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Great video, I flew from Burtonwood as a boy in gliders with the air cadets and watched the whole place die from the motorway week after week.

Wishing you a very happy D-Day 80th!

My father was in the RAF and was seconded to Burtonwood around 1943. He told me that one night he woke to find that the rest of his 'hut' had pushed his bed onto the runway and it was gently snowing on him. He had nothing but admiration for the efficiency of the USAAF operation.

I was there from1982 to1986 with 38 GroupTCW and also at 81U RAF Bampton Castle.

I was 7 years old at that time living on Lower Higham Road just at the bottom of the hill about a mile from the airport I can remember walking up Thong Lane to the guards at the airport

Literally 5min from my home,surrounded by these sadly mostly forgotten airfields.🇺🇲🇬🇧

My dad was a bombardier with the 493rd. Capt George J. Field, Jr. Completed his 30 missions and received his "Lucky Bastards" certificate, which is on my office wall. First mission D-Day; final Christmas Day 1945. Stayed on as a training officer until the end of the war. Flew on one of the Operation Chow Hound missions to Holland, which dropped food to the starving Dutch.

Identifiable as a USAF base by the golf course to the WSW of the base. :)

I visited St Wilfrids Chapel today which stands next to what would have been the NE end of the main runway. As the film says, there is nothing visible to suggest that this site ever had an operational airfield on it but if you look over the churchyard wall you can maybe visualise the Spitfires and Typhoons that were based here. RIP to those that left and did not return.

remember playing up there in the mid 90s only small part is left

Lovely work, thank you. On a minor point, should it not be 'antennae', not 'antennas'?

Thanks very much for this.

Wasn't FIDO Fog Intensive, not investigation?

And it's now a housing estate!

been there multiple times as i live nearby and found about 30 of the original buildings all scattered through the woods. cool place

I think my dad was a Pilot Officer in the RAF flying transport aircraft out of RAF Ashfield in the early 1950's. I also think he was associated with the RAF REGIMENT about this time too.Does anyone know much about what happened at the airfield in the 1950's...particularly early 1950's?

My base will miss you

Ahh back in the day where i wish i knew what life was about. My old stomping ground .i now work in the hangar

I grew up locally in the 60's but was unaware of the base and history until I joined the ATC, 1330 sqdn, in the early 70's. I was a staff cadet there with 635 Gliding School for a few years up until the M62 motorway was built along the main runway. Happy days, racing landrovers all over the base, setting up the winches and helping out with the gliding operations. The school was based in the old MT section and most of the airfield infrastructure was still intact, sadly all gone now. A great book by Aldon P Ferguson details the history, plus a follow up book of photographs tells the story and highlights the scale of the airfield, wonderful stuff. Happy days.

I used to live in Egerton near Pluckley and this was the field often mistaken for Headcorn. If I remember rightly, there were sections of psp which could still be found littered around the area. I know local after the war had used drop tanks as boats etc

10 minutes away from me and a great place to explore

My uncle, Willis Steburg, was a Sergeant with the 44th Bomb Group based at Shipdham. He was a ball turret gunner on a B-24called "Toad." He flew 22 combat missions, and had 2 confirmed kills. He was shot down in April 1944 during a raid on a railroad marshalling yard near the French/Swiss border. He was one of 3 men that bailed out, the last to go. One of the waist gunners reached a wooded hilly area and evaded capture. My uncle was badly burned, and the tail gunner had a broken ankle, so they could not evade. They were sent to a Luftwaffe hospital for treatment. after they recovered, they were sent to a POW camp in Poland. They were liberated by the British army in March 1945. I lived with him the first three years of my life until my dad could afford to buy his own home. As I got older I became very interested in WW2, especially the air campaign. But my uncle would never discuss the war, and what he did. I guess he wanted to forget it. He passed away in 1991at 73.I had hoped one day to visit RAF Shipdham as a tribute to him. I'm sad at the thought that will never happen now.

I live near three old airfields, Saltby, North Witham, and Dalby. Have you done a video on these fields?

Nothing left but ghosts.

You wouldn't know it was even there, not to mention it was dismantled very quickly

Have you looked at RAF Headcorn (Kent) as opposed to RAF Lashenden (which is now Headcorn airfield!) Google Earth has WW2 aerial photographs of the airfield which is to the NE of Bedlam Lane, opposite the war memorial to the Canadians. Apologies if you already covered this, just saw this today.

