Burtonwood Royal Air Force Station - Yearbook (Burtonwood, England)

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mu 4 14m: 3 magma ff v -F,., 7.7 - -. Decade . . equipment and spares. At least ninety days' t and some Naval supplies, ' h U.S. Air Force and-Army, - SUPPIIES for : siock. All food sold in restaurants, or from tjceecggan wgsrsiryegr post exchange, came from.the Stdates, Withhcth aim fllaown ml 'lk ro ucts, w l . bou ht locally, and mi p . ' 'Of zrzgneitll-lbclllznd. Tghe shops sold, or could get, anythingB thtat 12:;de bnr Sears Roebuck have ever thought of. ThIS was ur on , ' i ' west boom town. , ' - Larsslbl'eosffrjebase-the airmen poured IntoTEhe neabrl'byugsngn ' ' ' ' t. e pu IC t s in search of entertalnmen - llnvlall'lril:gton were amazed to hear that our boys were averad ing L26 per month. itWe accept dollars Signs went up an fhe locals were ready to do business With the Yanks. f The tabloid Daily Mirror reported that teen-age girlsn some 0 them no more than I2, were doing a brisk.busmess picking up American airmen at Manchester's Central Station. 5X: 3? ill: with food, clothing, THE NEWSPAPER, in a haIf-page article bannered Britaintsi' Good Name is in Peril, said armies of young girls met the trains from Burtonwood, the big American air base l6 miles from Manchester. . , ilNo introductions are needed, the Mirror said. HA Hi ya, Joe is enough for any good-natured GI. The peacetime love parade outsmarts anything London staged at wartime Rainbow Corner. HIt is shoddy, shamefulwand shocking. It is sex for sale-a frightening, awful thing of teen-age girls, some no more than l2-waiting nightly in twos and threes. The Mirror said that more than I00 girls drift into Central Station nightly. They sit on benches, opposite the arrival platforms. Military and civilian police are powerless, the Mirror said, because the girls are never caught actually soliciting. The thirror said the girls and their GI dates usually move on to pubs and then to cheap hotels. Capt. George W. Hill, press officer at Burtonwood, said: We are very alive to the problems and are doing everything we can to give the men plenty of entertainment and recreation right here to keep them off theistreets. Ohe way to lteep the boys on-base was to give them better rec- reational fatilities on the installation itself. It wasn't long before well-known entertainers were coming to the base. Among those were Nat 'lKing Cole, Gene Raymond, his wife Jeanette MacDonald, Constance Bennett, The Deep River Boys, The Merry Macs. Allan Jones. Don Cummings, Rochester, Sophie Tucker and many, many more. Athletic teams were formed, da nces heId-the roblem area was met and for the most part solved. P A Time of Expansion Here we go a ain, was th ' wood in early l95gl. The 30tl?rl;xir eD;IPS Of most people at Burton- pot was on the wa o Esgznggftsgidbgund for nearby RAF Station Sealand. Pieoiblleer 2'33: irmen, were pourin into the I' , ' base at a fast I' . H g ' spraw Ing Lancashire were here. c ip until about l2,000 airmen and 9,000 dependents AS ONE MASTER SERGEANT said, 0! . . H . , either eXpansuon or a close-down. This ti ere we go again. It s . me it ha e :35???er rgrllciieglNhtallean Expansion SGEVeral hundiidnbgseonbiizh for USAF w ' runway was lengthEHEd. Sealand was slated o . . . . rk. and warehousmg fatilities were being set up :it Ill: 5X! . The 59th Air De t ' members of the 3'0ctlh Yib-ng extended a . Depot W' mgeglistgeeyngrrgvsd at Southamptorl:g19l'l1e;e:rrrll:;g 2t;nl9t5l1I ose and were greeted b e y a re re ' This group gave th ff , led by Lt. Col. H. Y. Sltgwasftntatlve back aboard the t e o icer personnel a short briefin th ' Wing debarked Cransport the following morning befglr ehn Went . apt. Ralph Miles, chief of the Southar:ptto: 38V: or we..' lihzd;uwmunginn ..,... Detachment, and members of his staff, went all 0 debarkation as pleasant as possible. MEMBERS of the Wing went almost directly from the shi t waiting train, which had been pulled into a siding-in a defksPda warehouse. The coaches had been previously deSignated and tIhe loading went smoothly, which permitted the trains to ar e Warrington pretty much on schedule late Saturday afternoo 36 3? all: ut to make the rive at n. Burtonwood personnel had been preparing a warm wel- come several days for the new Wing from San Antonio Motor transport met them at Bank Quay station and tool; the airmen to their respective sites, where the huts had been aired out, fires started and the bunks made up. Officers were taken to 276 MU officersi quarters. x