Contributor: NFNPA Archaeology

To Bring Back The Schneider Cup – 1927

After the Italians won the Schneider Cup at Hampton Roads, America in 1926 the 1927 competition was to be hosted in Venice Italy.  After failure to compete in the 1926 competition and a realisation that the 1925 loss was partially due to technical inferiority and lack of organisation, the Air Ministry agreed to support the British Team. This support included the supply of pilots drawn from the Royal Air Force to form the High Speed Flight at the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment Felixstowe specifically for Schneider Cup competition. The High Speed flight was maintained until the Schneider Cup was won outright by the British.

Six aircraft, from three manufacturers, took part in the 1936 competition in Venice: a pair of Supermarine S.5s, three Gloster IVs and a single Short Crusader. The Crusader was slower than the others, and was intended for training, but crashed on 11 September 1927. The cause was later identified as a control rigging error, following re-assembly after the journey from the UK to Venice.

Supermarine S.5 N220 flown by Flight Lieutenant Sidney Webster came first at 281.65 mph

Supermarine S.5 N219 flown by Flight Lieutenant Worsley came second at 272.91 mph

The Gloster IVB N223 flown by Flight Lieutenant Samuel Kinkead did not finish the race, nor did the three Italian entries

As the winning nation, the UK would host the following event.

This was the last annual competition. Subsequently, the race was held on a biannual schedule, to allow more time for development between races.

You can read more about the Schneider Cup competition and the various years in the overview article here: Schneider Trophy Overview

Film clips from British Pathe show the preparations for Britain’s Schnieder Cup team before heading to Venice

To Bring Back The Schneider Cup – 1927

FILM ID:694.08

Title:  “To bring back the Schneider cup? Supermarine-Napier S5 and Gloster-Napier 4 – fastest machines ever built – Britain’s “hopes” for great race at Venice in September. “Good luck to “The flying bullet’s “pilots”.

Description: Racing mono-seaplane with large floats is wheeled from hanger. It is mounted on a trolley and is pushed by ground crew. It passes slowly in front of camera. Two men stand on floats and hand crank the propeller. M/S man seated in the aeroplane. The propeller turns slowly and then spins into motion. Second sequence shows biplane with floats wheeled from hangar, followed by front and side views with the engine running. Pilots in uniform pose for a photo with planes in the background, -they pilots laugh at a joke.

Training with Howitzers at Linford, Ringwood

A series of photographs showing AEC Matadors moving 6inch 26cwt Howitzers and operators to a training area at Linford.

The unit are first seen on the road (H7714).  This photo was taken just south of Blashford from the Snails Lane junction with the A338, the houses in the background are still there though hidden by trees now.

The series of photos go on to show the crews moving the guns (by hand) into position and preparing to fire, which can be heavy work in the New Forest mud. In the background of some of the photos one can see Keeper’s Cottage in Linford.

We have no other information about this unit. But visible (H7715) on at least one of the Howitzer’s is a painted insignia. The insignia shows a depress gun-carriage, cannon balls and written underneath ‘Gibraltar 1779-1783’.  We believe this is a Battle Honour insignia and it was awarded to 22 Battery 32 Royal Artillery Regiment. This Battle Honour insignia would appear on all their guns so it is not clear why it only appears on a few of them in these photos.  There are no dates with the photos but we believe it may be Jan-Mar 1940 or 1941.

32 Regt. appears to have been in Brighton before France (1940) and then spent the rest of 1940 in the UK before going to India in 1941 and then off to Africa.

 

All Photos are credit: Imperial War Museum for Non-Commercial Use

(Licence)

Uria aalge HMCMS:Bi1992.4.51

‘description’: ‘skull, bird, guillemot, Uria aalge, found Lepe, Exbury and Lepe, New Forest, Hampshire, 1987’

Using Aerial Imagery for Desk Based Research – Abstract & Video

The following paper was presented at the New Forest Knowledge Conference 2017 entitled: New Forest Historical Research and Archaeology: who’s doing it? Below you will find the abstract of the paper and a video of the paper given if permission to film it was given by the speaker.

Speaker:

Jack Powell, Aerial Imagery Analyst, Air Photo Services

Abstract

Aerial photography for use in archaeology took off from the 1930s onwards with pioneers such as O G S Crawford and St Joseph photographing archaeological sites across the country. Presently Air photos are utilised alongside other aerial imagery data sets, such as Lidar, as key resources for the mitigation of archaeological sites and features ahead of large scale infrastructure projects, housing developments and research.  The types of air photos consulted ahead of these works are oblique air photos (photos taken at an angle with the site of interest in the centre of the photo) and vertical photos (taken from a high altitude usually as part of mapping surveys rather than archaeological prospection). The data from these photographs are mapped and processed into GIS (Geographical Information Systems) data which is used to inform research, surveys and reports. Using selected examples from across the country, including the New Forest, this talk will aim to inform about the different types of air photos, how archaeology is represented on aerial photographs, where to access them and how they can be incorporated into an archaeological project.

