ok here we go......
"Gaydon was one of several RAF airfields in the Midlands which enjoyed two seperate periods of existance, one as a wartime training base, the other when it was rebuilt and put back into service for very different aircraft.
Gaydon came into use early in 1942 before opening, on 13th June, as a satellite for No12 Operational Training Unit, Chipping warden - a night bomber training unit in No91 Group, flying Vickers Wellingtons. That station acquired Edgehill as its permanent satellite so, on 1st September 1942, Gaydon was transferred to Wellesbourne Mountford whose runways were under repair. This was home to 22OTU, a 91sqn station operating Wellingtons crewed mainly by Canadians. A and B flights of 22OTU came to Gaydon which became the base for training Vickers Wellingtons till the end of the war.
Initially Wellington Mk.IC aircraft used the station with Mk.III's arriving in October 1942 and from 1943 Mk.X's. because of Wellesbourne's runway repairs, 22OTU used Gaydon as a starting point for operational sorties in 1942.
By this time the airfield was complete, having 3 runways, two of 1400 yards and the one of 1600 yards. the hangars were typical of these Midland OTU's with one B1 and one T2. A total of 27 'frying pan' hard-standings led off the perimeter track and Drem Mk.II Lighting was fitted.
An unusual three-storey watch tower, of the type once to be seen on Heathrow's north side and at such widely separated locations as Findo Gask near Perth and Pershore in Worcestershire, was built close to the A41 road.
Although Gaydon was brought into use too late to send aircraft out on the thousand bomber raids in May and June of 1942, it's wellingtons often flew leaflet dropping sorties over enemy occupied territory. This was standard practice for the crews at the end of their course so that they could gain operational experience with minimal risk. These 'Nickels', as they were code named, were usually uneventful but in june 1943 two aircraft from Wellesbourne and one from Gaydon raided Brest and St Nazaire. One was attacked by a Ju88, which damaged the hydraulics and put one engine out of action. It limped back to RAF Exeter and crash landed with no injuries to those on board. Real bombs were dropped now and again, such as in October 1943 when five Gaydon aircraft took part in a raid on the Versailles area near Paris. by the end of 1943, Gaydons Wellingtons had provided reading material to the inhabitants of Grenville, Nantes, Orleans and Rennes.
During 1944 there were a number of diversions to Gaydon by bombers returning by day and night from operations. On 9th July a halifax of 431 Sqn landed and on 9th August seven Lancasters came in after a raid over France"
onto V-Bomber Section:
"In 1953 it was selected for reconstruction as a V-Bomber training base and John Laing and Son started work that spring. The Original site was to become the Technical area whilst a large tract of farmland to the South-West had been acquired for the laying down of a 3000 yard runway with parallel taxiway and access tracks.
Excavation included the removal of half a million cubic yards of earth, and 80,000 square yards of concrete from the wartime runways and perimeter track was broken up to make hardcore for the new strip, in addition, 700 trees had to be pulled out and 3 ponds filled in. Laing also won the contract for the construction of over 100 buildings, including a control Tower, because the original was nowhere near the Runway.
A virtually new airfield opened on 1st March 1954 under the control of No 3 Grp Bomber Command. However, it was not until 1st January 1955 that 138Sqn was formed as the first Valiant squadron. Aftrer working up it moved to Wittering on 6th July 1955. Equipped with the photographic Recon version of the Valiant and Canberra T4's for runway approach aid training.
Meanwhile on 4th July 1955, 232 OCU was formed at Gaydon with Valiants and, from 11th November 1957, with seven Victors. One of the latter crashed in Combrook woods near the airfield with fatal results. All Victor I bomber crews were trained at 232OCU, alongside those for Valiants. In 1962, a Victor II OCU was set up at Wittering, an off-shoot of 232OCU.
It's task training all valiant and victor crews completed, 232 OCU was disbanded in June 1965. The thunder of the V-Bombers was replaced from September 1st 1965 by a gentler sound, not unlike that of the Wellingtons of 20 years before. The aircraft of Flying Training Command were Varsities and Valettas of No2 Air Navigation School, Transferred from Hullavington. The ANS remained at Gaydon for nearly 5 years, leaving for Finningley in May 1970 when formal flying at Gaydon ceased.
The Strike Command Special Avionics Servicing Unit of No1 Grp lodged at Gaydon until disbanded on December 1st 1971. Control of Gaydon passed to 71 MU Bicester Maintenance Command on April 1st 1972 and the station was placed under Care and Maintenance until closure on October 31st 1974.
In 1978, British Leyland purchased the land for a new car testing and development ground and promptly built embankments and planted trees to hide it from prying eyes. The wartime tower and B1 hangar were removed, but the two large hangars, built in the 1950's and known as the 'Gaydon Type', were retained to house engineering workshops. These resemble the wartime J Type but are much larger and have a door width of 160ft. during the 1990s, gaydon has Developed into a state-of-the-art engineering and development centre with many of the runway, perimeter track and hard standing areas converted into test tracks and development surfaces, recreating road surfaces from all over the world. the heritage motor Centre taking up just a small corner of this Huge complex. remnants of the airfield can still be seen with the 1950's control tower now the observation tower for the site and the signals square still displaying the 'GD' station identity letters.
It is worth of note that Gaydon was once considered for development as the mythical third London Airport but, despite having much to reccommend it, the idea was dropped"
