Sway Airfield: The WW2 Emergency Landing Ground (ELG) / Decoy Site
During the Second World War, the New Forest was a hive of aviation activity with large airfields and bases including RAF Beaulieu, Calshot, Holmsley South,…
The Heroic Wartime Actions of Patrick “Dumbo” Taylor Who Crashed Near Blackfield & Fawley
In Spring of 1944, the New Forest airfields were teeming with RAF and USAAF fighter bombers in preparation for D-Day. The coastal locations of the…
Memories of Civilian Living at the RAF Stoney Cross Airfield aka Longbeech
From 1951 to 1955, huts on the closed RAF Stoney Cross airfield near Lyndhurst were taken over by the New Forest District Council to be…
How These Local “Fields of Green” Played a Huge Role in WW2
During the Second World War, the New Forest area was a hive of aviation activity with airfields and bases such as RAF Beaulieu and Calshot….
The New Forest’s Secret Underground Army & Hidden Bunkers
During the first half of the Second World War, the threat of invasion was very real. As a result, Britain embarked on a program of…
Life at Hythe School During the Second World War
Hythe Primary School in Southampton, Hampshire, has historical logbooks containing handwritten notes by the teachers recounting the daily accounts of the school including 1939 to…
How a Strange Hump in the New Forest Might Have Helped the War Effort
As you travel on the B3054 from Hatchett Pond towards Lymington, you might notice a large gorse-covered mound on the heathland. It’s on the right-hand…
Can You Help Identify these American GIs in the New Forest During WW2?
Watkins and Williams American soldiers in the new forest with
Tales of the Wartime Waterside Air Raid Shelters
During the Second World War, local people sought protection from bombing raids in public air raid shelters. Homeowners could also assemble smaller shelters in their…