TL1785 : RAF / USAAF Glatton Memorial
taken 4 years ago, near to Conington, Cambridgeshire, England
Glatton Airfield was built mostly in the parish of Conington, Huntingdonshire by the United States Army 809th Engineer Battalion (Aviation) starting in the autumn of 1942 and throughout 1943. It was built on farmland owned by the Rose Court Farm, which remained a working farm inside the airfield's three runways that surrounded the buildings of the farm during the war.
When completed in late 1943, the facility was placed under the jurisdiction of the Eighth Air Force, United States Army Air Forces. Glatton was assigned USAAF designation Station 130.
The airfield was first used by the 457th Bombardment Group (H), arriving from Utah on 21 January 1944. Its tail code was "Triangle U".
After the war, RAF Glatton was used by the RAF's No. 3 Group under the control of RAF Bomber Command using Avro Lancasters and Consolidated Liberators flying to the Middle East. It was closed and sold in 1948.
Conington churchyard contains a memorial to the men of the 457th Bomb Group who lost their lives on missions that flew from Glatton. Link
The water station tower, behind the trees also serves as a memorial.
Royal Air Force and USAAF Station memorials, where they exist, have been erected on, or close to the airfield, primarily to honour those who served and to perpetuate the memory of those who lost their life during the Second World War.
They differ in size, from large, striking memorials, sometimes with flagpoles completing the setting, often with depictions of aircraft, squadron badges and the basic layout of the airfield itself etched into the memorial, to minimalist, and even almost commercial, but nevertheless equally sincere in their remembrance and gratitude to those who served and to the sacrifices made in times of war.
In many instances, much of the Air Station will have been demolished in the intervening years, and returned to agriculture, or converted into an industrial or housing estate, eventually to fade from the landscape altogether, but hopefully will remain a little longer in the memory of those who encounter the memorials along the roads and pathways.
Most were operational from 1939, until just after end of the War in 1945. The bases were home to brave young men and women who served the allied forces flying fighters and bombers from the runways of the airfield, sometimes never to return.
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- Grid Square
- TL1785, 44 images (more nearby 🔍)
- Photographer
- Adrian S Pye (more nearby)
- Date Taken
- Saturday, 18 January, 2020 (more nearby)
- Submitted
- Sunday, 19 January, 2020
- Subject Location
-
OSGB36:
TL 17001 85840 [1m precision]
WGS84: 52:27.4792N 0:16.7692W - Camera Location
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OSGB36: TL 17001 85838
- View Direction
- Northeast (about 45 degrees)
