Tholthorpe airfield memorial

September 2010

Tholthorpe airfield memorial

Tholthorpe, near Alne, was home to another World War Two airfield used by Canadian airmen. As at East Moor, agriculture continues alongside sections of crumbling runways and some peripheral remains of airfield accommodation.

Tholthorpe’s memorial, made of Canadian granite, was placed in 1986 on the village green. The plaque states that the memorial is dedicated to those who served at the airfield and – like the memorial at Sutton on the Forest – it is also ‘to the many citizens of this community who supported them’.

One of the Halifax bombers from Tholthorpe crashed at nearby Alne, and damaged the church, as recorded in a framed memorial on the wall there. See St Mary’s, Alne, also on this site.

14 comments

  1. COLIN CARR

    It is good to know that the men and women in the RAF,RCAF and the WAAF who gave their lives in war are remembered with memorials placed on former Airfields, a total of 55,000 Aircrew were killed in action or flying accidents.

  2. Please take a look at the above web site as it is very
    interesting and will be suitable to every English speaking person which ever country they live in.

  3. Any one that has lived in the Vale of York would find the history of Newton-on-Ouse very interesting.

  4. My readers may also be interested to learn that as a Civil Servant I witnessed all that went on at the station from 1952 to the time I left the M.O.D in
    late 1979. Incidentally I met my wife on the station when she was a WRAF Telephone supervisor. I was very
    lucky as I got M o D permission to make a video of
    all the aspects of the station but sadly that was for
    my viewing only plus my close friends. It makes me sad to learn that the station will close in 2018

  5. The above is a very interesting web site which anyone living in or around York should look at. They will learn a lot from its content.

  6. I remember York being bombed by the German Heinkell 111 aircraft. The railway station was their target but many bombs also hit residential house in Queen Ann’s Road and Coney Street where the church was gutted. Clifton aerodrome was also hit as were the
    cottages near the allotment fields.

  7. CW3 Lawrence W. Landermann US Army Aviator Retired (AH1F-Cobra Pilot)

    My father Flt Lt Laurent Landermann was a member of the 425 Alouettes stationed at RAF Tholthorp from 1944-45.
    He was the Sq Intel Officer responsible for pre & post mission briefings.
    425Sq was formed in Quebec City in 1942 and was comprised mainly of French Canadians. Despite our German name we go back 6 generations as Fr/CDN the origional name came from a German Hessien soldier August Lattermann arriving at Quebec in 1776 as a member of the Hessien von Barner Inf Reg attached to the British Army. Kind if ironic the coming to Canada and the return to GB.
    Larry Landermann

  8. Denis Thievin

    Thanks for the informative pages. My father flew 28 operations out of Tholthorpe with the Alouettes as a wireless operator. The experiences of those 20-year-old men would have scared the hell out of today’s generation, the very people who enjoy the fruits of their bravery and typically know nothing about it.

  9. Jennifer Barton Fraser

    My father’s first cousin flew out of this airfield and never returned home. He was Thomas Cranston Barton, aged 21, from Windsor, Ontario Canada, although born in Scotland, I believe. He was a Halifax pilot, shot down on July 29, 1944, over Hamburg Germany, his body never recovered. His name is on the Runnymede Memorial as well as others as Thomas G or Thomas Granston Barton due to a mistake on his RCAF death notification which was later corrected. He was a handsome young man and my great Uncle Joe and Auntie Meg were devastated by his loss. Rest in peace, Tommy.

    • David Davis

      My mother’s fiancé, Gordon Kenneth Vimy Ridge Vincent DFC, also from Windsor, was a pilot of a Halifax that was also shot down over Hamburg on 28th July 1944, presumably on the same raid. Do you have any details, as I assume that they knew each other?

      • Jennifer Fraser

        July 28 vs July 29 of the same year are two different raids. I wouldn’t presume they were issued out of the same airfield unless you know this for certain. Many of these raids contained hundreds of planes and crews. And whether the two men knew each other, well, Windsor was a big place with many neighbourhoods and high schools, so it would be a coincidence if they did know each other, but maybe. Who knows! Usually flight crews remained as a team for as long as they were still flying or so my Uncle Bob told me (No relationship to my father’s cousin). He was shot down over Berlin, December 29, 1943, flying a Lancaster bomber and was part of a raid which contained 712 bombers! He was captured after several harrying days trying to escape notice and spent the rest of the war in Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf and Oflag VIIB Eichstätt. Sadly I don’t know which base he flew from but I do know that it was in England.

  10. Ken Platten

    A good friend of mine flew as part of the RCAF based at Tholthorpe. He was Thomas F. Ford then aged 20 and was a pilot. He flew Lancasters with the Snowy Owl Squadron and was awarded the DFC for bravery. He died in Mallorca aged 96 in May 2021. He left a few diaries which make very interesting reading.

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