- Type of Memorial
- Roll of honour or book of remembrance
- WMR Reference Number
- 47406
- Description
- Framed and glazed Roll of Honour with hand written inscription in black lettering. RAF Badge and 21 Squadron Badges are depicted on the border of the Roll of Honour.
Badges included on the Roll of Honour, clockwise from the top centre: RAF; USAAF 8th Air Force; Fighter Command RAF; 12 Group HQ RAF; 242 Canadian Sqn; 310 Sqn RAF; 302 Sqn; 19 Sqn; 611 County of Lancaster Sqn RAUXAF; 312 Czech Sqn; 64 Sqn RAF; 601 County of London Sqn RAUXAF; 78th Fighter Group 8th USAAF; 133 Eagle Sqn; 65 Sqn RAF; 264 Sqn; 222 Natal Sqn RAF; 66 Sqn RAF; 181 Sqn RAF; 609 West Riding Sqn RAUXAF; 266 Rhodesia Sqn RAF; 56 Sqn RAF; RAF Station Duxford.
- Inscription
- Prelude: 1918: the aerodrome at Duxford was commissioned in 1918 as a royal flying corps training station. / The flat Cambridge plain, with its great university, witnessed the drone of DH.9s as the training squadrons / climbed into the skies in a rehearsal for coming combat. //
1918: the final throes of the great war, 200 members of 159 & 139 US aero squadrons were detached to Duxford. / It was the start of a connection that would run through Duxford’s history like a strong cord in times of trouble. //
1920: Duxford was designated No.2 flying training school in this year, a moment not without its own / particular dramatic overture. At the end of the war, Duxford might well have sunk back into obscurity had it not / been for Emile Mond, whose son had been killed in the war. He offered a Chair of Aeronautical / Engineering at Cambridge University on the condition that in-flight research facilities were provided / at an airfield selected by the RAF who chose Duxford. //
1924. In the halcyon post-war days of the 20's, Duxford was designated a Fighter Station, a role it was / to carry with distinction and courage for the next 37 years. In 1924, Nos. 19, 29 and 111 Fighter Squadrons flew / across a peaceful, Cambridge sky undisturbed by the shadows ahead. //
1936: Flight Lieutenant (later Air Commodore, Sir) Frank Whittle, studying at the Cambridge university flew / regularly from Duxford with the Cambridge University Air Squadron before developing the jet-turbine engine. //
Eve of world war II: 1938: Supermarine's test pilot, Jeffrey Quill, flew the first Spitfire into Duxford to / re-equip No.19 squadron. //
World war II: 1940: the declaration of war on Germany on September 3rd, 1939 heralded the most / significant period of Duxford's history. A period that began in the deceptive calm of the phoney war / and continued with the airfield viewing the Battle of Britain at one remove for, as part of 12 group, Duxford's role was supportive rather than combative at this stage. (...)
(Inscription continued in file)