Nora Caveney: The First ATS Woman Killed in Action
In the early hours of 17 April 1942, eighteen-year-old Private Nora Caveney was killed by a flying piece of shrapnel whilst working on the predictor…
Wing Commander Ernest Reginald Baker (DSO, DFC & Bar)
This article is dedicated to the memory of Wing Commander Ernest Reginald Baker DSO,DFC and Bar (known as Reg Baker). He was a successful fighter…
How Hitler Inadvertently Helped Fund a New Forest Spitfire
I’ve researched many interesting human stories connected to the New Forest during the Second World War, but one of the most intriguing and somewhat ironic…
The Hampden Crash at Longdown: the Mystery of Missing & Unidentified Bodies
At half past midnight on the 15th of December 1941, four men took off in a Handley Page Hampden twin-engine medium bomber from RAF Balderton, an…
Lieutenant Anthony Tracy’s Seafire Crash & Death off Calshot in 1947
On 12 December 1947, Lieutenant Anthony Peter Hanbury Tracy of the Royal Navy, was killed when the Seafire he was piloting, crashed into the Solent…
How RAF Calshot Welcomed Tristan da Cunha Evacuees in 1962
The British Overseas Territory of Tristan da Cunha is the most remote inhabited island in the world. Its closest inhabited neighbour is the island of…
The Crash of Wellington T2564 and a Tragic Connection to Brockenhurst
On the 18th of October 1942, a terrible accident happened near South Ruislip train station in Uxbridge, Middlesex, resulting in the deaths of 21 people, with…
Mosquito (NS882) Crash in Lymington & the Death of Donald MacNicol
On the 10th of October 1944, a de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito FB Mk VI crashed in a field off Lower Pennington Lane, near Lymington. Flight Sergeant…
RAF Calshot’s Chapel (St George’s Church)
If you’ve ever been to Calshot, you can be forgiven if you missed this rather plain looking building at the roadside as you approach the…