[canonuk]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any information on this airfield at all? It's proving incredibly difficult. Anything on size, orientation, coordinates, concrete or grass etc.

Anything would be useful.

So far the airfields I've done have all be accurately based on photos of the real place. If I can't find anything I'll have to make Tramecourt as a typical, generic airfield, which would be ok, but not preferable.

Cheers

Joe

[asheshouse]

I am awaiting a CD-Rom of historical plans of French airfields which will hopefully arrive this week.
I will let you know if there is anything about Tramecourt on it.

[canonuk]

Great - thanks

[Username]

Looking at Google it's clear that Tramecourt is still only a small village surrounded by other hamlets. There aren't many locations where the airfield could have been squeezed in, but if I had to guess I'd go for the NE.

[Trooper117]

Could be.. Maybe it was further out from the village.. There are a couple of WWII airfields in Scotland for instance that are quite a distance away from the town or village they are named after..

[canonuk]

Yeah, I've tried searching for clues around the google-earth image of the town, but if it was a grass strip then 60+ years is more than enough for all of it to go. Also, Trooper's right - it might not have been that close to the actual town of Tramecourt.

[Trooper117]

Here's a little info I managed to dig up from a mission carried out during WWI from an account of a pilot flying a Sopwith Camel out of Tramecourt in Northern France..
He was on a heading of West/southwest to his target of Vitry, 50 miles away from Tramecourt.. I would think its a safe bet that it would be the same location of the WWII airfield, so if you take a reverse heading and backtrack it from Vitry, you may get an idea if the airfield is plus or minus of the village on that heading.. Just an idea!

[RealDarko]

Is Tramecourt the last airfield to go Canon? Can't wait to fly over the channel!

[canonuk]

No, not quite, but I'm getting there.

Still got all the towns and cities to go, too! lol!


Trooper - I drew a line from Vitry back towards Tramecourt, marked approximately 50miles and had a look around. No luck yet!

Joe

[Trooper117]

Just took a look myself mate.. That west/southwest heading must be incorrect in the report as it states he was passing over Arras on the way to his target, the railway yards at Vitry.. so he couldn't have been on that heading, more like SE I think!

[asheshouse]

Negative news on Tramecourt I'm afraid.
The CD-Rom info I've got is not as comprehensive as I hoped. --tho' its still got lots of good stuff.
This is what's included in Pas de Calais
Level of info varies for each site.
Yellow is pre-1947
Yellow with cross is pre-1947 now disappeared
Blue is I think fields created after 1947.

[Username]

Still can't find any diagram or photograph of Tramecourt airfield. I had a look through my Stuka references, as IV St/LG1 operated from there under Von Brauschitsch at the time - but no joy.

It seems the triangle formed by the hamlets of Tramecourt, Maisoncelles and Azincourt (Agincourt) encloses the historic site of the Battle of Agincourt (Henry V and all that). These fields are currently under threat of having a wind farm constructed on them and there is a conservation effort under way to prevent local planners agreeing to place turbines there. This is justified on the grounds that the site has been undisturbed for 588 years, so I suppose that rules it out as the site of the former airfield. You can see the three hamlets on the Google pic above.

[canonuk]

asheshouse : thanks for looking, mate Shame the CD isn't as complete as you would have liked. I'm sure there's still some good stuff though.

Username: That's really interesting about the protected area. Anything that helps me rule something out!

Trooper: Thanks for the extra clue. I'll have a look the other way

Thanks guys

[Trooper117]

There is a Vitry SE-ish of Arras, about 60 odd kilometres from Tramecourt.. It also has the railway marshalling yards which was the apparent target for the Camel with his four bombs.
That would put it more or less right for the 50 miles from Tramecourt..

[Username]

I think you'll just have to make some reasonable assumptions on this one. As you know, the Luftwaffe always preferred to disperse its aircraft around wooded areas wherever possible and you can see Tramecourt woods in the picture above. Secondly, I notice that the base was also home to a Do 17Z unit later in the battle, so that implies the grass runway was a long one - or at least easily extended. Determine the average length of a medium bomber runway and play around with orientations, bearing in mind where the dispersals could have been.