Events & talks

SATURDAY 6 DECEMBER 2025 (DIBDEN PURLIEU)

The Road to Victory: Preparing for D-Day on the South Coast (Dibden Purlieu)

SOLD OUT

Historian and archaeologist, Stephen Fisher explains the planning and monumental build-up to D-Day in Hampshire during WW2. Stephen will also be selling signed copies of his best-selling Sword Beach book for £10 (cash only).

Please note, this is a repeat of a talk that Stephen gave for us in October 2022 in East Boldre.

---

WEDNESDAY 14 JANUARY 2026 (BROCKENHURST)

New Forest WW2 Airfield Series: RAF Beaulieu (Brockenhurst Village Hall)

SOLD OUT

Marc Heighway presents the history of Beaulieu Airfield from the lead-up to its construction, into wartime, and through to modern day. The talk includes never before seen photography and film from the airfield, tales of bravery, inspiring stories and strange events that happened at the RAF and USAAF Station, plus tributes to the many men who lost their lives. It also includes a visual tour of what remains today.

---

WEDNESDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2026 (BROCKENHURST)

New Forest WW2 Airfield Series: RAF Lymington (Brockenhurst Village Hall)

Uncover the remarkable story of RAF Lymington – a temporary wartime airfield that became home to the USAAF for just three pivotal months during World War II. In this engaging talk, Marc Heighway traces the journey of the American airmen from their departure in New York to combat missions flown from the fields of Lymington. With rare photographs and gripping tales of bravery, hear how P-47 Thunderbolt pilots launched from this rural corner of the New Forest to support the D-Day invasion. A powerful and little-known chapter of local history brought vividly to life.

---

SATURDAY 7 MARCH 2026 (DIBDEN PURLIEU)

PLUTO: Pipeline Under the Ocean (Dibden Purlieu)

Ivor Ellis presents the story of the ambitious and top secret project to lay a series of pipelines across the English Channel following the D-Day landings in order to supply petrol to the advancing Allied forces. It was described by Eisenhower as “it was second in daring only to the artificial (Mulberry) harbours” and in the words of Winston Churchill “Operation Pluto was a remarkable feat of British engineering, distinguished in its originality, pursued with tenacity and crowned by complete success. This creative energy helped to win the war”.

---

WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH 2026 (BROCKENHURST)

New Forest WW2 Airfield Series: RAF Needs Oar Point (Brockenhurst Village Hall)

Marc Heighway explains how for just three short, yet eventful months in WW2, the peace of farmer’s fields south of Buckler’s Hard was shattered by the arrival of four squadrons of Typhoon fighter bombers and lorries full of men. Some have said that this was the busiest airfield on D-Day. But just how true is this? Marc investigates the stories of Needs Oar Point and shows how agricultural land near Park Farm and St Leonards was converted into a wartime airfield. The story of RAF Needs Oar Point is one that has rarely been told despite the role it played in wartime. The talk includes never before seen photography and film, tales of bravery, inspiring stories, and how tragedy and high casualty rates struck the young men who flew from these local fields of green.

---

SATURDAY 4 APRIL 2026 (DIBDEN PURLIEU)

RAF Old Sarum: A History in Peace & Wartime (Dibden Purlieu)

Tim Cornish from the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection and Museum will be talking about the rich heritage of RAF Old Sarum, from its beginnings in 1917 to the modern day as an airfield for parachuting and general aviation. The airfield has played its part both in war & peacetime with a great amount of heroic, selfless and sad stories to tell, with many of the buildings constructed during that period remaining to this day.

---

SATURDAY 2 MAY 2026 (DIBDEN PURLIEU)

Noor Inayat Khan: A Spy Descended from Royalty, Trained in Beaulieu, Murdered in Dachau (Dibden Purlieu)

Marc Heighway tells the extraordinary true story of Noor Inayat Khan – code name “Madeleine”. She was the first female wireless operator sent undercover into occupied France. This talk traces her Sufi upbringing and family background descended from Indian royalty, to her training in Beaulieu, before her perilous missions for the SOE, capture, and ultimate sacrifice at Dachau concentration camp where she was executed.

---

SATURDAY 6 JUNE 2026 (DIBDEN PURLIEU)

Southampton & D-Day: The Greatest Achievement of All (Dibden Purlieu)

Andy Skinner tells how Southampton played a monumental role in the embarkation of troops and equipment during Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy which began on 6th June 1944: D-Day. Over the next year three and a half million service personnel passed through the port of Southampton, along with 250,000 vehicles. This was more than any other British port during the Second World War.

---

SATURDAY 4 JULY 2026 (DIBDEN PURLIEU)

Mosquitos in the New Forest (Dibden Purlieu)

Alan Pickford from The People’s Mosquito charity presents the stories of the New Forest pilots who flew the Mosquito, including tales of 418 (RCAF) Squadron based at RAF Holmsley South. He will also explain how Mosquitos were constructed at the Airspeed factory at Christchurch.

---

SATURDAY 1 AUGUST 2026 (DIBDEN PURLIEU)

Thunder Run: Meiktila 1945 (Dibden Purlieu)

Author Jack Bowsher returns, but this time with a new talk. The Battle of Meiktila should be the stuff of legend in our collective memory of the Second World War. Had it been carried out by Monty, Patton, Rommel, or Zhukov, it would be as well-known as the battles of France, Alamein, the Bulge, Kursk, or Overlord. Yet it is the most incredible battle that you’ve never heard of.

The culmination of all-arms manoeuvre warfare in the Second World War; tanks, motorised infantry, self-propelled artillery and air support charging across the dusty dry belt of central Burma, striking the Japanese Burma Area Army decisively. Outnumbered and surrounded, 17th Indian Division and 255th Indian Tank Brigade annihilated their enemy in the battle that really finished the Japanese in Southeast Asia.

This is Thunder Run: Meiktila 1945.

---