Cardington

 

Dad didn't say much about Cardington.
But he mentioned doing a lot of sports, and that he enjoyed being part of a team and learning about sports he had never played before. I assumed he meant cricket.

I saw photos of him in a football team, which might have been in Cardington.

Between his photos there were also some taken before the main "sheds" and between the barracks.

Seen photos with W/Cdr A A Fraser-Harris, Station Officer. One with my father sitting relaxed beside him.

Often online photos are too small to identify someone. Such a pity!

He regularly told that some stations were camouflaged, so the germans wouldn't recognise them. That might have been Cardington too. He was never able to suppress a grin when he was telling about that.

As a child I played with the boys in the woods and his story inspired us to camouflage our huts so the planes couldn't see us.
Not realising they wouldn't be able to see us anyway, because of the huge trees above us. LOL!

He taught me a lot about airships like Zeppelins.  He must have learned that at Cardington.
My gram told me about seeing  'Graf Zeppelin' flying above our town in 1929.
So she enjoyed my fathers stories as much as I did.
I used his drawings and teachings for a presentation at school.

On his records:

Unit From/Unit To2 RC = No. 2 Recruits’ Centre, RAF Station Cardington, Bedfordshire.

https://bedsarchives.bedford.gov.uk/CommunityHistories/Shortstown/RAFCardington.aspx

Short story of the history of the base.

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https://www.rafcardington.org.uk/

A page about the Dutch:
https://www.rafcardington.org.uk/DutchAirForce

The site offers photos, some short stories and an insight in the training the young recruits got.
Interesting is that also the staff is mentioned.

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More History:

https://bedsarchives.bedford.gov.uk/CommunityHistories/Shortstown/RAFCardington.aspx

Peiter J Huijskens book about Cardington

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To-do:

https://uk.forceswarrecords.com/unit/131552/raf-cardington

https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/airfields/airfield.php?pid=2346

Sturtivant, Ray; Hamlin, John (2007). Royal Air Force flying training and support units since 1912. Tonbridge, UK: Air-Britain (Historians). ISBN 978-0851-3036-59.