Kingston Bagpuize

Airfield
Aerial photograph of Kingston Bagpuize airfield looking south, the technical site is bottom right, 12 April 1946. Photograph taken by No. 541 Squadron, sortie number RAF/106G/UK/1408. English Heritage (RAF Photography). eh-336.jpg RAF_106G_UK_1408_RS_4098 Aerial photograph of Kingston Bagpuize airfield looking south, the technical site is bottom right, 12 April 1946. Photograph taken by No. 541 Squadron, sortie number RAF/106G/UK/1408. English Heritage (RAF Photography). Historic England

IWM, English Heritage Collection

Object Number - RAF_106G_UK_1408_RS_4098 - Aerial photograph of Kingston Bagpuize airfield looking south, the technical site is bottom right, 12 April 1946. Photograph taken by No. 541...

Used by the RAF during 1942-43 as a grass airfield Relief Landing Ground and satellite training base, Kingston Bagpuize was selected in 1943 by 9th Air Force Service Command to house the 4th Tactical Air Depot, to be moved from RAF Charmy Down. RAF and USAAF construction engineers laid two PSP runways, completed in January 1943, plus 50 PSP dispersal standings. The 2nd and 42nd Air Depot Groups began arriving in February 1943, being specialists in the overhaul, modification and repair of P-38s, F-5s and P-51s. Although three standard concrete runways were planned, USAAF engineers only added in March 1944 an experimental PBS runway alongside the main runway, which was subject to operational trials by detached P-47s of the 368th Fighter Group. Further experiments were carried out during May and June 1944 with P-47s and C-47s, after wire mesh was laid over the PBS surface. The hangers were eventually one T2, two Butler, two Extra Over large blisters and one Over small blister. The two Air Depot Groups moved to France during July-September 1944, the station was returned to the RAF in September 1944, and the PSP runways and perimeter were lifted in October 1944. Although the airfield quickly returned to agriculture, the buildings were occupied briefly by the British Army in December 1944. No. 3 Maintenance Unit then took over the site as a sub-unit for storage until the station closed in 1954. Some wartime buildings remain in agricultural and industrial use. The Control Tower and some other wartime buildings remain in derelict condition.

Revisions

Date
ContributorAAM
Changes
Sources

Barry Anderson, Army Air Forces Stations (Alabama, 1985) / Roger Freeman, Airfields of the Ninth Then and Now (London, 1994)

Michael Bowyer, Action Stations 6: Military Airfields of the Cotswolds and the Central Midlands (Cambridge, 1983)
http://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/kingston-bagpuize

http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/showthread.php?716…

http://www.controltowers.co.uk/h-k/kingston%20bag.htm

Kingston Bagpuize: Gallery (4 items)