Airfield memories (From York Press)

Airfield memories

2:05pm Wednesday 22nd August 2012 in Letters

 YOUR feature of August 15, about Elvington airfield, implies that Elvington remained exactly as it was at the end of the war until the museum started in 1986.

While this may be true appertaining to the area now forming the core of the museum, in a much broader aspect, it is not.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s it was destined to become an American air base; to this effect the runway was lengthened and made much stronger and the huge parking area was also created at this time.

New buildings were also erected, but the project was terminated and I remember reading that on parts of the site contractors continued to erect buildings to fulfil their contract, while at the same time other new buildings were knocked down.

As to Frenchmen staying in this area after the war, I used to frequent a gents’ hairdresser near Ouse Bridge called John and Geralds, one of whom, I was told, had served at Elvington.

Stanley Knowles, Beech Grove, Upper Poppleton , York.

• I WAS extremely interested to read about “The last downed German fighter”.

I remember this incident well; I grew up in that area. I knew the Moll family of Dunnington Lodge Farm, so I would like to point out that it was not Richard Moll’s mother who was killed along with his wife, as stated; it was his daughter-in-law, Violet Moll.

When the German plane crashed, Violet, who was heavily pregnant, ran to her in-laws’ bedroom at the front of the house; she perished together with her unborn child in the flames.

Her husband, Freddie Moll, and their young son survived. Their bedroom was at the rear of the farmhouse, and was relatively undamaged.

Mrs Kathleen Sykes, Panman Lane, Holtby, York.