Hi all,

I have some info on Bob airfields and quite enjoy tracking down more stuff on the internet etc. So it seems a good idea to create a thread to make material available in one place for mission and campaign builders. Starting with 11 group airfields I will post stuff as and when I can. Hopefully at least one airfield a week. Biggin Hill first. By the way the images below were posted on the old SimHQ Clod forum, but were in several places. They are now all together. Please feel free to add to this thread and make it a co-operative resource for the benefit of all. Some of these pics are quite large. Right click and save image as etc to download the full size image.

RedToo.




Pre-war Lufthansa photo.


Biggin Hill in 1940.


Biggin Hill summer 1988.


Biggin Hill in 2011.


Biggin Hill 2008.

Biggin on the Bump!

Bags of airfield info in the 'bible' - Battle of Britain: Then and Now. MkV.

This book was used for such information in the making of Rowan's BoB but you are probably already familiar with this tome.

Nice resurrection Red

if we are going to keep this thread going i will just post the link to my previous airfields post , save me copy and pasting the whole lot here

MAPS AIRFIELDS SQUADRONS

Thanks Red and contributors, sterling work.

That first map I'm working with, bit of sharpening. That may be the one the developers used as the revetements are fairly similar. Still a bit of a squeeze though

Now there's the [R0G0B0] Alchemical Art of mastering splines to look forward to

Stop laughing hysterically at the back if you've already had a bash and take another chill-pill, it'll be ok

One thing that would be useful, can the developers please give us a map without the hard-coded Airfield and Airfield Points? I feel a petition coming on

Ming

Hi Ming,

AFAIK that first map of Biggin (and all the others in the same series) date from 1944. So there would probably be less to Biggin in 1940.

RedToo.

Hawkinge. Right click and save as for full size images.


Hawkinge.


Hawkinge pre-war.


War time early?


Hawkinge in 1927.


Hawkinge in 1937.


Pre war.


Pre war showing the circle and arrow.


Circle.


Circle.


Circle. The arrows at Hawkinge and St Ingervert were constructed during WWI to help aircraft navigation (which was very basic in those days) across the Channel. One arrow was cut near Hawkinge and the other near St Ingervert nr Boulogne (France) to point pilots in the right direction. Two other figures also exsisted at Hawkinge, the Hawkinge identification / landing circle for the aerodrome and a target circle used for practice bomb runs. Later the arrow was used to aid targeting of the bombing target.


Hawkinge in the 1990's?


Hawkinge 1991?

Buildings:











The Entrance and Guardhouse.

Screen shots from BoB WoV:










RedToo.

+ 1 . I played around with the spliey action, sometimes the map likes it , other times no,marco polo type of thing.Would like to lose the revetments as well.Ugly.

On a good note you can make a really good racetrack , the vehicles are too slow though, the tanks always win.Guiseppe Farina would not be happy.

Brilliant gen on Hawkinge Red

Great stuff.

Good stuff. I find threads like these fascinating.

Well read here then Snapper , grab a coffee and some snacks and get comfy , could be a while in there

ALL KENT AIRFIELDS MANSTON , HAWKINGE ETC.

If you go here MORE and scroll down you have AA batteries and emplacements , Coastal guns , forts , Radar , pillboxes , Air raids, Dockyards etc etc!





Any chance of a sticky on this one mods?

Croydon:
Right click and save as for full size.






Croydon in 1930.




Luftwaffe Wartime Reconaissance Photo.


Pre war?


1936.


1945.


1959.


1928 in the snow.


Early 1930's.


More snow.

Croydon in BoB WoV:














Croydon today.

Manston:

Right click and save as for full size. The large runway at the bottom wasn't started until 1943.






Manston Blast Pens.


Manston showing the two grass runways.


Luftwaffe photo of Manston in 1939.


Bomb Damage.


Manston from the air.


Pre war.


Model of Manston in WW1.


Model of Manston in WW1.


Manston in BoB WoV.


Manston in BoB WoV.


Manston in BoB WoV.


Manston in BoB WoV.


Manston in BoB WoV.


Manston today.

For ground level pics of Manston war time buildings go here:
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutD...onBuildings.htm

RedToo.

That diorama is brilliant

Kenley - right click and save as for full size.









Kenley Pre War Layout.


Kenley before 1933.


Kenley Empire Day 1937.




Kenley under attack.
1 three singe-engine planes
2 two hangars on fire
2a outbuilding on fire
3 bomb impacts on the taxiway
4 one Dornier Do 17


Kenley just after the war.


Kenley 1974.


Kenley before 1975.


Kenley tower and hangar 1976.


Kenley heritage trail. Note the Pickett-Hamilton Fort. Scroll down the Wikipedia page for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_hardened_field_defences_of_World_War_II


Kenley 1995.


Kenley recent.


Kenley recent.


Kenley today.

Fascinating!

Tangmere:









Pre War.


Early Stages of Tangmere Museum.


2003.


2008.














1982.


Guardhouse 1981.


2009.












Maintenance Buidings.


Fire Unit.


Fire Support.


Barrack Blocks.




Tangmere in IL2.


Tangmere today,

Gravesend. Right click and save as for full size images.

Gravesend in 1940 was much smaller than this - the runways were extended later in the war. See Luftwaffe photo below.

Pre War




1952


Gravesend Facts


1940


Luftwaffe Pic 1940


1945 - quite different to 1940.


1930's


BoB WoV


BoB WoV


BoB WoV


BoB WoV


BoB WoV


BoB WoV


60 years on.

It is good to see that I have been credited for my photo that have been pinched.

No credits either for Pete Kirk and Paul Francis whos work and photos have been stolen and used here without permission....

Surely the decent thing to do is ask??

At the very minimum the poster could either put a credit to the AiX forum where a fair bit of this stuff has come from, but no, this hasn't been done either. And there has not been any input on AiX where you'd like to think that you could share some of your material too.

I for one would take less offence at this if any what I said had happened......

Airfield Information Exchange, where the airfield experts are; http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/forum.php

I should say though, that your sim work on this is really good and the screen shots are excellent.

Richard

Sorry for the offense caused. Images removed.

RedToo.

........

Images look like they are still there to me....

Its not the use of the images that bothers me, its more the lack of respect by not asking, crediting or even approaching anyone at The Airfield Information Exchange / Airfield Research Group about using the images on our site....

If you want to know anything about airfields, then AiX is the place to be, we would welcome your input on there if you would be good enough to join and post.

It's a pity that the pictures are gone.
AiX? Link?

four posts up

As part of the work we did for Bob Dev Group on BOBII, a ton of historical research was done to be able to replicate airfield layouts, from building placements right down to roads and hedgerows. I remember one memorable thread about whether a particular oak tree, which used to trouble the pilots on takeoff and landing, was too far from or too close to the end of the runway. That debate went for weeks.

For what it is worth, I made aerial photos of all the BOBII airfields (10, 11 and 12 Groups - we never did 13 Group) here.

These layouts represent the best information we were able to find over the years, about the layout of the airfields in July-Oct 1940.

Cheers, for posterity:

Airfields 1

https://app.box.com/shared/hii9yxtgmr

Airfields 2

https://app.box.com/shared/5m18ku6tzn

pretty wild thread

It's a pity that the pictures are gone.
AiX? Link?
[/quote/]

Posted earlier in the thread but here it is again, http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/forum.php

Airodrome Chart Manston airfield, today


Pdf: http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadbasic/..._2013-12-12.pdf