HISTORIAN Colin Pomeroy is setting his sights on wartime RAF units for a new book about Dorset.

He wants to find pictures and talk to people about the smaller RAF units that played their part in the Second World War.

He is compiling information for a book due to be published next year as part of the Discover Dorset series.

And he is appealing to people to help muster material before it is too late.

Mr Pomeroy, who lives at Piddletrenthide and has published acclaimed books including Wings Over Dorset, said: “More is known about the bigger airfield like Warmwell but I want to find out about the smaller RAF units which operated in Dorset during and around the war years.

“They are places like radar sites, navigation stations, communications units, decoy sites, air-sea rescue bases, air-to-ground ranges and the like.

“The people who worked there would be well in their 80s by now so I would like to glean this information while it can still be done.

“If we don’t get it recorded soon it will be too late.

“I know people were not encouraged to take pictures of those places but somebody might have photographs. I’d like to be able to use them.”

Among the places he would be interested in finding out more about are the air sea rescue bases, especially the one at Poole, and units at Bulbarrow Hill, Ringstead, Brandy Bay, Tilley Whim and Hengistbury Head.

Mr Pomeroy, who served in the RAF and then became a commercial pilot, said: “These smaller units played a vital part in the war. I’m looking for all the information I can get – I especially want to hear from anyone who worked there and photographs would be the cherry on the cake.

“I got a lot of material together for previous books but this is a case of tying in important loose ends that I might have missed.”

Mr Pomeroy, whose last RAF trip was to fly a Nimrod over Weymouth for the town’s carnival day in 1980, can be contacted on cpomeroy@aol.com or 01300 348935.