A quiet little spot for a tachobreak, a hidden gem for a
hardworking driver (like me!)
RAF Birch was a WWII airfield that has an unusual history, it
was constructed by the 846th Engineer Battalion U.S. Army, and it
was the last of the UK airfields to be completed by a unit of the
U.S. Army.
The airfield was built to heavy bomber standard specifications
with three concrete runways, the main being 6,000 ft, and two
secondary’s of 4,200 feet each. There were fifty hard standings of
the loop type around the perimeter and two T2 hangars.
From before it was built it was something of a hot potato and
transferred back and forth from 8th to 9th Air Force never being
used by the Americans as anything other than a reserve
airfield.
In March 1945 a large number of British Horsa gliders were moved to
the airfield and the RAF No. 46 Group's 48,233, and 437 Squadrons
of C-47s arrived from RAF Blakehill Farm. On 24 March the C-47s
started taking off at about 6:00am each towing a glider, a total of
60 aircraft and 60 gliders to take part in Operation Varsity, the
airborne crossing of the Rhine.
Most of the aircraft returned to other bases and the 46 Group
withdrew from the base after a few days.
Thereafter Birch was largely abandoned, with only a few RAF
personnel assigned to the facility for the balance of the war.
Birch was almost immediately placed on "care and maintenance"
status by the RAF and was disposed of by the Ministry of Defense
within a year after the end of the war.
Today, most of the concreted areas have been removed for hardcore,
leaving single tracked farm roads along the main runway, and both
secondary’s. A few loop hardstands remain intact off the remains of
the single-tracked perimeter track along the north side of the
airfield. However other than these farm roads, there is little
remaining of the wartime airfield that was never used.