I come from Kent but now live in Newmarket in Suffolk. A few years back there was a gathering of Spitfires at RAF Duxford, getting ready for a fly past at Buckingham Palace. The sound and volume of the 8 or 10 engines from 12 miles away was quite something. I've often wondered what the sounds would have been like during the War when hundreds of bombers and fighters would have been gathering for a raid. God bless them all. And thank you for this video!

RAF Upper Hayford also

My late Mum was stationed at Wethersfield for a while in early 1945 No 38 Group Royal Air Force. She saw her 2nd cousin briefly there, he was part of Operation Varsity airborne crossing of the Rhine March 1945.

I was stationed at Raynham from 1992 until closure. I was one of two station medics. I had a great time at Raynham. The best first tour I could have hoped for. Happy days.

I was stationed at Burtonwood from 1968 to 1969, a little more than a year as a U.S. Army helicopter crew member. I was a replacement crew member for one of those killed in a 1968 helicopter crash. My tour was just a short time, but I will never forget my wonderful experience there. It has stayed with me all these years, and here I am almost 76 now.

I forgot I'd subscribed to your channel, I think I did after trying to find out more about Headcorn aerodrome in Kent. I love the way you get the map to transition between the new and old. I'll have to watch more from now on 👍

Great to see your posts back! Wishing you a very Happy New Year!

Very nice indeed, thank you.

Really enjoy your posts, thank you

Thank you for this. My father helped build this airfield and lived in a house just off the end of the runway. My mother waved to crew’s as they took off. I took him back there in about 2005. A nice trip down memory lane made all the better as there was a hangar dance on. Happy days.

Where is it

RAF Coltishall was where airmen from RAF Neatishead were billeted, I was there from 70 to 72 before moving to the married quarters across from Norwich airport.

i just went there. My late father was an airman stationed there in 1944, pilot of a B-17 in the USAAF, 379th Bomb Group.

I have a basic map of the Aerodrome in the mid 40s showing the runways , a chap that researches crash sites sent me a copy and an entry from the log book relating to my mother's brother's crash site. During a night training flight the Hudson that he was a crew member clipped a tree during landing and most of the young men on board were killed. He was stationed there with NO.6 OTU Coastal Command and was killed 17th April 1942. RIP Uncle Clifford! Lest We forget!

My dad flew with 101 Sqn from March to Sep 1944. 32 missions. I visited the base area & the village in 2015 with friends. I went to the local pub & had a drink in memory of my dad. During his tour close to half the Sqn was shot down.

I live about 10 minutes away from here. Mid to late 90’s I’d occasionally visit what was then remaining of the site for work purposes. Couple of occasions I’d be inside a disused building or hanger, always on my own. There was always an eerily spookiness about a these big buildings that once thrived with hundreds of men tinkering about with aircraft components now sitting empty & lifeless, it made the hairs stand up on the back of your neck as it felt like their ghosts were watching your every movement.

2017 I bought a brand new car with built in modem sat nav, every time I passed RAF Sealand on the A55 the sat nav would completely wipe out & malfunction, I’d have to reset the factory settings to get it working again. It would only ever wipeout next to RAF Sealand and did it every time I passed there. Told this story to a bloke I got talking to on holiday who said he once worked there, he told me the site was used for research & development into some type of communication blocking/interception technology that may be interfering with satellite signals in the close vicinity.

I visited the Mighty Eighth museum in Savana Gorgia USA , Burtonwood is commemorated along with all the rest of the airbases on a wall 120 x 40 ft with the flight lanes , the museum brought me to tears when i finally realised the extent of the yanks had in the UK and what they lost

I was stationed at Coltishall from 1981-1983, working in ASF. Happy , happy days Dave "Spike" Howard.

Beautifully and respectfully done. Thank you.

Flown over this disused airfield in gliders and light aircraft to record its remains from the air. A fascinating history! John. FAI/BGA 51417.

My great-uncle was shot down after flying out of there July 5th, 1944 🇺🇸

Marham ,spent two years there when it was teeming with the V bombers. All forgotten now. Was a huge hive of activity, almost a small town on its own. We readied with the 4 minute warning, we went into kings Lynn, went to the local pub and it was great. Now it’s just a sanitized base, needing a coat of paint, has lost its character. Was sad to visit and be told no you can’t come in. Sad to see a bunker at the front gate. Now seems to be just a 9 to 5 job not a career.