RAF High Wycombe is a
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
stationA Royal Air Force station is a permanent Royal Air Force operations location. Many RAF stations are aerodromes, or airbases, being the home to one or more flying squadrons. Other RAF stations are training units, administrative units, headquarters , or carry out ground-based operational tasks...
, situated in the village of
Walters AshWalters Ash is a village in the parish of Bradenham, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, to the west of the main village, adjacent to Naphill. Between 1983 and 1985 there was a peace camp outside the RAF station which dominates the village...
, near
High WycombeHigh Wycombe , commonly known as Wycombe and formally called Chepping Wycombe or Chipping Wycombe until 1946,is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is west-north-west of Charing Cross in London; this figure is engraved on the Corn Market building in the centre of the town...
in
BuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Its purpose is to serve the needs of the
RAF Air CommandAir Command is the only Command currently active in the Royal Air Force. It was formed by the merger of Royal Air Force Strike and Personnel and Training Commands on 1 April 2007, and has its headquarters at RAF High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire....
, situated on the site. It is also the headquarters of the
European Air GroupEuropean Air Group was established in 1995 to build on close collaboration between the British and French air forces in the first Gulf War and the subsequent Balkans operations...
. The motto of RAF High Wycombe is 'Non Sibi', which translates as 'not for ourselves'.
Present
RAF High Wycombe is situated roughly three miles from the town of High Wycombe over three sites - No 1 Site houses the Command HQ and the Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC- UK CAOC or CAOC 9), No 2 Site houses the officers' mess, while No 3 site is the domestic site, airmen and NCO's quarters, MT yard, PT flight and Supply Flight. There is a
bunkerA military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks...
at the site near
RAF Daws HillRAF Daws Hill is a Royal Air Force station on the outskirts of High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, England. The base is situated on Daws Hill Lane, the road between Flackwell Heath and Marlow Hill, High Wycombe, off the A404 road and adjacent to the M40 motorway....
, the existence of which is officially classified, but which nevertheless is clearly visible on satellite photographs (e.g.
Google EarthGoogle Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency funded company acquired by Google in 2004 . It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite...
).
The site is a non-flying station and was home to
RAF Strike CommandThe Royal Air Force's Strike Command was the military formation which controlled the majority of the United Kingdom's bomber and fighter aircraft from 1968 until 2007: it was merged with Personnel and Training Command to form the single Air Command. It latterly consisted of two formations - No. 1...
before it became part of the newly formed
RAF Air CommandAir Command is the only Command currently active in the Royal Air Force. It was formed by the merger of Royal Air Force Strike and Personnel and Training Commands on 1 April 2007, and has its headquarters at RAF High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire....
on 1 April 2007. Air Command is commanded by an Air Chief Marshal. RAF High Wycombe is commanded by a Group Captain.
USAAF use
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
High Wycombe was used by the United States Army Air Force. It was the home of the 325th Reconnaissance Wing from 9 August 1944 though 20 October 1945. The
VIII Bomber CommandThe VIII Bomber Command is an inactive United States Army Air Forces unit that is better known as the later appellation Eighth Air Force, as was popularized in post-World War II filmsand is frequently called the First Eighth Air Force by its veterans and successors in the services.The command was...
Headquarters was at the
RAF Daws HillRAF Daws Hill is a Royal Air Force station on the outskirts of High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, England. The base is situated on Daws Hill Lane, the road between Flackwell Heath and Marlow Hill, High Wycombe, off the A404 road and adjacent to the M40 motorway....
that is on the other side of High Wycombe near the M40. RAF Daws Hill was de-commissioned in August 2007.
During the Cold War
Operationally during the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
the
Director UKWMOThe United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation was a British civilian organisation operating between 1957 and 1992 to provide the authorities with data about nuclear explosions and forecasts of likely fallout profiles across the country in the event of war.The UKWMO was established and...
would have been located at the United Kingdom Regional Air Operations Command (UK RAOC) within Strike Command's Operations Centre nuclear bunker at RAF High Wycombe to instigate the national Four minute air raid warnings, with the Deputy Director located at a standby UK RAOC, described at the time as being "elsewhere in the UK", but has since been revealed as being at
GoosnarghGoosnargh is a village and civil parish on the north side of Preston, Lancashire, England. The village lies between Broughton and Longridge, and mostly lies in the civil parish of Whittingham, although the ancient centre lies in the civil parish of Goosnargh...
near Preston within the UKWMO Western Sector nuclear bunker. Warnings were instantly distributed around the country by the
HANDELHANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
Warning Broadcast System via 250 Carrier Control Points located at major police headquarters and 17,000 WB400 (later WB1400) carrier receivers in armed forces headquarters, hospitals, post offices,
Royal Observer CorpsThe Royal Observer Corps was a civil defence organisation operating in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December 1995, when the Corps' civilian volunteers were stood down....
posts and private homes in remote rural areas where hand operated sirens replaced the power sirens in the urban towns.
In 1958, Headquarters, 7th Air Division of the
Strategic Air CommandThe Strategic Air Command was both a Major Command of the United States Air Force and a "specified command" of the United States Department of Defense. SAC was the operational establishment in charge of America's land-based strategic bomber aircraft and land-based intercontinental ballistic...
, supporting SAC operations in UK relocated to High Wycombe from
RAF South RuislipRAF South Ruislip was a non-flying Air Force station located in South Ruislip near London, England.The station opened in 1949 and was used by the United States Air Force as an administrative station to coordinate Third Air Force and 7th Air Division activities in Great Britain with the British...
, and commanded all SAC operations until 1965.
See also
External links