RAF / USAAF Goxhill, Station # 345

[flyguy]

Greetings from the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, VA!

 

As some of you already know, RAF Goxhill was built in 1940 and it became the first British airfield to be entirely given over to the USAAF (as opposed to some other joint use airfields).  The hand-over happened just six months after Pearl Harbor, and it became one of two badly needed in-theater OTU training bases for newly minted fighter pilots arriving from the States.  Up to the 1990's Goxhill was generally considered the best preserved WWII airfield in the U.K. as it was largely untouched, but the landowner was looking to develop the property, and today almost all of it has been demolished and retasked.  The Watch Office (control tower) was purchased and taken down a decade ago and brought to our museum, where it has now been restored to sit alongside our 5,000 foot runway.  A couple of pics attached show the building in situ, and the current state of the exterior and interior.  This will be an ongoing project for many years, but it represents the only opportunity in this country to experience an actual wartime airfield tower, and it is far better shape than most that remain in Britain.

 

We are looking at stories and themes needed to educate our museum guests, and invite anyone with specific knowledge about 1940's Air Traffic Control in England and the day-to-day operations of the Headquarter and other staffs at these airfields.  Similarly, if you have family information, artifacts, or photos of either Goxhill or similar installations, we would love to see them as well.  

 

One of our museum's many free webinars has to do with airfields and Goxhill in specific that can be found below ...