Dining halls remained open after hoursto feed the airmen and the officers had the evening meal in the Officersl Club dining room. By the time they all gathered in the gym Sunday morning, members of the 30th knew much more about thebase than their predecessors did on their arrival. They had been provided with a 24-page booklet filled with information about the base. AT THE SU NDAY MORNI NG BRIEFING a verbal greeting was extended to the new men by Brig. Gen. Robert C. Oliver. The 59th Wing CG delivered a straightforward address which was well received. t all: :X: 5X: The'inew men couldn't get the wrong impression about the weather at Burtonwood. It rained throughout the briefing, was cold and the wind blew at near gale force; t HOWEVER, the gym had been warmed ahead of time and the PX had a number of mobile snack bars on hand with hot coffee. The PX opened up from I300 to l500 hours that wet Sunday to allow members of the new Wing to make necessary purchases. at 5X: $6 The 30th Wing, which was commanded by Lt. Col. Howard Kelly on its trip overseas, semed pretty well settled by Monday and large numbers of them were seen around Site 6 finding out where the Post Office and other important places were located. The 30th remained at Burtonwood until March, l95l, when it moved to RAF Station Sealand. Sealand, looking more like a university campus than an air base. was iire-opened to the Americans to handle medical supplies. subsistence and other supplies. The Yanks were first conneCted with Sealand during World War I when the famous Eagle Squadron were stationed there. 5x: :x: :x? Eighteen months later the Flintshire base was used 35 i? baSIc training station for persons enlisting in the Air ForceVOV'erseas'. Later still, it returned to its primary mission, that of supPlYmg the USAF in the UK. 0' . d And on the British scene the death of King George V! deprivee America of one of its greatest friends. The entire base Pa'd homag to the King. The year was I952. On the Field 5f Sports d hletic fiel 5 Like a giant 5 ider weavin its web in and out of the at throughout Europe, the Bugrtonwood Athletic Teamsr l95ll52-IS3' -' proved to be as feared as the black widow itself. is ' FROM FOOTBALL To BASEBALL, fro'm golf to tencloci from soccer to swimming, from track: to boxingv the BurtonW teams surpassed all other competitors in Europe. , ' 'n of It was an era of sports. The epoch began 1 the SP? asun- l95l and did not end until the'Buliet footballers WF'e hers - ced on the Burtonwood gridiron in I953! thus end'ng awling of athletic stars that earned world renown follthe 5pm Lancashire base. Here is the record: .,.:v; .Inx , a; FA 441 9 Ah;

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T- B at Burtonwood d the were Heat :nail's states. as. It im his ait up I948 ed in great ation Hon- lCl his d for aneral iortly Force WOVE- l with ; halls Xls, a 2nd, a 5, six icers' were y-five i-type arter pound al low- I948. Jnable .assed. iome- :es of n base idlineS ispatch vaders :Iitclig, Ph - on A- , came Berlin, The first known entertainer to visit our troops, however, wasnit an American, but a beautiful British gal who visited Burtonwood on December I5th. Her name: Jean Simmons. The Mission Through the mist drove the trucks carrying airmen from their nissen huts to hangars scattered along the flight-Iine. These men were going to work under impossible conditions, trying to do an impossible job. That job: supporting the Berlin Airlift. These men performed the impossible, and in doing so won a place in the history books as those who engaged the Russians in the initial battle of the cold war'ieand won. Why impossible? Because no sooner had the first troops arrived than they were immediately thrown into doing a job without proper equipment-and for that matter-with- out proper training. Planes had to be maintained-food and supplies were needed desperately in the German capital. We had to keep 'em flying. :li: :X: :XE llThe new depot should be able to do the job of maintenancee with a little prodding , said Major General F. S. Borum, the'first of five USAF generals to command the sprawling Lancashire base since I948. General Borum, on TDY to open the base, was on loan from Tinker AFB, Oklahoma. THE BURTONWOOD DEPOT operated on a production line basis. A group of large hangars were used for the overhaul lines. Planning for the operation was somewhat simplified since only one type plane, the C-54, was to be processed here. Planes used in the airlift were scheduled to be sent to Burtonwood for checkup and overhaul after