Berkshire – UK.
Royal Air Force Station Greenham Common opened in 1942 as a RAF Bomber Command Airfield used for operational training, it had the standard wartime runway layout of one main and 2 secondary runways. The airfield was a satelite station to RAF Aldermaston and served solely the RAF until the USAAF(United States Army Air Force) Ninth Air Force took over the airfield in the autumn of 1943.
The airfield then became home to the 354th and 368th Fighter Groups flying North American P-51B/D’s Fairchild P-47 Thunderbolts respectively and 438th Troop Carrier Group flying Douglas C-47 Skytrains (A.K.A Douglas DC3). The airfield was used for the D-Day operations, with the c-47′s dropping in US Paratroopers and towing gliders.
After the war the RAF returned to the airfield using it for Elementary Flying Training, but only until June 1946 when the airfield was closed and put into care and maintenance. In the early 1950′s the MoD made the airfield available to the US Air Force and major work began to accommodate the array of aircraft that would use the airfield including B-47, B-52, KC-97, KC-135 and F-111 aircraft. But the major part of RAF Greenham Common’s history is the arrival of the 501st Tactical Missile Wing with it’s Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCM) and the creation of the GAMA(GLCM Alert and Maintenance Area) Facility in 1980. The missile were put in place to counter the USSR deployment of SS-20 missiles in Eastern Europe. RAF Greenham Common was home to 96 missiles with 4 spares. RAF Greenham Common became famous in the 1980′s for the peace camps and protests outside the base.
Each of the 6 GAMA shelters housed 3 GLCM TEL’s(Transporter Erector Launcher’s) with 2 launch control centres and crew areas for protect from nuclear weapons. The GAMA shelters were design so that the TEL’s could drive straight through and they were sealed with massive hydraulically operated blast doors that lay flush with the ground when open. In addition to the GAMAs there is a number of older looking bomb store type buildings and magazines for storing non-nuclear weapons and equipment.
The USAF removed the missiles and handed the airfield back to the MoD on September 11th 1992. The RAF closed the airfield in 1993 but the peace camps remained until 2000 to ensure the base was closed and the land became public. Much of the airfield is now public, with the runway removed and the only other building we saw other than the GAMA Facility was the control tower which is steel boarded and a long way from the GAMA Facility. The GAMA Facility is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument and is protected by 3 fences and the law.
GLCM Alert and Maintenance Area
GAMA Shelter
GAMA Shelter
GAMA Shelter
Part of the hydraulic system that operated the blast doors
The other magazine type buildings in the 1950's Munitions Area.
Magazine and store for infantry weapons, such the M-16 and M-60
