# RAF/USAAF Polebrook, Northamptonshire



## HypoBoy

> RAF Polebrook is a former World War II airfield located 3.5 miles east-south-east of Oundle, at Polebrook, Northamptonshire, UK. The airfield was built on Rothschild estate land starting in August 1940.
> 
> It was from Polebrook that the United States Army Air Forces Eighth Air Force carried out its first heavy bomb group (B-17) combat mission on August 17, 1942, and from which Major Clark Gable flew combat missions in 1943.



Not much left to see these days, save for a load of random concrete blocks and countless air raid shelters. For some reason, all the main buildings have been demolished, but the raid shelters left behind on what's now a nature reserve. There's also a barrack building and canteen still standing, with some really cool WW2 murals, but I'd not done my research well enough in advance and didn't get to see these as I didn't want to drive straight down a lane marked private right outside an estate worker's house. The place was also pretty heavily overgrown, so I'm going to have to go back at some point during winter to see more of the stuff that's currently hidden in the trees.

Considering how little there is to see, I found it strangely emotive. I'd watched this video a few hours earlier of the bombers thundering their way up the runway, and arrived on the site just as the Battle of Britain Lancaster flew overhead - unfortunately just too far away to get a decent picture.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LUkfkWM-Ro"]youtube[/ame] 

Apologies to anyone who thinks I've posted too many pics but, for the reasons mentioned above and below, I think it's one of those places which needs to be recorded and commemorated.

*Battle HQ*







Why is it that the only thing ever growing around these is stinging nettles? 





I knew it was going to be flooded, so brought wellies with me.





Unfortunately, I'd failed to realise that the water was about 3 foot deep. For some reason, the dark and the depth of the water scared the living **** out of me. I'd love to see inside, but waders and a couple of mates for company are a definite must!





Strange glass bottle. Anyone know what it is?





*Airfield*

J Type Hangar










Old raid shelters are everywhere.










All completely bare, or full of old farm junk, except for this one, which had odd little walls. Air raid khazi? 






*Thor Missile Sites*

I went to primary school in rural Norfolk, slap bang between RAF Coltishall and RAF Neatishead, two of the biggest potential targets if we'd ever gone to war with Russia, and we actually had "duck and cover" messages drummed into us as kids in the mid 70s. Growing up in the 80s, some of my overwhelming memories are of the cold war nuclear threat, two tribes and CND campaigners. As a result, seeing an IRBM launch site (albeit one which pre-dates all of the above) was quite a chilling experience. I'd really love to visit Molesworth or Greenham to see some of the 80s launch sites.

Thor launch base blast walls.





Liquid oxygen storage structure.










Huge round tank in the ground. I presume this was probably for Kerosene storage, although I've not found any reference to these sites using ground fuel storage. It was filled with water and covered in green slime. I dropped a stone in and it resonated in a way which suggested it was probably 20ft+ deep.





Standing on top of a blast wall, the regular sized brick on the end gives some idea of scale.





*Pillbox*

I'd wanted to find these, as they have rare (unique) double embrasures, but only one was accessible and covered in undergrowth. Will have to go back in winter for some better pics!






God knows how these were supposed to work in practice. To use both, you'd have to sit on the lower gunners shoulders. If you used the upper placement solo, you'd risk a nasty, erm, lower body, injury 











At the end of one runway, a USAAF memorial has been built, with a large main memorial and a pair of marble benches. Beside the memorial, there's a cabinet containing a guestbook. It was an absolutely fantastic sunny evening, and I sat for a while on one of the benches reading the book. People from all over the world had left comments, including ex servicemen and their families. I don't mind admitting that it brought a tear to my eye reading some of it.


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## Urban Mole

Wow really good report there, loads of info and nice pictures, good job 
Looks like you need a machete to get through some of that lot


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## simaving

*Usaaf polebrook*

Good report mate,would love to visit there myself


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## klempner69

This is a very interesting place indeed,maybe the bottle was for peeing in!


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## HypoBoy

I must admit, the same thought crossed my mind. Bomb shaped for dropping over enemy territory after use maybe? 

Probably just a more recent artefact, but I wondered if it might be some sort of smoke grenade. I know the Germans used glass grenades, but I'm not sure whether we or the Americans did? The glass was very thin - almost like it had been designed to break easily.


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## Goldie87

Cool stuff, myself and MD checked this place out the other year.