each 200 hours of flying. When the depot was in full swing the base was turning out IO-ll planes a day-they originally had hoped for seven or eight at the most. ilk 5X: ill: Getting the new depot started in England was a gigantic under- taking, and since it was to be operated by U.S. airmen it was the first time foreign troops had been based in England during peace- time since IO66. CLEARING MATERIALS was one big problem. Tools and machinery were shipped-much of it by air-from the United States. Parts, nearly I50,000 pounds of them. came from Tinker. Wood and other construction materials had to be shipped from Germany. Then came the personnel problem. Most of the men had to be educated to production line methods. They had been accustomed to bucket shop methods, one airplane at a time. They were given on-the-job training to show how to work on planes moving down a production line. Then-since they were airmen-they had to be fed and housed. Nissen hutseused as barracks-were available on the base, but but had been dispersed for protection from wartime air raids. leINALLY we were able to get about 30 trucks from the British to transport the men from their huts to the plants , explained General Borum. Drivers for these trucks were needed too. As a matter of fact, plans for hiring some 800 Britons for all types of jobs were under- taken. Add 3,000 American airmen to these 800 Britons, stir them up. and you come out with a working force that played a vital part in the first battle of the Hcold war . Not all was rosy at Burtonwood. The giant base. with its new arrivals, was beginning to have its social troubles. Camp followers were a serious problem. They always appeared to rise bright and early, even if .the sun didn't. :K: it ail: The Mayor of Warrington, Councillor W. L. Challinor, com- menting October 7th, I948, on the visits paid to the town by strange girls, said: ,,u..-mw-, m. t...e.-;.-.s.....-.r,m:t.;...;t-t-;w.v:.4mmany. cw 1958 This is likely to embarrass the good name of our local girls and the happy relationship now existing between the Americans and the toWnspeople. Hl see no reason why the presence of the Americans should attract a host of undesirables from other parts of the country. Warrington is a proud town and lstrongly deprecate the possibility of it becoming a modern Klondyke.H They came just the same. But what most of the girls didn't realize was that the average G.l's wage was only E26 a month. Out of this there was a compulsory reduction of 20 per cent, which covered allotments home and insurance. i In addition there was a voluntary deduction of 35 per cent for commitments at home. It was ascertained that some $30,000 was going through the post-homeward bound-each month. This left lean pickings-in any accent. Operations were in full swing-each day saw USAF liaison ofhcers arriving from Germany, placing heavier demands on Burtonwood. Over 2,000,000 West Berliners had to be kept alive. Base personnel were working round-the-clock. The G.I.,s Life in England When most Gls come home from overseas, chances are theyire mighty glad to be back. They aren't thinking of any more Govern- ment sponsored trips abroad. But in l950-5l there were over 50 per cent of Burtonwood's personnel applying for an overseas extension-they wanted to stay in England. . WHY did they like it so much here? liWe speak the same language, we have ideas along the same lines, and we like the people, said one base official. This generally summarized the setup. World War II had been over for five years, but the Britons were still plagued by rationing, housing was short, even electricity was scarce fthere used to be power cuts frequentlyl. f When the main Air Force contingent began to arrive in increasing numbersemen brought in on temporary duty from all parts-t'hey had little understanding of what they were doing in England. Burtonwood had a first-class morale problem, and the situation was soon reflected in happenings in the nearby industrial town of Warrington. Fights would break out in the pubs. and local citizens got a wrong impression of the returning Gls. Burtonwood got a bad Press. THE WORK of transforming the station into a model Air Force base had only begun when the Berlin airlift gave Burtonwood a new mission, the servicing of United States lift planes. C.S4s were flown back from Germany for a 200-hour maintenance check. In the midst of the lift, the first wives and children began to arrive from the States. Burtonwood returned to its main task-maintenance of planes and supply for the l4,000 Air Force men