There isn't a whole lot left of this place, so not many of my pictures, but more of a history lesson. I'll sum it up, and then we'll move on.
So, war breaks out. The Air Force found a bit of airfield, took it over and gave it a fancy name. (RAF ZEALS) Stationed troops there and it was Dad's Army the second. It wasn't the best airfield, so they gave it to the US troops. The US used it for a bit in prep for D-Day. But once that was done with, they handed it over to the Navy who decided to use it for glider and aircraft training. They held a big training day on the 'Snatch Take-Off method' however when returning all these freshly trained soldiers to their base up in Leicester, the pilot fucked up / went crazy, hit some beech trees at full speed, snapped the wings off the plane, rolled it a few times before it burst into flames and killed 20 soldiers, the pilot being the sole survivor then killed himself. The Navy (hanging their heads in shame) handed back the keys to the airfield and it returned to farmland. The farmland is now arable mixed with free range chickens and the control tower which is still in place today is now a private house.. (If you want the more politically correct version, it's here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Zeals)
So there isn't much left of the airfield now, being farmland and all, just some old concrete footings and the control tower house. So they're all Wikki Pic's. However just adjacent to the main base was a sub area which was a VHF Transmitter site with some old air raid shelters.. (which is where my pictures some from) They're still in place, however not overly exciting, the other buildings are now long gone.
RAF Zeals
Site of the Dakota crash
Crash Memorial
Each shelter was exactly the same there are 5 in total. So I took the best pictures from all. There are concrete footings from where the other buildings once stood, but that's about all now.. So once again, not much left. But a nice bit of history. Thanks for looking!
So, war breaks out. The Air Force found a bit of airfield, took it over and gave it a fancy name. (RAF ZEALS) Stationed troops there and it was Dad's Army the second. It wasn't the best airfield, so they gave it to the US troops. The US used it for a bit in prep for D-Day. But once that was done with, they handed it over to the Navy who decided to use it for glider and aircraft training. They held a big training day on the 'Snatch Take-Off method' however when returning all these freshly trained soldiers to their base up in Leicester, the pilot fucked up / went crazy, hit some beech trees at full speed, snapped the wings off the plane, rolled it a few times before it burst into flames and killed 20 soldiers, the pilot being the sole survivor then killed himself. The Navy (hanging their heads in shame) handed back the keys to the airfield and it returned to farmland. The farmland is now arable mixed with free range chickens and the control tower which is still in place today is now a private house.. (If you want the more politically correct version, it's here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Zeals)
So there isn't much left of the airfield now, being farmland and all, just some old concrete footings and the control tower house. So they're all Wikki Pic's. However just adjacent to the main base was a sub area which was a VHF Transmitter site with some old air raid shelters.. (which is where my pictures some from) They're still in place, however not overly exciting, the other buildings are now long gone.
RAF Zeals
Site of the Dakota crash
Crash Memorial
Right airfield over with, here's the actual explore.. The VHF Transmitter site, a rough layout:
Each shelter was exactly the same there are 5 in total. So I took the best pictures from all. There are concrete footings from where the other buildings once stood, but that's about all now.. So once again, not much left. But a nice bit of history. Thanks for looking!