French airfields June 1940; Herbouville, Moisy and Ouzouer-le-Doyen.

[Martin Gleeson]

Hallo,

During June 1940 88 and 103 Squadrons RAF of 75 Wing apparently occupied a group of three airfields south of Chateaudun. These were Herbouville, Moisy and Ouzouer-le-Doyen. All are villages within a radius of 4 km., with Moisy the largest.
AIR 35/63 is a list of RAF code names for French airfields dated 20 May 1940 (but with additions as late as 10 June 1940), but it has no entry for either Moisy or Ouzouer-le-Doyen. The information in the Operational Record Books for the three RAF units above is confusing on the airfields occupied.
It seems to me that both squadrons may have used the one airfield, Herbouville. Possibly each squadron occupied one end of the airfield which was nearer to a particular village and this was the name used by them ?

Could anyone please help clear this up ?

Regards,

Martin Gleeson.

[Larry deZeng]

I doubt if this will help very much, but here is some wartime information from the A.I.2(b) shop:

Herbouville (FR) (a.k.a. Herbouville la Brédache) (47 56 15 N – 01 16 40 E)
General: landing ground in north-central France 14.5 km SSW of Châteaudun and 1.5 km NE of Brévainville. History: a former landing area rehabilitated in late spring 1944 as a dispersal field for Châteaudun airfield. Had just become serviceable in late Jun 44. Surface and Dimensions: grass surface or farm land measuring approx. 915 x 775 meters (1000 x 850 yards). Infrastructure: none noted. Dispersal: 9 aircraft parking bays were cut into the edge of a small wood along the S boundary. Defenses: none noted.
Remarks: none.
Operational Units: none identified.
Station Commands: none identified.
Station Units (on various dates – not complete): none identified.
[Sources: AFHRA A5259 p.1650 (25 Jun 44) and A.I.2.(b)/Air Ministry Amendment dated 8 Jul 44 in BNA(PRO)/AIR 40; chronologies; BA-MA; NARA; PRO/NA; web site ww2.dk]


Moisy
Listed in the A.I.2(b) Airfields Gazetteer dated 1.9.43 as a “Former Landing Ground”. It had no other names and was not used by the Luftwaffe.


Ouzouer-le-Doyen
Not listed in the 1.9.43 Gazetteer.

These landing grounds were often little more than cow pastures or open fields and after use for a couple of days quickly passed into history and were never mentioned again.

[udf_00]

ebay pic, location could be Moisy, and seems L5248 did not crash on 06 May 1940.

[Martin Gleeson]

Larry,

Thanks for that unexpected information. It seems Herbouville was the most viable location for the airfield.

udf_00,

It was these very photos that caused me to research further the activities of 88 Squadron RAF during June 1940.

Thanks to you both.

Regards,

Martin.

[Observer1940]

Hello Martin

I don't know if the constructor of the following web site would know, if you emailed him direct? IX Engineer Command

http://www.ixengineercommand.com/airfields/general.php

He has a plan of Chateaudun http://www.ixengineercommand.com/airfields/a39.php and I just wondered if he might have some info about your airfields of interest? Click on the plan to enlarge and it can be further enlarged by clicking the cursor +.

Regards Mark

[Martin Gleeson]

Hallo Mark,

Interesting site, although not for my query this time. However many of the airfield names are familiar from 1940 !
Thanks for highlighting this resource.

Regards,

Martin.