in Britain. Where there was ndthing, there now sprawls 3 l5 square mile base, a community of 4,200 men and l,700 dependents, a complete town with its own factories, public servite's.and amenities, providing employment for L600 local CIVIllanS. all: :I: 3k i' When British people visit the base f8,000 were invited in; l?50 to make ilgoodwill toursi they rub their eyes at this astonishing American town, which has mushroomed into being on the indt'istrlal Lancashire landscape. Burtonwood has practically everything. Divided into six sites, the station could boast five chaoeis, three cinemas fshowing the latest filmsi. three fire stations, 21 eourt room. a hotel. a 200-bed hospital twith Five dentists, eightijvooctorsi, a nursery, a beauty parlor. a washeteria. a dependants'ilschool, and shops of all kinds. There Were baseball and basketball 'teams fthe uBurtonwoed Bullets'il, an American youth center. andZaBoy Stout troop. Officers, NCOs and other ranks had theirloWn. iavnshly appointed clubs and restaurants, and there were SIX gleaming snack bars. ' ON THE BUSINESS SIDE, Burtonwood had hangars, work- shops and assembly shops, and scores of huge warehouses, stocked

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ke the Ip to a ickside nd the rive at 1. 1 wel- tonio. I took 1 been swere en and room. embers cessors iooklet reeting r. The as well ut the g, was ind the tcoffee. day to s. d Kelly d large re the hen it r base, PPlIeSy nected uadron a basic erseas. ing the' - pered Omage ic field5 i i52l53' tennis: nWOO ring of troun' an era awling a V W. wwwn ..,,.,..;.....,r..,,,.-t WW ; swam..r.,....,.m1 In I95l Burtonwood won the Third Air Force baseball champion- ship, the U.K. championship, then journeyed over to Germany and won the USAFE championship. ill: 38 :X: THE EAGLES, as they were then labelled, departed Burton- wood to enter the USAFE Tournament with less than one dozen bats and no uniforms. The boys played in blue jeans and dungarees. This did not dampen their enthusiasm. They made the trip to Germany with the hopes of winning; it takes more than pretty uniforms and good bats to win tournaments. This was proved by the tea sippers, as our German-based colleagues called the U.K. visitors. They made a clean sweep, they brought Burtonwood the only USAFE trophy ever won in any sport by a Burtonwood team, but the other athletic squads came remarkably close. In football, the first year Burtonwood fielded a team they won the Third Air Force Championship, the United Kingdom Championship, and were the runners-up for the USAFE Crown. With stars like Jim HPappy Simmons, Lonnie Ward, and Ollie Linborg, the Bullets gridiron machine rolled to victory after victory on the field of play and in the mud holes of England. BURTONWOOD was building a reputation, she was now the most feared base in athletics in Europe. In l952 the Bullets again swept all the opponents in the U.K. conference aside to be the best gridiron squad in Great Britain, only to lose later before a powerful Furstenfeldbruck Air Force Base, Germany, 32-I8. before 35,000 fans in Londonls Wembley Stadium. In I953 the Bullets were downed for the first time in U.K. play with an unexpectedly strong Wethersfield eleven, I3-7, before 6.000 home fans at Burtonwood. Burtonwood proceeded after this point to beat every opponent to cross their path until they met London in November, to whom they lost by 20-6. For the first time in three years the Bullets were not crowned U.K. champions. Revenge, however, was sweet for these Bullets, for on November 2l, I953, before the largest European crowd ever to witness a US football match, saw them smash Wethersfield in their second meeting of the season, 27-0, before 59,000 fans in Dublin, Ireland. Linborg, Simmons, Bob Yates, ran wild in the last game to be played together by this great team. DURING THE PAST SEVEN YEARS Burtonwood has won 47 football games while suffering only l8 defeats. Individual coaches that have appeared on the scene at Burtonwood, but one stands out among all others. That man, Lt. Col. Bill Kenna, led the Burtonwood Bullets to I6 victories and 4 defeats for the I952l53 season. Both times the sacred and coveted USAEF crown eluded him; his teams came second on both occasions. 