Newbury Weekly News receives private tour of RAF Welford collection
The collection at RAF Welford holds an impressive range of genuine Second World War and Cold War artefacts, guaranteed to interest any military history enthusiast and ex-service personnel.
The collection is not open to the general public, but we can now give you a sneak peak at what it holds.
The Newbury Weekly News was granted exclusive access to the collection — sited on an active military base — to explore the rich past of RAF Welford and former RAF Greenham Common.
West Berkshire had virtually no airfields in 1939. But after the outbreak of war, military sites began appearing everywhere. They provided vital support ahead of Operation Overlord and the liberation of Europe in 1944.
RAF Welford, just nine miles from Newbury, has been an active military installation since 1943.
The collection is run by a dedicated team of retired volunteers, who tend to the collection every Wednesday and hold monthly meetings to discuss future projects and hear talks from guest speakers — which they previously held out of a wartime Nissen hut.
Previously empty, the collection building has been continuously added to for more than 25 years by the Friends, Families and Veterans of RAF Welford and Ridgeway Military and Aviation Research Group.
"It's a hobby really," explained Alan Bovingdon-Cox, chairman of the FFVRW. "The Americans support us by allowing us to be here, but we are largely self-sufficient."
Its centrepiece is the Link flying simulator used to train RAF pilots in the Second World War. While still functional, there are no longer any staff with the expertise to operate it.
Also displayed are fragments retrieved from the crash site of a USAAF F-5B Lightning reconnaissance aircraft in southern Germany — still wet with oil, almost 80 years later.
The wreckage was rediscovered in 2002, along with the remains of distinguished reconnaissance pilot, Wing Commander Adrian Warburton.
A working air siren stands nearby, once loaned to the organisers of a tri-force dinner to summon guests to the table.
But by far the largest exhibit is the reconstruction of a Horsa glider — used in the 1977 film, A Bridge Too Far. Many gliders were constructed locally by Elliotts of Newbury.
Smaller items include weapons, medals, radio equipment and uniforms, all donated or recovered from closed military sites, including wall art from Greenham Common and RAF Membury.
The RAF built three runways at the airbase in a standard 'A' formation, used at Greenham Common and many other airfields, with the main runway stretching 6,000 feet long.
Control was handed over to USAAF soon after the base opened. The 435th Troop Carrier Group arrived in February 1944 and began extensive training towing Horsa gliders primarily with Douglas C-47s.
The US Army's 101st Airborne Division — of Band of Brothers fame — arrived in the UK in late 1943. The division camped out across the Thames Valley and was commanded by General Eisenhower from Greenham Lodge.
The 101st conducted numerous training exercises leading up to D-Day, including one where hundreds of soldiers parachuted from C-47s just south of RAF Welford in the presence of Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower on March 23, 1944.
But later that month, a tragedy occurred when an RAF Lancaster bomber crashed at Welford, killing all eight crew members.
It is commonly believed that the aircraft had sustained damage abroad and was attempting to land at Welford. Other theories regarding what happened exist, though the incident remains a mystery.
An annual commemoration is held for the crash victims at the Memorial Grove on the base every year in March.
After the war, the base shut and was returned to the RAF. It reopened as a USAF base in 1955 and ammunition storage buildings were built along the main runway.
Today, it is one of the largest ordnance depots in Western Europe.