Air Photo Services is a leading UK provider of specialist independent interpretation of aerial imagery for heritage, planning, environmental and legal applications. Working nationally and internationally we provide detailed expert interpretation and mapping from modern and historical aerial photographs, satellite and Airborne Laser Scan (ALS, also known as Lidar) imagery.

The Talk

VE Day Lymington – May Avenue. (8 May 1945)

Residents of May Avenue, Lymington celebrating VE day. 18 August 1945.

Victory in Europe Day, VE Day, was the public holiday in 1945 to mark the formal acceptance of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces by the Allies of World War II. This marked the end of World War II in Europe.

Can you help name any of the people in the photo?

You can see another picture here: VE Day Lymington – High Street. (8 May 1945)

WAAF air raid shelters at Beaulieu Airfield

Beaulieu Airfield was opened on Saturday 8 August 1942 and was used by both the Royal Air Force and then later United States Army Air Forces. During the war it was used as a bomber and fighter airfield. After the war, it was used for experimental work before it was closed in 1959.

Alongside the three main intersecting concrete runways, concrete dispersals, hangers and the perimeter road the station was constructed largely of Nissen huts of various sizes. These housed all the technical and organisational facilities as well as domestic requirements such as mess facilities; a chapel; a hospital; a mission briefing and debriefing; armouries and bomb stores; life support; supply hut; station and airfield security; motor transport, a post office and the other ground support functions necessary to support the men and women essential for the successful running of air operations.
A number domestic accommodation sites were dispersed away from the airfield, within a mile or so of the airfield providing accommodation for around 2,197 servicemen, including communal ablution facilities and sick quarters. One of these sites was desginated as Womens Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) domestic quarters and it is still possible to see the remains of the concrete bases for the accommodation huts and two standing Stanton Air Raid Shelters. Other surviving concrete accomodation bases can be found at Stockley Inclosure and Perrywood Inclosure.
Please note the shelters are on private land, but can be seen clearly from the fence line
For further reading and articles on Beaulieu Airfield please visit: Beaulieu Airfield Overview

War Diaries – WO 95/1657 – 20th (Infantry) Brigade, 7th Division

War diaries are a written account kept by a military unit recording things like when, where, what… they were doing. These can be detailed or in many cases very brief with the information they hold but are still a great insight into a unit’s, regiment’s etc. activities.  The War Diaries for WWI and WWII are held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond and anyone can visit the archive to conduct research. Visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk for more details.

These pages are from WO 95/1657 and give an idea of the types of records the project team are working with. These are part of the war diaries of the 7th Division, in particular the 20th Infantry Brigade that included the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards and the 6th Battalion The Gordon Highlanders. The Scots and Grenadier Guards didn’t record their arrival at the camp in Lyndhurst but did record their leaving in October 1914.

We hope other war diaries record a little more about the camp in Lyndhurst.

War Dog Training School – Matley Woods, Lyndhurst

In 1918 the War Dog Training School at Shoeburyness was moved to Matley Ridge, Lyndhurst in the New Forest, taking over the site of the Trench Mortar School that had recently closed.  The facility housed around 200 dogs which were trained to carry messages under battle conditions.

The school stayed there until May 1919 when it was finally moved to Bulford on Salisbury Plains.

Today it is still possible to find the echoes so some of the trenches on the open heathland close to Matley. This area of Whitemoor came under Training Area A, which was in use from 1914 for the 7th Division and then 1915 for the Southern Command Bombing School. It is unknown whether these trenches were dug specifically for the War Dog Training School in 1918 or they moved in and took over existing trenches already constructed in this area.

To find out more about the roles, trainings and development of war dogs the book to read is: British war dogs, their training and psychology by Lt. Col. Edwin Hautonville Richardson, first published in 1920.

The book is available online and as a digital download from the Internet Archive here: archive.org/details/britishwardogsth00richrich

War Memories from Bruce Hall

I originally moved to Hampshire when my father worked on The Empire Flying Boats at Hythe. This was about 1935. We subsequently moved to Croydon where father worked still for Imperial Airways but moved back to Hampshire in 1939 or 1940 where we lived in Blackfield until about 1947

I remember all the war activities from the Battle of Britain, the bombing of Southampton, the D-day build ups and many incidents on the way. There were British, Canadian and American soldiers camped in the copse at the end of our lane at various times. Up to D-day there were American troops parked all along the roads to Lepe and stretched all the way to Southampton. If we went to Southampton on the bus we had to show Identity cards to get home again. We used to swim at Lepe and I remember the installations being built there.

I went to school at Brockenhurst and passed Beaulieu aerodrome every day. I saw the Junkers 188 shot down from our back door. I visited the site the same evening at Exbury and stole some machine gun ammunition from the wreckage. Much more comes to mind.

Added by Bruce Hall