In the footsteps of the President’s grandfather
Barack Obama might be used to all the luxurious trappings of presidential power but his grandfather would have had a very basic experience when he arrived at RAF Stoney Cross airfield in the New Forest during WWII.
The New Forest National Park Authority has discovered the presidential family connection during its research into the history of the 12 war-time airfields in the Forest.
Now National Park Interpretation Officer Jim Mitchell and local airfield historians have written to the White House to tell the President about the link and included a speculative invite to visit the New Forest. They have also unveiled a new information panel for visitors at the former airfield, in conjunction with the Forestry Commission.
As well as the RAF using Stoney Cross for three and a half years the United States Ninth Army Airforce was at the airfield for six months in the summer of 1944. The first unit to arrive was the 367th Fighter Group and amongst their airmen was Sgt Stanley Armour Dunham the grandfather of Barack Obama whom the young Barack called ‘Gramps’.
In April 1944 he and his unit came from California to England to help support the 367th Fighter Group which was initially based for three months at Stoney Cross near Fritham. It seems likely he then went to nearby RAF Ibsley before moving to France six weeks after the invasion of Normandy.
Veteran Alan Brown, aged 84, was based at nearby Beaulieu airfield just after the war finished and has first-hand experience of what life was like on a New Forest airfield.
‘It was very basic,’ he said. ‘The base was very scattered. We lived in Nissan huts or tents under the trees and had to walk miles to get food and everything else and bikes were in short supply. It was rather rough. They used to send a jeep out to chase the animals off and keep the Forest livestock away from the manoeuvring areas. One winter it was very cold and the water supply got completely cut off so the men were shaving in the pond.’
Stoney Cross in Stanley Dunham’s day would have looked very different to the wild heathland habitat we see today.
About 1,200 people were stationed at Stoney Cross in the build-up to D-Day. They were flying bomber escort and dive bombing missions and provided fighter cover over the invasion beaches on June 6th. Typically the Fighter Group flew three missions a day from dawn until dusk with hundreds of aircraft landing and taking off.
Sgt Dunham served with the 1830th Ordnance Supply and Maintenance Company, Aviation and would have overseen a section of perhaps 20 men, who were probably involved in the transport section moving stores and armaments off the main Salisbury road down to the airfield.
Mr Dunham, who died in 1992, went with the 367th Fighter Group across France until Febuary 1945 when his unit was transferred to Patton’s 3rd Army until the end of the war.. He went home to his wife Madelyn and Stanley Ann, a toddler who would grow up to be Obama’s mother.
After his Stanley Ann’s marriage broke up in the 70s, 10-year-old Barack Obama went to live with Mr Dunham and Madelyn in Honolulu, Hawaii, until he left high school and was known to be very close to his grandparents.
Alan, of Lyndhurst, said: ‘The New Forest airfields are a big chunk of our history – not in terms of minutes and hours but in terms of significance - which has been rather neglected. People can learn a great deal from those days.’
Jim Mitchell, Interpretation Officer at the New Forest National Park, said: ‘It would be amazing if Barack Obama took up our invitation to find out more about where his grandfather was stationed. The information board we’ve unveiled is not just about helping visitors to learn about the incredible role the Forest played in WWII, it’s also about commemorating all those who were stationed here.’
Find out more about the Stoney Cross airfield by listening to the audio tour online at www.newforestnpa.gov.uk, view the information board at the Stoney Cross car park off the B3078, or visit the Friends of the New Forest Airfields (FONFA) at www.winkton.net/fonfa
Stoney Cross facts
- Stoney Cross had the longest runway of the 12 New Forest wartime airfields at 2000 yards (1.8km)
- It was used extensively by the Royal Air Force’s Army Co-operation Command and late in the war, and for a time afterwards, by its Transport Command
- Many of the successful techniques employed on D-Day 6 June 1944 by British airborne troops using parachutes and gliders were developed by the Squadrons based at Stoney Cross. These squadrons also supported the Special Operations Executive with equipment drops into occupied Europe
- The Ninth US Air Force of over 150,000 men was created in just a few months to support the invasion of France – a massive undertaking.
- US pilots arriving at Stoney Cross were used to flying single-engined aircraft but arrived to find the twin-engine Lightnings
- On D-Day 48 aircraft from Stoney Cross would be airborne at once, covering the Normandy beaches to keep the Luftwaffe away
- Flying from Stoney Cross stopped in October 1946 and the airfield was handed back to the Forestry Commission in 1956.
Written by Hilary Makin, Communications Manager