RAF Ramsbury, Wiltshire USAAF Station No.469.

BP: Bulk Petrol Installation.
BHQ: Battle Head Quarters.
CT: Control Tower.
OPS: Operations Block.

Opened : 1942.
Closed : 1946.
Aircraft dispersals : 50.
USAAF:-
Officers : 470.
Men : 1898.
9th USAAF.
437th Troop Carrier Command.

Constructed as a satellite for RAF Membury.
Became a Bomber Command O.T.U with No.92 Group.
Standard type "A" layout.
Drem II lighting.

This is the first view of the airfield when driving up from Ramsbury village. All that is left of the tech site with a few Romney huts and where the trees are on the right, is the site of a T2 hangar 3653/42.

Another view from the other side, the farmer has fitted up a burglar alarm so that it activates if you get too close to the buildings!

Technical site Braithwaite water tank.
9 - High Level Water Tank - St - 30,000gal - 20/41.

St - Steel.

Technical site Main Store.
View of the Romney huts:
44 to 46 - Main stores with Office Blocks & Rubber Store - R - 826/45 .

R - Romney.

Site of Control Tower & Fire Tender Shed.
15 - Control Tower - TB - 12096/41.
16 - F.L. Trailer and Tractor - TB - 12411/41.
18 - N.F.E. Store - TB - 12411/41.

I have superimposed a picture of a CT 12096/41.
TB - Temporary Brick.
F.L - Flood Light.
N.F.E. - Night Flying Equipment.

Site of Control Tower.

12 - Sand Store - TB - 5488/42.
13 - Salt Store (built as a R.U. Pyro Store) - TB - 54842
14 - Fire Tender Shelter - 24ft N) - 12411/41.
15 - Control Tower - TB - 12096/41.
16 - N.F.E. Store - TB - 12411/41.
17 - Balloon (Met) Filling Hut - TB - 3382/44.
18 - F.L. Trailer and Tractor Shed - TB - 12411/41.
19 - Locker and Drying Room - TB - 15815/41.
26 - Maintenance Unit with Tractor & Oli Bowser - TB - 7405/41+ 9475/42.

(The 4958/44 site plan is incorrect and I have corrected it here, transposing 16 and 18).

Flood Light Trailer and Tractor Shed was a drive through shed with large doors each end. The flood light was designed to sit at the head of the runway and light up the runway & direction for landing.
16 - F.L. Trailer and Tractor Shed - TB - 12411/41.

F.L. Trailer and Tractor Shed, the door has been bricked up.
16 - F.L. Trailer and Tractor Shed - TB - 12411/41.

Night Flying Equipment Store.
At the start of WW2 most airfields were grass and the runway in use, could move around as the wind changed. So a group of airmen would have a tractor, and two trailers one of the trailers would be cans of paraffin, paraffin flairs, etc. The other trailer was for the Glim lights, batteries, etc.
18 - N.F.E. Store - TB - 12411/41.
When the airfield was completed it had Drem Mk.II (electrical) landing lighting and Goose neck flairs.
Drem MkII was a major evolution of the World War II airfield lighting and visual approach system originally developed by Wing Commander "Batchy" Atcherley at RAF Drem in East Lothian, Scotland. (Wiki)

The rear part of this building is a farmers extention and built post war.
18 - N.F.E. Store - TB - 12411/41.

N.F.E. Store - TB - 12411/41 plan.

Goose neck flairs are (also known as a runway flare). Dating from the 1939–1945 era, these iconic paraffin lamps were the lifelines of the RAF and Allied air forces. Before the advent of modern electric airfield lighting, these flares were meticulously placed in long "flare paths" to illuminate grass landing strips.

Glim Lamps are (Officially tiled a Royal Aircraft Establishment Low Intensity Flare), which were battery operated intended to replace the watering can-style Gooseneck Flares for marking RAF runway flarepaths or temporary airfield obstructions from 1940-ish.
Both Glim's and Goosenecks continued in use for many years after WWII, and a slightly updated version of the Glim is still in use for emergencies today.

