Went here recently with losttom after doing a 100 mile trip to check a lead.
Nice little explore and very interesting place the colors are amazing from some of the bomb stores.
The improved storage area was called an SSA, or Supplementary Storage Area. This highly secure area was common to a number of airfields both in Britain and in Germany where the Nato forces were stationed to meet a potential Soviet threat. All of these areas are now redundant for their original purpose and some are derelict and will be removed in the near future, no doubt. The one at RAF Wittering is relatively complete and is still in good order. It is of historical interest in that it is the airfield where the very first nuclear weapons were issued to an operational unit of the RAF. This site was first of all involved in training for the units which would handle these weapons. Close by this old site, and not recorded by me along with other operational areas for obvious security reasons, is a high security area used by the Nuclear Weapons Convoy Group. This site has therefore spanned the whole period of RAF nuclear involvement. Beginning in 1953 the Bomber Command Armaments School began to fulfil its task of training RAF personnel along with the necessary Army, Navy and civilian personnel in all aspects of nuclear weapons handling, storage, maintenance and servicing. During the summer of 1953 the units and personnel required at Wittering gradually moved in. The BCAS was formed on 1st August 1953 to Establishment LUE/IBO/3527, its OC being Wing Commander J. S. Rowlands GC MBE, and its true purpose was kept secret. It even had to use some unconventional means to aquire all its equipment as most of Bomber Command did not have the security clearance to know what was going on! When exactly the first nuclear weapons other than training equipment arrived has been variously reported and may have been as late as 1955.
Nice little explore and very interesting place the colors are amazing from some of the bomb stores.
The improved storage area was called an SSA, or Supplementary Storage Area. This highly secure area was common to a number of airfields both in Britain and in Germany where the Nato forces were stationed to meet a potential Soviet threat. All of these areas are now redundant for their original purpose and some are derelict and will be removed in the near future, no doubt. The one at RAF Wittering is relatively complete and is still in good order. It is of historical interest in that it is the airfield where the very first nuclear weapons were issued to an operational unit of the RAF. This site was first of all involved in training for the units which would handle these weapons. Close by this old site, and not recorded by me along with other operational areas for obvious security reasons, is a high security area used by the Nuclear Weapons Convoy Group. This site has therefore spanned the whole period of RAF nuclear involvement. Beginning in 1953 the Bomber Command Armaments School began to fulfil its task of training RAF personnel along with the necessary Army, Navy and civilian personnel in all aspects of nuclear weapons handling, storage, maintenance and servicing. During the summer of 1953 the units and personnel required at Wittering gradually moved in. The BCAS was formed on 1st August 1953 to Establishment LUE/IBO/3527, its OC being Wing Commander J. S. Rowlands GC MBE, and its true purpose was kept secret. It even had to use some unconventional means to aquire all its equipment as most of Bomber Command did not have the security clearance to know what was going on! When exactly the first nuclear weapons other than training equipment arrived has been variously reported and may have been as late as 1955.
