Qualla: RAF Burtonwood https://qualla.com/raf-burtonwood en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/p/raf-burtonwood-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: RAF Burtonwood https://qualla.com/raf-burtonwood RAF Burtonwood: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-burtonwood/ Photo credit Szzuk, CC0. Drivers on the M62 motorway between Liverpool and Manchester sometimes notice strange shapes in the fields beside the road. Old bunker outlines, faint runway scars, the geometry of an airfield half-erased. They are looking at what is left of the largest American airbase in wartime Europe. In its peak years RAF Burtonwood housed 18,000 American servicemen. The roar of aircraft engines tested in its sheds could be heard for miles, especially at night. The British government leased the land to the United States; the Americans famously paid the rent in tobacco. By the end of the war, Burtonwood's mechanics were repairing aircraft from four different US Army Air Forces and the airfield was the beating mechanical heart of the Eighth Air Force's bomber campaign. The base officially closed in 1991. Nearly all of it has been demolished. The Heritage Centre that remains works to keep something of the place from disappearing entirely.

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Image: Szzuk | CC0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/p/raf-burtonwood-wp/gcqp-raf-burtonwood-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Burtonwood: From British Maintenance Unit to American Depot https://qualla.com/raf-burtonwood/ Photo credit Peter I. Vardy, Public domain. Burtonwood airfield opened on 1 January 1940 as RAF Burtonwood, two miles northwest of Warrington in Cheshire. It was conceived as a servicing and storage centre for modifying British aircraft, and during its first two and a half years was operated by No. 37 Maintenance Unit RAF....

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Image: Peter I. Vardy | Public domain

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/p/raf-burtonwood-wp/gcqp-raf-burtonwood-from-british-maintenance-unit-to-american-depot.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Burtonwood: Tobacco Houses and Two Worlds https://qualla.com/raf-burtonwood/ Photo credit Dave Bevis, CC BY-SA 2.0. A small purpose-built village rose to house the American servicemen, complete with its own school and shop. The buildings were known locally as the Tobacco Houses, because the lease for the land had been paid with American tobacco. During leave periods, American servicemen from B...

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Image: Dave Bevis | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/p/raf-burtonwood-wp/gcqp-raf-burtonwood-tobacco-houses-and-two-worlds.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Burtonwood: The Berlin Airlift and the Cold War https://qualla.com/raf-burtonwood/ Photo credit Public domain. Control of Burtonwood was returned to the RAF in June 1946 and became an equipment depot operated by No 276 Maintenance Unit. The American departure was brief. In November 1946 six B-29 Superfortress bombers from the USAAF Strategic Air Command's 43d Bombardment Group arrived as ...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/p/raf-burtonwood-wp/gcqp-raf-burtonwood-the-berlin-airlift-and-the-cold-war.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Burtonwood: What the M62 Drivers See https://qualla.com/raf-burtonwood/ Photo credit andy, CC BY-SA 2.0. The USAF returned the station to the British Ministry of Defence in 1965. During the 1970s the US Army made limited use of the site for transiting DHC-1 Beavers, with at least one Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter typically based there. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Territorial Army, C...

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Image: andy | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/p/raf-burtonwood-wp/gcqp-raf-burtonwood-what-the-m62-drivers-see.mp3 0:06 5 full