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Britain was filled with airfields in WW2 and many of them became Cold War stations too. The United States of America, as a wartime and peacetime member of the allied forces who took on the enemies of freedom in the form of Fascist and later Communist aggressors in Europe had a large presence here. With the ending of the Cold War, a number of these bases were closed down in the rationalisation of US forces to a leaner peacetime force. RAF Alconbury was one such base and here is a small history of it from WW2 to the present day. There are a number of plans to develop this site for other purposes and it is presently under guard by civilian security simply to prevent damage and vandalism. As a member of the Airfield Research Group I went on an organised visit to look at the current state of the base and it was a unique opportunity to take some pictures of such an establishment. It is a huge place and I could not picture everything but hopefully this will give you a flavour!

Alconbury began in 1938 as a satellite for Upwood. Satellite stations were used as overspill landing grounds before WW2, but during that conflict were upgraded to full station status. Alconbury saw many types of aircraft, starting with Fairey Battles from Upwood. Then came Blenheims from Wyton, followed by Wellingtons. In August 1942, the British planes moved away and in September the first B-24 Liberators to arrive in Britain came to Alconbury. When the 93rd moved out to the Middle East in December 1942, B-17's of the 92nd Bomb Group arrived. Alconbury became Station 102 of the 8th Air Force on June 19th 1942. It would take too much space to list all operations from Alconbury, but it played a full part in the war effort. The Americans left in June 1945 and the station was returned to the RAF on November 26th 1945. The Americans returned in June 1953, when alterations to the site began to accommodate post-war aircraft. Aircraft using the station in the 1950's included B-45's, RB-66's. In 1965 RF-4C Phantoms were deployed here. In 1976 F-5E Tiger 11's came along. In later years the more well known residents included A-10 Warthogs and the U-2/TR1 reconnaissance planes, for which special wide hardened shelters were built. Alconbury includes some buildings from the whole of its time in service, some of which are pictured here. The unusual ones and the ordinary are all empty now but in most cases still in good order, the place is much like a ghost town. The future is uncertain, but while it remains, it is an impressive place.


Alex Sallustio has been kind enough to send me a couple of pictures of the main gate taken in 1958. A cold day from the Cold War!






This is the entrance to the cold war era bomb dump. The road is first blocked by a spiked pole drawn across it. Any vehicle approaching had to stop and the driver get out to remove the obstacle, in full view of the guards. They have a heavily protected picket post with a machine gun post on the roof. This building was called the ECP or entry control point by the USAF. Then the first gate would be opened, allowing a vehicle in and shutting behind it. There are high and low level light so that any vehicle can be fully examined at any time of day or night. Pedestrians also had to go through gates and locking full height turnstiles, all electrically controlled from the Entry Control Point. The whole site is surrounded by double razor wire topped fences, the space in between patrolled by dogs, with armed guards in numerous observation towers and lights on 24 hours, about every 20 feet. In later years foot patrols were mostly replaced by cameras on poles and electronic sensors unless the weather was such that visibility was reduced. The Guards in the observation tower in the nuclear store area were backed up by another control room elsewhere on the site in case of attack. This was called the Central Security Control, and had a duplicate set of equipment for monotoring the cameras and alarms normally monitored from the tower. This was the kind of place where casual visitors would not be welcome!



This shot shows towers from the early nuclear storage facility just like Shepherds Grove, and wire and lights everywhere.



Not all of the weapon stores were the large Igloo type. This one has a number of smaller chambers under one mound. In later days this was the nuclear weapons store area called the Weapons Storage Area, or WSA with the larger igloos reserved for conventional munitions, their site being the CSA or Conventional Storage Area.



The larger igloos are spread about. The people give scale here.



Ronnie Poole has been kind enough to fill in some details about this area, having worked here in the mid 1980's. This building number 1015 was the main work area for the Nuclear Weapons Specialists. Inside was a maintenance area for the weapons, much like the arrangement at Shepherds Grove, with seperate areas for testing electrical systems. There was also small arms storage and an admin area, in the protected confines of the building.



Nobody got in unless the person who was in charge operated the right buttons. Just look at that bullet proof window! Most nuclear storage is operated on a no person allowed alone system, this building being no exception and the guards were in here at least two at a time.




Not all the buildings are for an obvious purpose, as here. This heavy duty building has vehicle entrances and machinery inside, but no windows at all. Happily some of the people who served here have been kind enough to contribute odd bits of information and Patrick Joyce was able to identify this building as a PPIF, which is a Photographic Processing and Interpretation Facility. It was used to rapidly process, analise and report on imagery collected by the RF-4 Phantoms stationed here between 1967 and 1986.


Some are really easy to spot, like this control tower, one of three on the site over the years!


In the bomb store, even the fire tender shed is an armoured building.


Inside a WW2 Nissen hut, one of a small number of survivors.This one was used during its career as the Wing Operations Officer Staff area during the latter part of US occupation.


The other WW2 buildings include the original control tower, which may hopefully be preserved as a museum under the proposed development of the airfield..


Warthog!