Bentwaters
BENTWATERS: Military aerodrome later major USAFE base
Note: All pictures by the author, the aerial shots taken through perspex. Plus, at that point my camera decided to fail in many respects, greatly over-exposing on the 'Auto' setting. Although not great, I have tried to retrieve some of these images to give you some idea of what a major USAAF base, such a this, comprised.
Military users: WW2: RAF Fighter Command 11 Group Forward Airfield
234 Sqdn (Vickers-Supermarine Spitfires)
64, 126 & 234 Sqdns (North American P-51 Mustangs)
Post 1945: RAF Fighter Command
56 Sqdn (Gloster Meteors & Supermarine Swifts)
USAFE from 1951 to 1993
1962: USAF TFW [Tactical Fighter Wing] (North American F-100 Super Sabres)*
1975: USAF (McDonnell Douglas F-4C Phantoms)
Later: 92 & 510 TFS (Fairchild-Republic A-10A Thunderbolts)
Location: S of A1152, 1.5nm SW of Tunstall, 4nm NE of Woodbridge
Period of operation: Military from 1944 to 1993 Then limited civil use till present day?
Runways: WW2: 01/19 1280x46 hard 13/31 1280x46 hard
07/25 1828x46 hard
1992: 06/24 2115x46 hard
Note: These dimensions were taken from Google Earth and the picture appears to show that at one time this runway might have been as long as 2515 metres.
NOTES: How, or perhaps better put - why - did BENTWATERS become a major U.S. Air Base, for use during the ‘Cold War’ period? If you could be kind enough to bear with me, I would like to expand on this. The main reason being that it has fascinated me for a long time as to just how the U.S. managed to arrange to have so many large air bases in the U.K. in order to prosecute their ‘Cold War’ regime. Obviously my use of the word “their” is both highly contentious – and deliberate. I cannot claim to have any expert knowledge so would much welcome advice and discussion.
I was, even in 1972, just about well enough self-educated to begin to realise that the ‘Cold War’ was a concoction mostly fuelled by the Americans. It now seems to me that the Soviet regime was not the main threat throughout those decades and probably never was. I think the Soviets had resolved most of their issues in 1945 when Europe had been divided up. Also, the Russians, who knew full well the results of total war when defending their territory during WW2 were now, incredibly bizarrely, now expending most of their efforts devising one of the most inhuman regimes ever, to exert total domination over their own people through persecution!
The American people mostly had no experience of anything remotely like this (not since their Civil War at least) and their politicians and military masters had largely concocted an utterly false scenario. In much the same way the British Government had hoodwinked the British public into thinking the invasion by the Germans was a possibility in 1940. The threat was real enough certainly, but the possibility of it ever happening – a fantasy.
As an aside, can we even begin to imagine how the global situation could have been enhanced if all the utterly futile waste of the immemse fortunes spent on the ‘Cold War’ had been employed for humanitarian purposes? Even today in secondary schools and beyond, throughout the world, it seems that virtually no emphasis is being given to appreciating the ramifications involved for humanity during this – to not put to fine a point on it – utterly insane period. And, don’t forget, it was the genius of the Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev who ended the nonsense, essentially through ‘Perestoika’ and then ‘Glasnost’ which in effect ended the ‘Cold War’. It can certainly be argued, having visited many Eastern Bloc countries, that the effects of these Communist policies are double-edged and not always for the better. Indeed, millions of Russians are now worse off – and they were mostly starting from a very poor situation in the first place.
A PERSONAL THEORY
I still have a sneeking suspicion that Mathius Rust exposed the utterly ridiculous way the military had arranged the ‘Cold War’ defences by flying the Reims Cessna F172P (D-ECJB) into the centre of Moscow and landing there on the 28th May 1987. It also appears that the world’s media and so-called ‘top notch’ reporters typically got the entire story wrong – as they do mostly. He had intended to land at the Kremlin but on arriving realised this wasn’t possible. He circled around and eventually landed on the river bridge at Vasileski Spusk (by sheer good fortune the trolley-bus cables had been removed that very morning and were due to be replaced the following day). He then proceeded to taxy his 172 towards Red Square, past the cathedral and stopped 100 metres short of Red Square, being besieged by autograph hunters etc.
