Tag: Burtonwood Airbase

The Last American

Steven Dowd

Once the biggest military base in Europe, Burtonwood is now a shadow of its former self. Lieutenant Colonel Bryan C. Lobdell has secured a place in the 50-year-old history of Burtonwood. This spans from the action-packed war years to today, a period marked by the absence of a clear enemy and American budget cuts that are accelerating its decline. Once, the place resonated with the landings and take-offs of great Flying Fortresses. Men worked in the hangars around the clock, seven days a week, fitting communications and armaments to the…

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Burtonwood – The Truth About G.I. Town

Steven Dowd

Four miles from Warrington in Lancashire, is Burtonwood, the great maintenance base for the American Air Lift to Berlin. There several thousand young Americans, most of whom had never been overseas before, were dumped far from their homes with orders to keep the Dakotas, Skymasters and other aircraft flying through the air door in the Iron Curtain. The success of the Air Lift was apparent to all, but locally the social consequences were less happy for both sides. Six thousand American airmen dumped down suddenly to live near a bleak…

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