How were RAF and USAAF air fields in the UK protected?

[Flying_Colander]

This is a simple question to which I haven't found an answer.  Does anyone have documentation or photos on how air fields were marked off? Was barbed wire run around the perimeter? Seems like a huge expenditure to enclose a sprawling air field with something else to snag aircraft. Were notice signs staked around the perimeter? Does anyone have proof of how they might have been worded? I found this but it's the wrong era in the wrong part of the world. I've seen one sign for a USAAF base stating: "This is a military reserve."

 

 

Were air fields so rural or remote that no fences were really necessary? Did a guard house at a formal entrance suffice? A patrol? Ditches? Again, ditches seem like a bad idea. I'm a bit puzzled why I'm coming up short on evidence.

 

Can anyone with good aviation trivia point me in the right direction? I'd be obliged.

 

Cheers,

 

Flying Colander

 

 

 

[jollyjack]

these days military airfield's premises are not visible on google maps etc .... ww 2?

[Flying_Colander]

That's right, Jollyjack. These would be WW2 era air fields. I've tried looking at aerial photos of the time but I see nothing obvious that looks like a fence and the resolution isn't high enough for more detailed work.

 

Thanks.

[RAAF492SQNOz_Steve]

 

Remains of a perimeter fence. Would have also been a perimeter road and some pill boxes and AA emplacements at semi permanent Airfields.

Top strands on the angled bits would have been barbed wire.

https://placesjournal.org/article/full-fathom-five/?cn-reloaded=1 Has some more pictures and details of this particular site.

[SirFlappy]

Hi

 I live near Huntingdon,Cambridgeshire (formerly Huntingdonshire),and have done all my life (nearly 50 now!),and my family is also local.

 My dad who was born in 1929 could recall getting to see the aircraft pretty close ,he died in 1982 so I cant ask him about it now,but I remember him saying this when I was young.

 As a side note he also said how drab (matt finish) the paint was ,nothing like the glossy paint we see at airshows now.

 These were all bomber command bases and 8th AF bases.

 RAF Wyton, Upwood,Warboys,Alconbury,Holme,Kimbolton ,Gravely all within 10 miles of Huntingdon... can you imagine !

 The pre-war permanent bases Wyton and Upwood would have had more complete fencing such as above,but the wartime ones like Warboys would have had the better fencing around only the Technical areas,hangers etc,the security around the dispersals was much less ,coils of barbed wire on pickets if they bothered at all!.

  The following is a quote I found on another site and is probably typical.

    " Don't know about other airfields, but as young boys during WW2 we used to cycle to several in the Midlands and try to get as close as possible to the runways to watch aircraft landing. I can't remember any fences, and since we approached via farmland, back lanes, and through fields as unobtrusively as possible we never got caught or warned. At one place near Newark we got so close to the threshold that pilots of the Lancasters landing must have seen us just underneath their wheels before touchdown. At another, Langar, we actually got onto the field and into an aircraft. So at that late point of the war, when the worry about invasion was over, security must have been pretty lax."

Edited March 26, 2021 by SirFlappy

[Flying_Colander]

Raaf Steve and Sir Flappy,

 

Grateful for your insight, gents. Raaf Steve, I ended up reading the entire Full Fathom Five essay. Sensitively written and a moving quotation from Eric Blair. He was a far sighted man. Never would have found it on my own. Thanks too for the personal story, Sir Flappy. I wish you had had more time with your father to ask the questions which gave texture to his boyhood and life.

 

Cheers,

FC

[SirFlappy]

Hoped it helped,I think I got my interest of aircraft from my dad,he had lots of books from the wartime on the RAF and the like,and he worked at RAF Alconbury (in a civil role) from the mid 60s to 1982 when he sadly died of a heart attack at only 52 .

  It must of been great to see the vast air armadas over east anglia during those times,funny to think that in this region of England during the war never before or probably EVER again will so many military aircraft be gathered together to see combat,between 500 and 1000 heavy bombers flying weekly must have been an awe inspiring sight!

If I had a time machine I would certainly like to go back to 1943/44 just to spend a summers week touring the airfields of this region,with Lancs,B17s and a multitude of other planes overhead.......and maybe no proper fences to keep me from having a closer look lol!

Edited March 26, 2021 by SirFlappy