Quote:
Originally Posted by Flamehand
I worked on site at the USAF base in 1983 converting the WWII bunker to a modern comms bunker. Strangely enough, 35 years later I was back as the Facilities Manager for Wycombe Abbey School and the bunker was passed back to me as part of the School's estate (in fact my office was the Portacabin sitting on top of the bunker). I am now semi-retired and looking forward to sailing when I get a chance...
Best wishes, |
I believe the USAF was at Daws Hill.
RAF High Wycombe is Headquarters Air Command, and was originally designed to house RAF Bomber Command in the late 1930s. The station is also the headquarters of the European Air Group.
My Dad's next assignment was at Strategic Air Command Headquarters at Offutt, in Bellevue, Nebraska. He retired in 1965. His boss was General Curtis LeMay.
There is discussion of the base and school at this website:
High Wycombe | American Air Museum in Britain
RAF Daws Hill was established in 1942 when the Air Ministry requisitioned Wycombe Abbey School and its lands. The site originally consisted of a large underground bunker and a hutted encampment to the south and east of Daws Hill and on parkland near to the Abbey. It was used as a headquarters by the United States 8th Air Force until the end of the war. In 1946 the Abbey building was returned to the school, however, the land occupied by the camp and the bunker was
sold to the Ministry of Defence.
In the 1950s, RAF Daws Hill, also known as High Wycombe Air Station, was used again as a base by US forces during the Cold War. Between 1958 and 1965 it was the headquarters of the 7th Air Division USAF in the UK, part of US Strategic Air Command. It continued to have an active role during the Cold War and its facilities included a nuclear bunker. At the end of the Cold War its use reduced, however, around the year 2000, the site was developed by the US
Navy for use by the United States Visiting Forces (USVF) and became known as USVF Daws Hill.
The base was also home, between 1971 and 2007, to the London Central Elementary High School - a United States Department of Defence Dependents School. In the 1980s a Peace Camp was also established at Dawes Hill.
In 2007 the US left RAF Daws Hill and it passed into the hands of the RAF and continued to be used as
Service Family Accommodation. In 2011 an announcement was made by the Ministry of Defence that the site was to be disposed of.
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