Royal Air Force Birch or more simply RAF Birch is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

station in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The airfield is located northeast of

Tiptree Tiptree is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the English county of Essex, situated south-west of Colchester and around north-east of London. Surrounding villages include Messing, Essex, Messing, Tolleshunt Knights, Toll ...

; about northeast of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Opened in 1942 it was used by both the

and

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

. During the war, it was used primarily as a reserve transport airfield. It was closed after the war, in late 1945. Today, the remains of the airfield are located on private property and used as agricultural fields.

Royal Air Force use

The following units were here at some point: *

No. 48 Squadron RAF No. 48 Squadron was a Royal Air Force squadron that saw service in both the First and Second World Wars. History First World War No. 48 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed at Netheravon, Wiltshire, on 15 April 1916. The squadron w ...

No. 233 Squadron RAF No. 233 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force squadron that operated from 1918–1919, 1937–1945, 1952–1957 and 1960–1964. The squadron was formed from several Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) flights and took part in the tail end of the First ...

* No. 381 Maintenance Unit RAF *

No. 382 Maintenance Unit RAF The following is a list of Royal Air Force Maintenance Units (MU). The majority of MUs were previously Equipment Depots (ED), Storage Depots (SD) and Aircraft Storage Units (ASU)s. No. 1 MU – No. 100 MU No. 101 MU – No. 200 MU No ...

* No. 383 Maintenance Unit RAF * No. 384 Maintenance Unit RAF

United States Army Air Forces use

Birch was known as USAAF Station AAF-149 for security reasons by the USAAF during the war, and by which it was referred to instead of location. Its USAAF Station Code was "BR".

Current use

With the facility released from military control, the airfield was returned to agricultural use. Today, most of the concreted areas have been removed for hardcore, leaving single tracked farm roads along the main runway, one secondary, and parts of the perimeter track. Blind Lane (a public road) now runs along the other secondary (02/20) its original course having been taken when building the airfield. Some hardstanding is also used by Essex Council for garden waste composting, the main site being accessed via the main runway. A few loop hardstands remain intact off the remains of the single-tracked perimeter track along the north side of the airfield. However, other than these farm roads, there is little remaining of the wartime airfield that was never used, other than some ghostly disturbed areas in aerial photography of loop dispersal hardstands and the long since removed perimeter track.

References

Citations

Bibliography

*Freeman, Roger A. (1978) Airfields of the Eighth: Then and Now. After the Battle *Freeman, Roger A. (1991) The Mighty Eighth The Colour Record. Cassell & Co. *Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. .

External links

Photographs of RAF Birch from the Geograph British Isles project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birch Royal Air Force stations in Essex Airfields of the 9th Bombardment Division in the United Kingdom Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom