RAF North Witham

RAF North Witham was a station of military aviation of the British air force, the Royal Air Force, period of the Second world war. It was established by the R.A.F., and was lent to the United States Army Air Force. It is currently abandoned in wood called Twyford Wood, in counted Lincolnshire, England. Its tower of control dilapidated, is with the coordinates; or with the reference of British grid SK946222.

Development

The station was envisaged like landing strip for planes heavy bombers at the fast period of expansion of the RAF during the Second world war. When work touched at their end, it was more precisely integrated into the preparations for the Opération Overlord. The station opened officially on December 15th, 1943, the first personnel having arrived the day before. Once established, it to him was given designation USAAF, of " Army Air Force Station 479" , its first American personnel arrived on December 31st, 1943. Hitherto it had been placed with the close station, RAF Cottesmore, also known like " USAAF Station 489".

Mid-February, the manpower of the station having been supplemented, it was renamed " 29th Air Group" Deposit; , whose first task was to distribute transport aircraft and the means of maintaining them, with the groups in service of the USAAF. At that time, that wanted to say the handling of the type known by its manufacturer, Douglas, like the DC-3, with the RAF like Dakota and the USAAF like the C-47.

In March, in addition to already quoted manpower, the unit of the name The Pathfinder School (the School of the Scouts) settled to supplement the training of the scouts parachutists. Equipped with radio of communication, including radio beacons, the purpose of they were to show the way with the soldiers of the principal jump. At this stage, the majority of housing with North Witham were under the tent.

The apogee of the career of the station arrived on June 5th 1944, when the scouts of the 82ème and the 101ème airborne division took the air to go in Normandy to carry out the American wing of the Overlord Operation to it. Consequently, the station put at the formation Polish airborne troops but at December, the war had moved elsewhere and deposit of the air groups it started to going in France.

Mine clearance

Before the end of April 1945, the Americans had left. In May 1945, the station became ammunition dump under the control of the Unit of No.100 Maintenance of the R.A.F. There had been ammunition dumps in the fields, on roadsides; everywhere in the country, especially in a county like Lincolnshire, full with landing strips for heavy bombers. The impromptu deposits were abandoned as early as possible and their bombs brought to the places more protected to wait as one dismounts the bombs themselves. The Unit of No.100 Maintenance had been at the station close to South Witham since March 1942. As long as the requirement of the operations slows down, the unit widened of its ground in Morkery Wood with the tracks of North Witham.

At modern times

The ground was in the beginning wooded. There remained there trees in the North-East of the landing strips at the time of the military occupation, but after the closing of the station, Forestry Commission, governmental maintenance for the forests, planted oaks ( Quercus robur ) and conifers. Part of the ground is now a natural reserve to protect from the butterflies. Little by little, the concrete is being crushed and carried. However, the southern end, apart from wood, gathers at an industrial park and the proximity of the ground to the junction of a1 road requires that the development be pressed on the wood of the North-West. Nevertheless, the tower of control, opened with the winds since 50 or 60 years, remains and one day hot of summer, on the landing strip, surrounded of the peace of the trees which avalent the noises of the external world, the atmosphere makes think.

References

Barrymore Halpenny, B. Actions Stations 2 (1991) ISBN 1-85260-405-0.
Site of Forestry Commission, fauna and flora of Twyford Wood: in English:

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