- ICAO Code: B7LG
- Location: Martragny, Calvados, France
- Type: Operational Fighter
- Parent: RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force
- Current Version: 1.0
- Download link: Download
- Required Libraries: IJP, Fulbert’s Static Hawker Typhoon*
To accommodate the ever increasing numbers of aircraft in the run up to the invasion of Europe through Normandy, it became apparent very quickly that the existing infrastructure was nowhere near sufficient.
The result of this was the creation of “Advance Landing Grounds”, temporary airfields that could be created very quickly, with no permanent structures or operating surfaces. Instead, they used tented accommodation for storage and personnel (officers often used local farms as messes), blister hangars at best for aircraft protection and metal tracking or rolled mats for operating surfaces. Sometimes, hard standings for aircraft were created also using mats or sheeting, but many times, aircraft simply parked on the grass as dispersals.
When the invasion happened and land became available behind, but much closer to, the front lines, the ALGs simply moved to follow, with dedicated engineering units of both the RAF and USAAF constructing them just in time for their new occupants to arrive. Rather than names, these ALGs were given alphanumeric code identities.
The ALG built West of the village of Martragny in the Calvados region of Northern France was given the code “B.7” and was primarily used by Typhoon aircraft of RAF Fighter Command as they conducted tactical strikes and close air support for the advancing troops.
Because of the nature of the ALGs, no trace remains on the ground today and while there are occasional photographs to be found, they are of aircraft sitting on the grass with no infrastructure behind. Therefore, this recreation is fictional, based on details of numerous other ALGs both in the UK and Continental Europe. It does, however, give an appropriate forward airfield to operate Typhoons, or other similar aircraft, from. It’s also located in a field that has exactly the right dimensions for, and shape of, an ALG. There’s a memorial on the edge of the field, so there’s a pretty good chance that it’s in the right place, at least!
* In order to see the static Typhoons, you will need to download and install “Static Hawker Typhoon.zip” by Fulbert from the Sim-Outhouse FSX Scenery Objects library.
- Images:
