WW II Airfields in Britain

One caller today expressed interest in visiting WW II airfields in England. You advised her to check out the Imperial War Museum in London, which hopefully will lead her to discover the Air Museum at RAF Duxford, 90 minutes north of London near Oxford.

Duxford is a beautifully preserved WW II base, complete with hangers and auxillary buildings. It houses the best collection of historic WW II aircraft in Europe, possibly the world, as well as some modern planes. It also hosts the 8th Air Force museum, which just opened last year and is home to a B-17 Flying Fortress, P-51, P-47 as well as modern jets such as the F-111 and the not so modern B-52.

Duxford played a role in the Battle of Britain (Douglas Bader flew out of Duxford) and supported American fighters after 1942. It is not easily accessed by public transport, but can be very easily reached by car. There are some bus tours out of London. Duxford also hosts some terrific WW II air shows several times a year.

Once at Duxford, you can continue further north into East Anglia and see the still-active bases at RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall, which are still used by the USAF and retain much of their WW II character. Both of these were US Bomber bases during the war. There's no museum, however, so one can only rely on one's imagination.

In London itself, you can visit the Battle of Britain/Royal Bomber Commmand Museums, located on what used to be a large airbase at Hendon, north of the city. You can reach this by the Tube (underground), although it is a bit of a walk from the station.

The museum has excellent information about life at the air stations during the battle, and a tremendous collection of historic aircraft. But there is not much of a base left, so there's not much to see of the grounds.

Other sites near London include RAF Northholt, directly off the M40 west of London--it was an important fighter station during the battle. Nearby there is a monument to the Polish fliers who flew out of Northholt and died in the battle. South-south east of London is Biggin Hill, which saw the brunt of German bomber attacks because it was the biggest RAF fighter base between London and Dover. Biggin Hill still operates as a commercial field.

North of London, off the M25 Circular, is the Mosquito Museum, an incredibly small facility down a muddy road where the fast Mosquito bomber ("the wooden wonder") was developed. The original plane is still there.

Finally, somewhere near Dover is another Battle of Britain museum, but I can't say what's there.

A last suggestion--before going to England to tour the WW II airbases, take in a couple of the movies that center on the air war. The "Battle of Britain", with Michael Cane, Christopher Plumber, Robert Shaw, Lawrence Olivier, etc., is superb. "12 O'Clock High" w/Gregory Peck is excellent and the story is built around an American who goes back to revisit his old air station, and relives the war. More recent efforts from the BBC include "A Piece of Cake" and "When We Were One", and they are also worthwhile.

-James

 

 

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