WHEN Brian Mennell first started flying from Rufforth Airfield he asked about its history, only to be told that "nothing happened" there.

This did not satisfy the tenacious retired policeman, so he kept asking. The result is his 112-page book packed with history, reminiscences and photographs. It turns out that rather a lot happened at Rufforth Airfield.

"I wasn't surprised by the stories. I knew something must have happened there," said Mr Mennell, an aviation enthusiast who was, until recently, the airfield administrator. "But I was intrigued by the stories."

His research led him in all directions. "It was a case of talking to local people, people who have been there, served there."

The more difficult part was contacting the former wartime air crews who had settled all over Britain - and the world. He contacted ex-airmen in Australia, Canada and America by e-mail. Often a successful contact gave him new leads.

"Sometimes we have put crews back in touch. That was quite nice," said Mr Mennell. "On a couple of occasions we put widows or girlfriends of airmen in touch with their crews as well."

He also spent many hours researching in places such as the Yorkshire Air Museum, the Public Records Office and the RAF Museum at Hendon.

Mr Mennell's book, Wings Over York: The History Of Rufforth Airfield, is a fascinating mix of its historical development and personal reminiscence.

The story begins in 1940 when the Air Ministry selected a site a few miles west of York for a new airfield. This took in much of the land that was part of Rufforth Grange.

And the book concludes by bringing the Rufforth tale up to date, in time for the 60th anniversary of the airfield's opening and the 40th anniversary of the Ouse Gliding Club - now known as York Gliding Centre - which has long occupied the site.

Officially opened on June 10, 1942, Rufforth Airfield was originally home to a bomber squadron which attacked targets as far away as Italy.

Three crew members returning from an attack on Genoa died after their aircraft was forced to ditch in the River Humber. These were the first deaths at the new airfield.

The year ended with more losses. Thirteen minutes after taking off from Rufforth for a raid on Duisburg, Germany, a Halifax heavily laden with bombs crashed near Poppleton.

One of the first on the scene was Hessay farmer Albert Armstrong. He received the British Empire Medal for his attempts to rescue the crew from the flaming wreckage.

"While helpers held up the fuselage with a piece of iron, Armstrong got underneath and tried to rescue the occupants," read the citation.

The New Year brought no change of luck. Ten Rufforth aircraft were involved in a sortie to Danish waters for a mining operation. Sergeant Peter Skinner was the only survivor of an eight-man crew when his Halifax went down.

Mr Skinner's account of that crash is included in the book. Soon after they crossed the coastline, he writes, they came under attack.

"Most of the light flak seemed to be very inaccurate, but I remember a harsh staccato starting from the front of the aircraft and ending so close to my turret that I ducked involuntarily.

"My next recollection is of wakening to what seemed an enormous hangover, but the smell of fuel and the presence of flames nearby dispelled that thought immediately...

"Seeing that there was a gap between the turret and fuselage and that the flames were forward, I made a hasty exit through the gap, but for some reason I took my parachute with me, even clipping it on as I ran my first few steps on a snow covered field that seemed to have a lot of fires burning and several large chunks of aircraft lying around.

"I didn't get far before I lost consciousness again."

Soon after he woke up again he was captured by German troops and was a prisoner of war until his release in 1945.

Rufforth Airfield became a "heavy conversion unit" in 1943, where pilots, navigators, air gunners and the rest were moulded into seven-man crews to fly the four-engine Halifax bombers operating from bases across Yorkshire.

Mr Mennell writes: "Over the years there has been much discussion about how Rufforth became a training unit, varying from the feeling that it was a 'Jonah' station to an operational squadron, through to fears of local people regarding possible crashes, the closeness of the historic city of York and the thought of a fully loaded bomber crashing just after takeoff on such a built-up area.

"The truth is not so complicated.

"The original decision to build the airfield was based on the fact that it would be a training base and that it would be a sub-station of nearby RAF Marston Moor."

Rufforth became a mini city, with more than 1,700 people who not only maintained and flew the aircraft but who were fed, clothed and housed on site.

Airmen from Canada, New Zealand, France, Holland and elsewhere joined the British contingent as they flew night and day to reach the required standard.

Crashes were all too frequent and scores of young men died during training.

There were mid-air collisions and one bomber hit a nearby farmhouse, killing three of the people inside, as well as six of the seven crew.

Living in such close quarters and facing daily dangers engendered a sense of great camaraderie at Rufforth Airfield. Flight engineer Jack Hindley recalls life in the freezing Nissen huts in winter in Mr Mennell's book.

"Early rising was unpopular, and we would each take it in turn to attend the 'compulsory' 8am role call of flight engineers every morning.

"In the February darkness you simply stood in the rear of three ranks and answered 'present' for all four names.

"One morning the 'screen' pilot officer flight engineer in charge of the parade was so slap happy or maybe flak happy that he did not even give the usual bored command to get into 'three heaps'

"I had to creep up behind him and give four names in a different voice while somehow preventing him from turning round to see who was speaking."

After the war, Rufforth had many less adventurous roles, first as an aircraft maintenance unit and then as a bomb disposal training school. The RAF moved out in 1975.

When one of the runways and adjoining areas came up for sale, the Ouse Gliding Club moved in. It is now called the York Gliding Centre.

Gliders and microlights have replaced wartime bombers at Rufforth Airfield, and they fly over a York very different to that which once echoed to the drone of the Halifax engines.

Wings Over York: The History Of Rufforth Airfield by Brian Mennell, at £10, can be bought from York Gliding Centre, Rufforth: (01904) 738694

Updated: 11:01 Monday, July 08, 2002