RAF Mount Farm

51.6642, -1.1598 — view on OpenStreetMap ↗

About

RAF Mount Farm, in Oxfordshire north of Dorchester, opened in 1940 and became a photographic-reconnaissance station. Handed to the United States Army Air Forces as Station 234, it was the home of the 7th Photographic Group, whose Lockheed F-5 Lightnings, Supermarine Spitfires and North American Mustangs flew thousands of high-altitude sorties over Europe, bringing back the millions of photographs on which Allied planning depended. The famed RAF reconnaissance pilot Adrian Warburton was lost on a mission from the field in 1944. After the war the airfield closed; much of it is now gravel pits and the village of Berinsfield.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Mount Farm — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust and RAF Mount Farm — Wikipedia. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.

Photographs

F-5 Lightning "The Florida Gator" of the 22nd Photographic Squadron, 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group at Mount Farm, Oxfordshire England. Handwritten on slide case: "The Florida Gator Mount Farm R. Astrella"
ⓘ licence & creditSSgt Robert Astrella / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F-5_Florida_Gator.jpgView source & full licence →
A look up the runway / This view shows the direction of the South to North (Main) runway at Mount Farm
ⓘ licence & creditBill Nicholls / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_look_up_the_runway,_geograph-2679843.jpgView source & full licence →
Lockheed F-5 (P-38) of the 7th Recon Group RAF Mount Farm England (World War II) Source: National Archives via the United States Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB Alabama This aircraft is not a photographic recon version of the p38 although it was flown by pilots of the 7th PG. It is a two seat'Droopsnoot' based on a P38J for use in the electronic intelligence role and operated from RAF Foulsham alongside No 192 (Bomber Support) Squadron. Indeed, these four aircraft were the very first US 'ferret' (ELINT) aircraft on which today's massive effort is based. John Rees
ⓘ licence & creditNo. 192 Squadron RAF / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:7pr-f5.jpgView source & full licence →
Aerial photograph of Mount Farm Airfield, England.
ⓘ licence & creditBritish Government / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mountfarmafld-3jan1946.pngView source & full licence →
Mount Farm Airfield, England - 3 January 1946 Source: Royal Ordinance Survey. Crown Copyright expired 50 years after photograph taken in 1996. Annotations on photo from Freeman, Roger A., Airfields Of The Eighth, Then And Now, 1978
ⓘ licence & creditPublic domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mountfarmafld-3jan1946-original.jpgView source & full licence →

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