3K! ilk 3!: It was I957 before Burtonwood won another U.K. title on the gridiron. This time coach iCath Thomas Brown led the underrated Bullets to another title. In boxing, Ralph Paterson, Bill Cherry, Howard Greene won worId-wide Air Force titles for Burtonwood. Never before in the history of the Air Force has any one base ever had three world wide Air Force champions in separate divisions. In addition to this; featherweight Willy Thomas was runner-up in his division in I953. In soccer, Johnny Mulligan, Frank Tollan, Joe OlMalIey led Burtonwood Gunners to the Manchester Wednesday League Title for the first time that an American AF team had beaten the British at their own game. IN BASKETBALL, the Burtonwood Bullets, during the sports era I95Ii53, won the U.K. championship twice, only to lose out in the finals of the U.S.A.F. tourney on the Continent. In track, David Snow will long be remembered as possibly the greatest all-round athlete ever to don the thin clads. Snow ran the high hurdles, the loo yards and 220 yards, and the 440 yards, ran the haIf-mile and the mile. . . . . . Decade In addition, Snow proved to be one of the few American sports car drivers of an ameteur status to win several British and U.S.A.F. sports car rallies. In tennis, Captain David Dozier monopolized the base tennis championship during this era. Though Dozier never won the U.K. championship, he was frequently in the finals. In golf, Captain George Hill Cater Majory was third Air Force champion two years in a row. Hill, the plus 2 handicap golfer. is without a doubt one of the finest US. service golfers to ever walk on the links of a British course. Basketball teams, football teams, tennis squads, golf teams. base- ballers come and go, but no base can hope to dominate the athletic scene like Burtonwood did in I95l, I952, and I953. Civilians Come to Burtonwood The military man has been at Burtonwood off and on since I939. The Americans first arrived at the base in early I942. They were here right through the war and like the period I949 to I958, Burton- wood served as a depot. LIKE MOST DEPOTS in the States, Burtonwood planners were anticipating the use of civilians on a large scale. Labor was already scarce in industrial Lancashire. Industry was going full blast. Labor had to be imported. but Air Force planners had decided to replace the American airmen with United Kingdom civilians, and on a gigantic scale. Labelled operation HNative Son, the new influx of UKC's were supposed to eliminate the high cost of employing the military men. who so often had to bring their families with them. Now Burtonwood had earned, and rightly so, the reputa- tion of being the largest dollar earner in the north of England. Would this new influx of British civilians, employed in all capacities, from a top executive level all the way down to a stock man in the stores, effect the dollar income of Lanca- shire? Hardly, for this was a new era at Burtonwood. Not only were we employing British people for the first time in great numbers, but we were going to spend more money through local purchases and contracts than in any other time in the history of this giant RAF station. 5X: Ill: 3? The time: December, I953. To fill the vacancies that would occur in the absence of the American airmen was a large project undertaken under the guidance of Brigadier General Troup Miller Jr., Commander, NAMA. The Personnel Director, Lt. Colonel Wilfred Kenna, was faced with many problems. One example: There was not enough estab- lished iipermanent Air Ministry British employees available for assignment for such a giant operation. Consequently. the Air Ministry, through the guidance of Mr. Harry C. Redman, then Chief of the British Staff Organization, was authorized to employ ex-RAF equipment officers to fill the gap at executive level. BURTONWOOD needed trained supervisors now. she could not wait. The supplies were in the warehouses; they had to go to all parts of Europe. It was later discovered that some 75 career fields could not be converted from the military to the UKC trainees in the time allotted. The supplies had to be moved, so, during the interim, Burtonwood had both military and UKCis. This continued until the UKCis became accustomed to the American way of doing things. They were trained, and as a result, some 2.500 American military men were declared surplus. They were reassigned to other American bases throughout the world. Burtonwood was now a full fledged depot. She performed maintenance on all types of aircraft, and supplied everything from food to a small second hand on a wrist watch. It was during these months, in early I954, that the famed Header House was constructed. It has been called the laggest ware- house in Europe. alt II: is But not only was NAMA changing from military to civilians, she was acquiring new units. Burtonwood was truly expanding.