sleeping Shelter - TB - for 33men - 11047/41.
A fire has been placed in the corner with a concrete hearth.

A room wit a view.

Plan.

Corner hearth stone.

 

RAF Hurn,

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102 - Flight Office - & Crew Room - TB - 9526/40.

Plan.

RAF Hurn,

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102 - Flight Office - & Crew Room - TB - 9526/40.

Elsan toilet.

Plan.

Advert for Elsan.

RAF Hurn,

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102 - Flight Office - & Crew Room - TB - 9526/40.

Plan.

RAF Hurn,

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102 - Flight Office - & Crew Room - TB - 9526/40.

Plan.

RAF Hurn,

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102 - Flight Office - & Crew Room - TB - 9526/40.

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Barbed wire screw picket post.

Barbed wire.

Screw picket posts.

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Main Runway
Looking almost due west.
Two FR planes line up to take off for a sortie over the western approaches.

Dassault Falcon 20 C G-FRAW.

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Main Runway on landing.

For the history of RAF Hurn and Bournemouth Int. Airport:

RAF Hurn and Bournemouth International Airport, by Vernon Rabbetts.

Dorset Live Hurn Airport's pivotal role in UK air travel and the birth of British Airways.

 

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© 2013 Richard Drew