RAF in Berkshire

For a location bordering the western outskirts of England’s capital city, it is perhaps surprising that Berkshire boasted so few RAF facilities, even at the height of WW2 hostilities.

The only RAF site in the county still in operation is one that comes under the US umbrella, Welford last operating as a working RAF station at the end of WW2, and now one of the largest ammunitions compounds in Western Europe for the USAF. Berkshire’s two most famous locations are arguably Aldermaston and Greenham Common, the former for its work in atomic research, and the latter for becoming the focus of anti-nuclear demonstrations in the 1980s while American missiles were stationed there.

Still Active

RAF Welford

Opened: 1943

The site six miles north west of Newbury is today in use as one of the largest ammunition storage centres for the USAF, its link to the US military dating back to when it opened in October 1943, allocated to the Ninth Air Force, C-47 and C-53 troop carriers operating from the station.

(RAF Welford, May 1944. The CG-4 Gliders and C-47s of the 435th Troop Carrier Group one month before the D-Day invasion of France.)

On March 31, 1944, a Lancaster of No. 101 Squadron, DV290, was returning from an electronic countermeasure mission over Nuremburg that departed RAF Ludford Magna in Lincolnshire, part of an ill-fated mission that saw a number of British aircraft shot down. The aircraft somehow ended up attempting to land at Welford, likely due to damage received during the mission over Germany, but a breakdown in communications saw it attempt to land while the runway lights were not in use, the Lancaster crashing, killing all eight on board. An annual memorial service in honour of the airmen killed is held at Welford.

After closing as an RAF station in 1946, Welford reopened in the mid-1950s at the height of the Cold War as home to the 7531st Ammunition Squadron, and despite a short return to RAF control in the mid-1990s, it remains under the USAF umbrella.

Closed

RAF Aldermaston

Opened: 1942

Closed: 1950

A location synonymous with nuclear research, Aldermaston started life as a RAF station midway through WW2, plans for the site eight miles east of Newbury to become part of Bomber Command housing Vickers Wellingtons quickly redrawn, the location handed over to the US Eighth Air Force in August 1942, a nearby country house becoming the HQ of the XIX Tactical Air Command.

(Paratroopers of the 503rd US Parachute Infantry Regiment prepare to board a C-47 Skytrain of the 60th Troop Carrier Group at Aldermaston, 23 September 1942)

It was used as a major troop carrier base, the 60th Troop Carrier Group the first to make Aldermaston their home, with continued use by Allied forces until the end of the war, a section of the airfield also used as an assembly facility by Supermarine for Spitfire production.

Handed back to the Air Ministry in June 1945, the site was used as a flying school to train RAF pilots for civilian duties, before it was taken over in 1950 to become the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, AWRE.

RAF/RFC Coley Park

Opened: 1916

Closed: 1919

In 1916, two fields located in a southern suburb of Reading were used as an airfield, the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) commandeering buildings nearby belonging to the University of Reading, initially for the purpose of training flight instructors. Expansion saw the creation of the No. 1 School of Military Aeronautics and the No. 1 School of Technical Training, but the area of Coley Park was regularly hit by river fogs which disrupted flying, the airfield falling into disuse by the end of WWI.

RAF Great Shefford

Opened: 1940

Closed: 1945

The site midway between Swindon and Reading was earmarked for use as a dispersal centre for aircraft, eventually becoming a Relief Landing Ground (RLG) for various training units operating in the area.

RAF Greenham Common

Opened: 1942

Closed: 1992

The station four miles south east of Newbury was synonymous with the US Air Force from when it first opened during WW2 to its final closure in 1992, starting life as the HQ for the USAAF 51st Troop Carrier Wing in September 1942. It was turned over to the USAAF Ninth Air Force late in 1943, reverting to RAF control midway through 1945, when it was utilised by Transport Command until it was placed under care and maintenance in June 1946.

It would be the mid-1950s when Greenham Common returned to its full capacity, the Cold War seeing a re-evaluation by the US of its Strategic Air Command (SAC) operations in the UK which saw a move west from Eastern England behind RAF fighter forces – Greenham Common joining Fairford, Upper Heyford and Brize Norton as home to B-47E Stratojet bombers.