Illuminated T was everything that is needed to illuminate the landing T. Landing Direction Indicator – The “T” on the Airfield.

N.F.E. Store - TB - 12411/41 at RAF Elvington, Yorkshire.

Goose necked paraffin flairs on the shelf, used to light the runways when there is no electricity at RAF Elvington, Yorkshire..

Perimeter track, 50ft wide on a wet day in 2006.
Perimeter track - 50ft wide.
Runway - 150ft wide.

Why call it a track, most grass airfields were updated with a small perimeter 'track' made either of cinder, concrete or tarmac. Wide enough for single traffic to drive out and back to aircraft out on the airfield. It saved having in wet weather a sludgy mucky trackway. When hard runways were starting to be used, a perimeter track, now 50ft wide able to carry a fighter to a heavy bomber from its dispersal out to the runway in use.

The same direction in 2014, much better weather.
Construction started in 1941 for a full RAF bomber 'A' station to be a satellite to RAF Membury. This was to be a bomber Operational Training Station (O.T.U.). When nearly completed instead of the RAF, it was handed over to the USAAF as a transport and observation airfield.

Possibly 149 & 150 - Incendiary bomb Stores - TB - 4778/4-2.

An 'A' Class bomber airfield had a full range of runways and buildings with a massively dispersed living sites for over 1000 men and women, a full heavy bomber bomb store, training and operational buildings, a small hospital (Station Sick Bay), two (usually) T2 type hangars and often a B1 repair shed. Here that was not built?

Bomb Storage area. This is the part we visited.
The print on the plan is not very clear.
143 - Transformer Plinth - PC - 448/433.
144 - Smoke Bomb Store - 16ft/N - ACC/173/4-2
145 - Components Store - TB - 4733/4-2.
146 - Fusing Point Building Ultra Heavy - 24ft/N - 4778/4-2
147to150 - Incendiary bomb Stores - TB - 4778/4-2.
151&152 - Incendiary bomb Stores - TB - 4778/4--.
153 - R.U. Small Bomb Container Stores - 16ft/N - 15797/461.
154 - Component Store - TB - 4733/4-2.
155 - Fusing point Building Light Heavy - TB - 4778/4-2.
156 - Fusing Point Building Ultra Heavy - 24ft/N - 4778/422.
157to160 - Bomb Stores & Tail Unit Areas - Earth travers D type - 3164/42-.

Possibly 149 & 150 - Incendiary bomb Stores - TB - 4778/4-2.
Incendiary's were quite small bombs and were packed into a large container. I am unsure if the containers were dropped or they stayed in the bomb bay. I think they did. The incendiary's then showered down to ignite on impact and burn ferociously.

Possibly 149 & 150 - Incendiary bomb Stores - TB - 4778/4-2 inside and quite a large building, it could hold a lot of incendiary bombs.

Possibly 149 & 150 - Incendiary bomb Stores - TB - 4778/4-2.
Air vent in the wall and pre-cast concrete slabs and a reinforced concrete roof.

Possibly 149 & 150 - Incendiary bomb Stores - TB - 4778/4-2.
This is all we saw at the bomb store at that time.

Now heading back along the perimeter track. Out on the right side was the aircraft dispersals, 20 Loop (or scissor) and 29 circular dispersals (Frying pans). There was also the second T2 hangar and the butts to align the turret guns on bombers. The Battle Head Quarters and the second Bulk Fuel Instillation were on this side.

An airfield on the east of England used by a B-17 squadron, showing the Loop and circular dispersals.

The track now very narrow but it would have been 50ft wide with circular dispersals left and right, the BHQ, Bulk Fuel to the left and Shooting in Butt right at the end.

The River Kennet bridge, crossed by many Allied and Soldiers to get from the airfield (right) to Ramsbury, the pubs and the shops (left).
The first planes to arrive were C-47 & C-53's and nearly 2000 men.
They were the 64th Troop Carrier Group with 16th, 17th,18th &35th Troop Carrier Squadrons. They flew over from America on the northern route and started training straight away. After three months hard training, they were dispatched off to Gibraltar to take part in the North African landings.