At this time Rust was eighteen years old and had about fifty hours flying experience. But – he had his aircraft fitted with auxiliary long-range fuel tanks and had spent two weeks flying to the Faroe Islands, Iceland and back via Bergen, Norway before routeing to Malmi, (the old old Helsinki airport). He said he did this to improve his piloting skills. It was from Malmi, after filing a flight plan to Stockholm, when he turned east. The propanda machines both in the east and west went into overdrive to discredit Rust as being an intelligent and very well intentioned young man. I reckon most people saw through this? I reckon the lad was quite probably a genius and saw through all the bullshit and politics.
Can it really be entirely unrelated that just two months later President Reagan and President Gorbachev signed a treaty to eliminate intermediate range nuclear weapons in Europe? These weapons were surely the creation of utter maniacs, people who were beyond the realms of sanity? Let's face it, these weapons had no purpose but to guarantee the utter extinction of both sides in the conflict and quite possibly put paid to life on earth – human life at any rate. If such a concept isn’t mad enough don’t forget that the top scientists in both regimes had designed and played a part in actually producing enough weapons to totally destroy the entire world several times over.
I’d have thought just once was enough?
HOW CAN THIS BE EXPLAINED?
I still cannot figure out exactly why it was considered the U.K. should have had such a hugely expensive role to play in the ‘Cold War’. The Second World War (we are told) had left the U.K. virtually bankrupt and with a massive ‘Lend-Lease’ loan to pay back to the USA. So how did this all work? The British Empire was falling apart, the trade unions were succeeding in destroying British industry – and yet we could ‘easily afford’ to develop a ‘V-bomber’ force, some amazing fighters, missiles etc to fully support the Americans. I am damned if I can make any sense of it.
Plus, despite all of this going on most of the British population, according to Prime Minister Harold McMillan in 1957; “…most of our people have never had it so good.” He was quite correct too, as ever increasing numbers could now afford to fly abroad on holiday, owned a car, a telly and a fridge.
There is obviously something being left untold. Like – where was the money coming from? Today the British couldn’t even contemplate, or even imagine being able to afford, the days of the classic Farnborough Air Shows or the truly massive event held at ODIHAM (HAMPSHIRE) in 1953 for the Queen’s Coronation celebrations.
*THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
According to author Jim Wilson in his book 'Britain on the Brink', during at least some of this period, October 1962, the F-100s were capable of carrying a 1.1 megaton nuclear weapon, and these were armed and poised to attack the Soviet Union. Two other F-100 bases were LAKENHEATH and WETHERSFIELD.
The British public were not informed that the USAF and the RAF V-bomber and Thor missile force, were at a state of immediate readiness. And yet oddly it seems that the hugely expensive bunkers and the associated telecommunications system, built for this exactly eventuality, sat idle and unoccupied. So what was that all about?
A PERSONAL MEMORY
I believe it is the case that BENTWATERS is still kept open for strictly limited quota of GA flights by prior arrangement and by invitation only.
After being involved in a film job here in August 2002, I obtained the privilege of being allowed to land here in the Cessna 172 G-BOEN on the 21st September 2002. A local person had alerted security that a Mustang had just landed! This probably explains a lot about trying to divine a true account when delving into airfield history. Here are a few pictures I took on that visit, and incidentally in the third picture my good friend and fellow pilot Simon Gadd is taking the satule atop the control tower. We flew in together and were delighted to discover that a small museum of the airfields history had been arranged in the control tower.
In 2004 Bella Aviation announced plans to produce the Streak Shadow microlight here. Did this come to fruition?
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