Grostenquin, France
Support Photographs

The Rest of the Story - 4 April 2002 - I must give you some explanation about the circumstances which led me to visit Grostenquin in August 1998. Two Belgian friends and myself have been preparing a retrospective and a book which is about to be finished on the Canadian presence of 1 Wing RCAF at Marville from 1954 to 1967.

The remains of the station at Marville is no longer the property of the French National Defence and I have heard of some development plans linked to the business of aviation. The barracks at Marville have been taken up by many small firms, companies, or by private persons for several years. Unfortunately, all of the facilities at Marville which were built with Canadian funds have been destroyed. The only way to know how certain buildings looked like (such as the Ice Arena, the swimming pool and the Recretation Center) was to visit the station at Grostenquin where those buildings were still standing - in very poor condition.

So, after having explained the reasons of our request to the French Air Force in August 1998, we were allowed to access to the remains of the station at 2 (F) Wing, Grostenquin with the presence of an officer who gave me the approval to take some pictures. The coloured photos which I have provided are the only pictures which I have in colour. These were at the end of a roll of film which was already in my camera at the time. I was able, however, to load and snap a complete roll of black and white photos - which, when looked at collectively, show the remains at Grostenquin during August of 1998.