Rivenhall

The wartime airfield at Rivenhall is typical of the many air bases which were hastily built in Britain following the entry of the US in to the Second World War. It was first used by a long-range Mustang Fighter Group whose task it was to escort the bombers of the US Eighth Air Force on daylight raids deep in to Germany and this was followed by four squadrons of Marauder bombers who stayed at Rivenhall for a total of 111 days. They were used against targets on the Continent in support of the Allied Forces prior to and following the Normandy Invasion in June 1944.

Bruce Stait was born in Sale in 1928, but spent his teenage years living in Silver End, Essex close to Rivenhall. He married and moved to Cheltenham in 1953 to work at Dowty Rotol as a draughtsman. He had a lifelong passion for aviation and did his National Service in the RAF just after the war. Rivenhall was his first book, but he went on to write "Rotol - The history of an airscrew company" (Alan Sutton) and "Riding the skies" with Brad Boyer a Rivenhall pilot.