Are you a veteran from Tarrant Rushton?
There are precious few veterans left alive in 2024 from those who served at Tarrant Rushton. Certainly few if any of the glider pilots pictured here under the wing of a Hamilcar, or the crew of Halifax G-George, are still with us.
Perhaps you are a family member of a veteran who saw service in either the Royal Air Force, the Glider Pilot Regiment or maybe from the days of Flight Refuelling?
If so we would love to hear from you and share some of your memories from the days of operational flying out of Tarrant Rushton. We now have a number of families and a few veterans as part of our community and we can help you stay in touch. We will also let you know of any events we may set up in the future with plenty of advance notice.
Below are a few examples of the service from our Veterans and Families community.
One of the many Halifax crews at Tarrant Rushton
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My private "communications aircraft"!
It is July 1944 and Squadron Leader GH ‘Buster’ Briggs stands alongside Hurricane Mk IIc GHB on the grass at Tarrant Rushton. Following a stores supply flight over to the troops in Normandy that month Buster ‘found’ this craft in damaged state at the temporary airfield he had flown into. Later that week he took across an airframe fitter and a pilot to fly his Halifax back to TR then flew the repaired Hurricane for a few months as his personal transport. It was only when the 38 Group commander, Air Vice Marshall Hollinghurst summoned him to Northolt to explain that he reluctantly gave up his trusty Hurrican, but only after left the AVM know that his personal Hurrican was a Mk I while Buster had ‘acquired a MkII!
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The crew of Halifax G-George, July 1944
It is just a month since June 6th 1944 and the crew of G-George are shown beside their craft, still showing the hurriedly painted indentification stripes from that great day.
They flew two missions taking a Horsa and then a Hamilcar glider directly into the battlefield. We know all about Buster and his navigator Seymour, but can you help us fill in the story about the other crew members?
Gilbert Tonge came from Manchester, Pope from Cardiff but nothing more is known of Air Gunners Law and Searles - can you help?
