Two WW2 Lancaster aircraft, flown over from Canada , were at Southend Airport today with a Spitfire and a Hurricane. If you were lucky, you might have seen them there, or watched them fly over Rayleigh and Rawreth this afternoon.
Incidentally Southend Airport was an RAF base in WW2. According to Wikipedia:
..in 1939, the Air Ministry requisitioned the airfield and it was known as RAF Rochford during World War II. It became a satellite base. During World War II, it became a base for fighter squadrons comprising Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes as well as Bristol Blenheims. Many of the 50 pillboxes that were designed to protect the airport from paratroop landings still survive, as does the underground defence control room, which is near to Southend Flying Club. A further 20 or so pillboxes also remain in the surrounding countryside.
We are grateful to Hayley Bloomfield for these photos (click on them to enlarge)
Rochford was actually established as a fighter base in WW1 , along with Stow Maries and Goldhanger it formed No 37 Air Defence Squadron , designed to intercept both Zeppelins and Gotha Bombers heading for London.
In fact it was planes out of Stow Maries and Rochford that collided over Rawreth and
crashed into the field adjacent to the ( now ) A130 – Memorial Bridge.
There is a book ( on Kindle at 61p ) Battle of Britain 1917 by a Jonathan Sutherland that charts all the activity over Essex during the 1st WW.