Our next meeting will be on:

Wednesday 22^nd May 2024, 7.30pm, Dorchester Abbey Shrine Chapel, Members free, Visitors welcome (£5).

Bill King will speak on

Mount Farm, Berinsfield: its wartime history

This talk covers the short but significant life of the RAF airfield which became RAF Mount Farm. As war clouds gathered during the mid-1930s the Royal Air Force expanded and sites for new airfields were surveyed. The area around Mount Farm was selected as suitable and the land requisitioned. Building commenced in 1938 and the site was ready for use by July 1940, Originally known as Dorchester but quickly renamed Mount Farm it was designated as a satellite of RAF Benson. Throughout the war RAF Mount Farm played host to bombers and later to RAF photographic reconnaissance aircraft, and from February 1943 to the photographic reconnaissance squadrons of the US Eighth Air Force who remained until the end of the war in Europe in May 1945. Aircraft from Mount Farm contributed immensely to the successful strategic bombing campaigns and the preparation for the liberation of Europe. As the war ended flying ceased and the base was quickly run down returning to agriculture and in 1957 to gravel extraction. Today little remains of the site from which so many sorties were flown but the story of its short life deserves to be told.

Bill King, now retired from a busy career as an independent management consultant, came from a naval family. Starting from a keen early interest in Britain’s history, his research on military and political history ultimately focused on WW2 with particular reference to the role of Airborne and Special Forces and clandestine warfare, including the British Resistance Organisation (Auxiliary Units). He has published many book chapters and articles, is a former Chairman of the Ridgeway Military and Aviation Research Group (RMARG) and a member of The Western Front Association and of the Military Vehicle Trust. He has also taken part in local radio, acted as historical adviser and appeared in several television programmes, and gives talks on a wide range of topics.