I was out for a solo exploring day that day and I decided to head for a mooch around bentwaters just to see what I could find what was different to the tour they show people. I had covered most military stuff in East Anglia and this was one I was itching to find more off. I actually found quite a bit, and it was a really enjoyable place to look around. A lot of the place is used as an industrial estate, and its nice to see it being put to use. There is active security there too who drive about..RAF Bentwaters was a former world war two base built in 1942 and was in use by the RAF till 1949 it was then taken over by the Americans who used it till 1993. It had a twin base up the road called RAF Woodbridge. Several squadrons were based here over the years, the last being the infamous tank busters the A-10. It was also famous for the Rendlesham forest incident were servicemen from Woddbridge in 1980 saw flashing lights in the sky, it was classed as Britain's Roswell incident. Funny most ufo sightings seem to be near American bases. I got busted just before I got to the hush house, but I know that since I made this visit many others have been after. And some made it into the hush house which looked lovely.
THE PLANES
On the base are several old planes and helicopters. A company does them up and sells them on. Not sure if the company exists still as all the same planes are there that were in the old pics. They were nice to shoot though, the two seater black navy harrier was my favourite.
SPECIAL WEAPONS STORAGE
The special weapons storage area is situated behind the regular bomb stores, the regular ones are in use by a company. You know when you go in this area that they held some special stuff here. CND always descended on Greenham Common, but in reality a lot of American stations had nukes stored on them. The stores are surrounded by several fences and barb wire on top. You enter via a large double gate area. You go in gate one and that would close behind you. Here you would have you i.d and such checked then they would open gate two to let you in. A tower sits above the gates which would look into the area with machine gun apertures to cover the area. Their is another tower in the site and down the far end was another block. This looks like a garage but behind the shutter would sit a Hummer for defence of the stores. Also in the front wall is machine gun apertures that had direct line of fire down the storage area. Lots of telegraph poles were put in, if Russian special forces ever tried to land in the compound this would prevent them landing, these were serious times in the cold war.
The view from the top of the tower.
The Hummer shed in the background.
Were the cooling pool is, a load of old canons had been put in there for storage. These had been lifted from a wreck in the sea.
As you come out the stores there is a big building, I think this was a maintenance building and generator room.
Fuel lines
Continued...
THE PLANES
On the base are several old planes and helicopters. A company does them up and sells them on. Not sure if the company exists still as all the same planes are there that were in the old pics. They were nice to shoot though, the two seater black navy harrier was my favourite.
SPECIAL WEAPONS STORAGE
The special weapons storage area is situated behind the regular bomb stores, the regular ones are in use by a company. You know when you go in this area that they held some special stuff here. CND always descended on Greenham Common, but in reality a lot of American stations had nukes stored on them. The stores are surrounded by several fences and barb wire on top. You enter via a large double gate area. You go in gate one and that would close behind you. Here you would have you i.d and such checked then they would open gate two to let you in. A tower sits above the gates which would look into the area with machine gun apertures to cover the area. Their is another tower in the site and down the far end was another block. This looks like a garage but behind the shutter would sit a Hummer for defence of the stores. Also in the front wall is machine gun apertures that had direct line of fire down the storage area. Lots of telegraph poles were put in, if Russian special forces ever tried to land in the compound this would prevent them landing, these were serious times in the cold war.
The view from the top of the tower.
The Hummer shed in the background.
Were the cooling pool is, a load of old canons had been put in there for storage. These had been lifted from a wreck in the sea.
As you come out the stores there is a big building, I think this was a maintenance building and generator room.
Fuel lines
Continued...
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