RAF Ibsley Memorial

​​The small memorial is located just off the road close to a gated area. A road, Ellingham Drove, runs from east to west through what would have been the middle of Ibsley airfield, although it was not present in wartime. 

​​The memorial is located roughly near one of the three runways, which leads in a north to south direction. This memorial is less detailed than the other RAF Ibsley memorial located by Mockbeggar Lane to the north. 

​​This small stone memorial includes two separate plaques. On one, the RAF commemorates all RAF personnel who served here. On the other, the USAAF plaque commemorates the following: the 1st Fighter Group, 8th USAAF who served here from August to November 1942; the 48th Fighter Group, 9th USAAF who served here from March to July 1944; the 371st Fighter Group, 9th USAAF who served here from April to May 1944; the 367th Fighter Group, 9th USAAF who were here in July 1944. 

​The airfield was used in 1941 to film ‘The First of the Few’, which starred and was produced and directed by Leslie Howard (also featured in ‘Gone with the Wind’). Interestingly, his fate is somewhat linked with the topic, in that he later died after boarding a civilian flight from Lisbon, Portugal to Whitchurch, UK on 1 June 1943. The flight was operated by KLM and had civilian markings. Shortly after taking off, flight BOAC 777 was intercepted by six German aircraft over the Bay of Biscay. The German aircraft, believing it to be an enemy aircraft, engaged and shot it down killing all onboard. Subsequent interviews and accounts of the German pilots later claimed that it was misidentified and was too late by the time it had been identified as a civilian aircraft. Myths and rumours at the time suggested that German spies or agents had reported that the UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill was aboard the plane, and that it was in fact an assassination attempt.​