Greenham USAF airbase U.K

I live in Newbury in Berkshire (u.k), about 2 miles away from the now disused Greenham USAF base.

For someone that lives this close to it, I know very little about it!

All I know are the following skecthy details:

1) It used to house cruise missiles.
2) There was an aircarft fire there which may have involved a nuclear substence or weapon.
3) There were lot's of peace protesters there during the 80's.
4) It had the longest runway in Europe?

Like I was saying, I know very little.....

So I was wondering if any one else could shed some light on the place for me.

Any contribution would be great/ interesting.

Cabalx

CabalX, this book contains some interesting information and pictures of Greenham Common USAF Airbase; both in the 1950s-60s and some amazing cut-aways of the Cruise missile bunkers.

Cold War: Building for Nuclear Confrontation 1946-89
Wayne D. Cocroft, Roger J.C. Thomas

Paperback 288 pages (January 10, 2005)
Publisher: English Heritage Publications
Language: English
ISBN: 1873592817


zero lift

There's also a bit about it on wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org...

Thanks for the info.

This really intrested me, from what I read in the wikipedia:

"Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in 1961 in a secret report, released by the CND in 1996 that the fire detonated the high explosives in the nuclear weapon and plutonium and uranium oxides were spread over a wide area — foliage up to 8 miles (13 km) away was contaminated with uranium-235 and that they had discovered high concentrations of radioactive contamination around the air base. However, a subsequent report commissioned by Newbury District Council and Basingstoke and Deane found that there was no evidence that there was a nuclear accident."

Like I said, I live within 2 miles of the base, and now it's gone back to Common land, It might be fun to go up and have a good look about.

I'm, pretty sure there wouldn't be anything weird there, but never the less.....

Thanks again for the info, I'm just gonna go look for a copy of that book.

Cabalx

Go into bowdown woods whith a Geiger-conter, you'll have a hart attack.

After a quick Google

The hidden deaths of Newbury
Far away from the war-torn Balkans is Newbury, a prosperous white-collar industrial town in London’s commuter belt. On its outskirts is Greenham Common, the former US Air Force station that was one of America’s most important strategic bases during the Cold War. The base was closed down after the signing of the INF (Intermediate Nuclear Forces) Treaty by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. The nuclear threat was over. Or so people thought...

Source
scoll down a bit to get this and more on it.

February 28, 1958 – At the US airbase at Greenham Common, England , a B-47E of the 310th Bomb Wing developed problems shortly after takeoff and jettisoned its two 1,700 gallon external fuel tanks. They missed their designated safe impact area and one hit a hanger whilst the other struck the ground 65 feet (20 m) behind a parked B-47E. The parked B-47E, which was fuelled with a pilot onboard and carrying a 1.1 megaton of TNT (4.6 PJ) B28 thermonuclear free fall bomb

Source

also the Google Search

[edit on 17/6/2005 by 300k]

Just sat around talking to a friend, and we both relised we had prob been in Bowdown woods.

What were these readings like?

Cabalx

[edit on 17-6-2005 by CabalX]

IIRC you can see OS maps & aerial shots of the bunkers etc on here

homepage.ntlworld.com... - you'll need to search parts 1,2 &3

If not hope you enjoy the site anyway - it may explain other bases in your area

HTH

R

Originally posted by CabalX
Just sat around talking to a friend, and we both relised we had prob been in Bowdown woods.

What were these readings like?

Cabalx

[edit on 17-6-2005 by CabalX]

I have not personally done this I was reporting second hand news, I should have made that clear in my first post, but from what I have been told the reading are not something you would want to live too close to. i.e more than they should be, taking into account natural background radiation.

I haven't posted in a while, but have been researching some more Greenham related things when I came across this:

www.eisenhowerbirthplace.org...

Intrestingly, "His name was William Crosby and he was from Reading Mass"

Reading is the closest "city" to Newbury. Giving the Newbury area the RG postcode. You never know it might have made William's stay in good old Blighty a bit more homely.

Also I found that General Dwight D. Eisenhower, gave his famous"Eyes of the world are on you" speech, from Greenham on the night of June 5th.

Here are some good links:

www.wartimememories.co.uk...

obit.porterloring.com...

Any fellow ATS users in the Greenham/Newbury area who are intrested in helping me look into Greenham USAF base history, please add to the thread or PM me.

Cabalx