Lancaster Or Wellington Bombers
A Memory of Southend Airport.
Coincidentally Colin (Hayes) I lived near by you in St. George's Avenue! And around the same time I used to regularly cycle over to Southend Airport with a friend. Here we used to plane spot - do you remember the 'sea' of Auster planes parked up in the middle of the field? Also like you we used to sneak in under the fence at the far side of the field and crawl Indian style along to the cacooned Wellington or Lancaster bombers. We had a great time pretending to fly the planes - all without being spotted from the conning tower. Over the course of time we became very friendly with the staff there and they used to allow us onto the apron of the airdrome - even at night! How things have changed. On one occasion we witnessed a fleet of hearses collecting coffins from (I think) Bristol Freighters. All I can think is that this was the time of the Manchester United Munich air disaster (in 1959 I would have been eleven so it is about right) and for some reason they brought the bodies back through Southend - can anyone enlighten me on this and what the bombers were? Now Dragon Rapides - they were a great sight!
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