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peppermintpete
location:
Sedalia, MO
Gender: Male
 |  | RAF Polebrook, Northamptonshire- UK
< on 7/24/2013 2:12 PM >
|  | | | http://en.wikipedi...wiki/RAF_Polebrook
My grandfather was stationed here during WWII as a B-17 crewmember, so I took a day to sojourn up and see what was left of the place.
The answer is "not much". As you can see from the map below, it used to be a decent size. Size that was made up of mostly temporary wooden buildings, with the exception of a few steel hangars and concrete bunkers and shelters, with a few brick buildings scattered around.
I hadn't planned to visit that day, so the only map I had was a terrible one on my phone, so I only managed to see about half of what was there. The only camera I had was my phone as well, so the pictures are less than glorious.
The property is now owned by a warehousing company. They utilize the sole remaining J-Type hangar(top center of the map below), as well as a few new buildings. Their main office is actually an outcropping of the hangar.
I approached the situation by driving up to the business like I hadn't a care in the world. I entered the office and spotted an elderly lady and made small talk about visiting the countryside. I casually asked if she minded if I take a look around and she was like 'Oh, of course dearie'.
Now, if any law enforcement reared their ugly heads, I would refer to the nice lady who said it was okay. Probably unnecessary in this case, but it never hurts to get permission.
The only part of the runway that is left is a small section of the approach end, which houses the memorial and guestbook(I signed of course). The rest of the concrete was removed after the war.
Everything was about as overgrown as possible for rural England, so a winter trip would be much better. There's a couple bunkers and HQ's still intact, as well as a couple barrack type buildings(now used for farm storage), but overall probably about 2% of what used to be there.
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dammband
      
location:
Atlanta, Georgia
Gender: Male
| | Re: RAF Polebrook, Northamptonshire- UK
<Reply # 1 on 7/24/2013 11:03 PM >
| | | | Thanks for sharing
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