A decade later SAC left the site, Greenham Common later becoming home of the International Air Tattoo, before the early 1980s saw the site chosen as a home for ground launched American cruise missiles, a move that met with opposition and the setting up of a Women’s Peace Camp that remained for around a decade.

RAF Hampstead Norris

Opened: 1942

Closed: 1946

Located around seven miles north east of Newbury, the station on the outskirts of the village of Hampstead Norrys opened as a RAF Bomber Command Operational Training Unit, with Wellingtons dominating the airfield. Bombed by the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain, Hampstead Norris was later used by squadrons of Mosquitos, becoming an ammunition storage depot after it closed in 1946.

RAF Henley-on-Thames

Opened: 1940

Closed: 1945

While Henley is situated in Oxfordshire, the RAF station was constructed around three miles south east of the town over the county border at Crazies Hill, the location used to test Spitfires built locally, and as a RLG for the nearby stations of White Waltham and Woodley (see below). The station became home to No. 259 Squadron RAF in August 1944, who moved there from RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire, later operating American Sikorsky R-4 helicopters, then known as the Hoverfly, becoming the first RAF station to host a helicopter squadron.

RAF Membury

Opened: 1942

Closed: 1955

The initial plan for the station built five miles north west of Hungerford was as a training airfield for 91 Group, but in the summer of 1942 it was decided to hand over operations to the US Army Air Force (USAAF), the Eighth Air Force arriving on site in August of that year.

(Douglas C-47s and CG-4A Waco Gliders lined up on the runway at Membury Airfield, 1944.)

In the summer of 1945, Membury was handed back to the RAF, Nos. 52 and 187 Squadrons arriving, with C-47 Dakotas among the aircraft operating from the station. In October 1946, the station was placed in care and maintenance status under the control of RAF Welford, and despite several plans to bring the site back into RAF service, it never reopened; Greenham Common was chosen to become part of SAC instead or Membury.

The M4 now runs through what was the airfield, Membury motorway services originally part of the RAF station, with a smaller airfield still in operation today near the site.

RAF Shinfield Park

Opened: 1940

Closed: 1968

Located in the village of Shinfield Park five miles south of Reading, the station was HQ for RAF Flying Training Command (HQFTC) for 28 years, and during WW2 it was also HQ for RAF Technical Training Command. In the early 1970s it became the Meteorological Office College, with most of the site now a housing development.

RAF Theale

Opened: 1941

Closed: 1948

Also known as Sheffield Farm, there are records of aircraft activity at the site around five miles south west of Reading that pre-date WW2, but Theale came to prominence during the Second World War as a training facility, composed of two grass runways and utilised by No. 26 Elementary Flying Training School, EFTS, amongst other units. The site is now completely under water, and is used today as a water sports centre.

RAF White Waltham

Opened: 1928

Closed: 1982; still in operation as a private airfield

An airfield was set up at the site around two miles south west of Maidenhead in 1928 when around 200 acres of land was bought to house the de Havilland Flying School, the government commandeering the site a decade later as the home of the Air Transport Auxiliary, ATA, an organisation that ferried new, repaired, and damaged aircraft to and from active service squadrons.

(Avro Anson of the RAF's Home Command Communication Squadron based at White Waltham)

Post-war, Fairey Aviation used the site to test aircraft built nearby, before it was taken over by Westland Helicopters, White Waltham noted for being where Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was taught to fly in the early 1950s. The site stayed under RAF control until the early 1980s when it came under private ownership, today believed to be the largest grass airfield in civilian use in Europe.

RAF Woodley

Opened: 1929

Closed: 1963

An aerodrome opened near the village of Woodley four miles east of Reading in the late 1920s, the site probably most famous for the flying accident that saw Douglas Bader lose both his legs. The civilian flying school established there merged into an aircraft workshop when Frederick Miles arrived at Woodley, with the first major success the Miles Hawk. The site became home to Miles Aircraft Ltd, the Miles Magister and Master used for basic training of RAF pilots, and at the height of WW2, 5,000 employees were working at the site that ran a 24/7 working week.

The RAF formed No. 10 Flying Instructors’ School at Woodley in 1942 from the former No. 8 EFTS, with around 6,000 civil and military aircraft built and flown from the airfield up to the early 1960s, the area redeveloped for housing after its closure.