Cheddington (Marsworth) Airfield

Jack Orchard from Warners End was just the man to help us - he was stationed there for four months from late 1942.
Jack explained that one of the problems we might have had in tracing the airfield was the fact that throughout the Second World War it was actually called Cheddington and was only given the name of the village it was nearest in 1946.
Jack was more than pleased to be posted to Marsworth as his home at the time was in Northchurch, just a stone's throw away.
He was waiting to go on a transport course when he was sent to Marsworth which was manned by 20 Americans and 10 British servicemen - "we were on American rations, which was great," said Jack. (Pictured are WRACS) arriving at the airfield later in the war)
The airfield was then manned as backup, ready to take over if Bovingdon was bombed, and everything needed was there including blankets and beds.
During his stay at the airfield Jack can only remember one plane landing - a Liberator. The airfield was close to the canal and the pilot was warned to stay clear of the grassy areas as they were very boggy.
The pilot ignored the advice and got well and truly bogged down.
Jack also remembers there was a pub beside the canal - the White Lion, he thinks - which had a bargepole hooked to the wall outside.
This was used to pull the occasional American serviceman out of the canal if he went out to go to the toilet and took a wrong turn.
Jack's happy stay at Marsworth - he still goes back occasionally and can recognise some of the buildings - came to an end when he went on his course and then went out to Burma.
Other information given to Heritage shows that later in the war Marsworth became much more important for the US Eighth Air Force.
It was home for one of the special duty squadrons which waged psychological warfare against Nazi Germany.
From 1943 it carried out missions to drop leaflets over German and occupied countries.

Pictured is one of the servicemen arriving at Cheddington Station)

The aim was described as twofold - to undermine enemy morale and to boost that of the people living under occupation. During this time there was a very much bigger complement of air force personnel with civilian staff to help.
The story of the Marsworth (Cheddington) base takes up a large part of a book published in the USA called Secret Squadrons Of The Eighth by Pat Carty.>
A copy of the book was loaned to Heritage by Ray Potter from Bovingdon who remembers the USAF's time in the area when he was a boy.
The book has been published in this country by Ian Allan Ltd and contains many pictures, including the examples, right, which were taken by USAF personnel based at Marsworth.
In 1945 the airfield was returned to the RAF and was occupied by a medical training unit until 1948.

Pictured right is a crash near the Cheddington base just after the war.

Reader Responses:

May 2008

From Keith:

I was stationed there for three months over the winter of 1947/48. We were on the initial medical course before being posted to various hospitals.

The main gate was just an ordinary farm gate on the right of the lane which went down towards the canal.This gate gave access to the field which was directly behind the church. Our billets were by the hedge which was separating us from the church yard.

A coffin maker had his hut just beyond this hedge. There were other Nissen huts in the farm yard opposite and the lane continued down towards the canal and beyond to the main air field.

The mess and lecture huts were down there together with the administration buildings. It took us about 15 minutes to walk from the church end of the lane to the main site.

I have been back once and although all the huts have gone there was still the ablution block being used by the farmer in the field adjacent to the church.