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## Foxylady

Great site, photos and write-up, Hypo. 
Loved the old footage...that brought the tears to my eyes, after grinning at the people waving from the control tower. 
I just had a thought about the pillbox. Maybe the top gunner would be standing to one side, side-on, in order to cover the opposite side, whereas the crouching gunner covered the other side.


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## Foxylady

Foxylady said:


> I just had a thought about the pillbox. Maybe the top gunner would be standing to one side, side-on, in order to cover the opposite side, whereas the crouching gunner covered the other side.



A quick drawing to illustrate what I meant (easier than trying to explain! ). Sorry about the quality...people aren't my forte and it was rushed.


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## Black Shuck

Foxylady said:


> A quick drawing to illustrate what I meant (easier than trying to explain! ). Sorry about the quality...people aren't my forte and it was rushed.



Foxy the Pillbox I shot at Homersfield last weekend had the same double embrasure.


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## jonney

Interesting one this as I've never come across anything like it before but in photo you can just make out the square hole for the legs of a machine gun rest and being that low to the ground the person firing the gun would have had to be sitting down as for the top embrasure it looks to have had a wooden shelf at one time so the gunner using the upper embrasure would have probably stood behind the seated gunner. This is only a theory mind so don't quote me...

Cheers Jon


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## MD

nice one mate did you visit oundle roc post too?

did you sign the book?


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## HypoBoy

Foxylady said:


> A quick drawing to illustrate what I meant



Yay, cool, I've got my own thread illustrator 

That does seem to make sense, but it's odd that they might considered the threat so great that they'd need two gunners. One other little detail that I've noticed is that the upper position has a tube mount and cutout in the bottom sill, whereas the lower one doesn't. I couldn't see any evidence of shelves on the interior.






Makes me wonder whether it was designed for heavier artillery, ie. anti tank rifles or similar from the lower embrasure, with an observer using the upper position to assist with ranging?



Black Shuck said:


> Foxy the Pillbox I shot at Homersfield last weekend had the same double embrasure.



I noticed when you posted that it's got a lower offset position and nearly commented at the time. This type with the embrasures stacked on top of one another is supposedly unique to this site, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if there were others out there unrecorded - particularly lurking around the east coast. I couldn't see Homersfield on the DoB database, so it's probably not been documented in an significant way.


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## HypoBoy

MD said:


> nice one mate did you visit oundle roc post too?
> 
> did you sign the book?



I had a quick scan around for the ROC post, but couldn't locate it in the time I had. From what I understand of things, it's neck deep in water anyway - if the battle HQ's anything to go by, that's highly likely!

Didn't sign the guestbook, as it had me a bit teary eyed if I'm honest!


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## HypoBoy

D'oh, just realised there's clear evidence of some sort of gun mount between the two positions. Completely failed to spot that at the time. Was obviously too busy trying not to stand my tripod in dead bunnies  The place was crawling with them. I think a fox probably uses it as a hideout!






Looks much more like a hanging mount for a lower gun, with a couple of diagonal supporting legs to the wall above? The anti tank gun mount in the Allan-Williams turret I posted recently suggested the gun could be underslung beneath the mount. I could see this being a similar arrangement?


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## jonney

Dont know if you've seen this hypo but here's a link to a map of the site

http://www.polebrook.com/polebrookair.htm


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## HypoBoy

Yep, I found the map before heading up there. I'd hoped to make sense of it on the ground, but the entire site around where the buildings were is just completely buried in heavy scrub. I'd suspect that there may well be the odd building remaining amongst it - there's certainly dozens of stanton shelters - but you can't see a thing at this time of year. I'm going to have to go back another time when the leaves have fallen!


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## jonney

HypoBoy said:


> Yep, I found the map before heading up there. I'd hoped to make sense of it on the ground, but the entire site around where the buildings were is just completely buried in heavy scrub. I'd suspect that there may well be the odd building remaining amongst it - there's certainly dozens of stanton shelters - but you can't see a thing at this time of year. I'm going to have to go back another time when the leaves have fallen!




Happy hunting mate look forward to seeing the results


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## Black Shuck

jonney said:


> Happy hunting mate look forward to seeing the results



Jonney are you still on the search for Searchlights?


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## jonney

Black Shuck said:


> Jonney are you still on the search for Searchlights?



I certainly am BS. As it happens I got some info about some possible sites this afternoon but have to investigate further


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