Greenham Common
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Greenham Common is a piece of land in the south of England near the town of Newbury, Berkshire. During World War II it was taken over by the military to be an airfield, serving as a base for airborne troops. Subsequently the airfield was best known both for the International Air Tattoo held there, and for the long-term peace camp held outside its gates. It was returned to civilian use in 1997.
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Pre-military history
Greenham Common was a piece of common land. It was used for troops movements during the English Civil War and in the nineteenth century.
World War II
The common was taken over by the military and converted to an airbase, called RAF Greenham Common during World War II. It was used for glider assembly and as a base by the US 101st Airborne Division, and airborne elements of the Battle of Normandy were launched from there.
The Cold War
In the post World War II years the United States Strategic Air Command was based at three major airfields in eastern England; RAF Lakenheath, RAF Marham and RAF Sculthorpe. The increasing tension of the Cold War lead to a re-evalutation of these deployments and by 1953 SAC bombers began to move further west, behind RAF fighter forces, to RAF Greenham Common, RAF Brize Norton, RAF Upper Heyford and RAF Fairford.
Of these airfields Greenham Common was perhaps the least developed, beginning in 1951 SAC spent over £2m building a new 9,000ft runway and massive new hardstandings. Two 1,000ft overshoots were added to the runway in 1958. To the south west of the runway a new munitions area was built and this is where the cruise missile complex would later be sited. Eight 1,000,000 gallon (4,546,000 litre) underground fuel tanks were also constructed at the base.
Nuclear accident?
On February 28, 1958 a B-47E of the 310th Bomb Wing developed problems shortly after takeoff and jettisoned its two 1,700 gallon external fuel tanks. They missed their designated safe impact area and one hit a hanger whilst the other struck the ground 65 feet (20 m) behind a parked B-47E. The parked B-47E, which was fuelled with a pilot onboard and carrying a 1.1 megaton (4.6 PJ) B28 thermonuclear free fall bomb, was engulfed by flames. The conflagration took sixteen hours and over a million gallons of water to extinguish, partly because of the magnesium alloys used in the aircraft. Although two men were killed and eight injured, the US and UK governments kept the accident secret — as late as 1985, the British Government claimed that a taxiing aircraft had struck a parked one and that no fire was involved. It was alleged by two scientists, F.H. Cripps and A. Stimson, who both worked for the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in 1961 in a secret report, released by the CND in 1996 that the fire detonated the high explosives in the nuclear weapon and plutonium and uranium oxides were spread over a wide area — foliage up to 8 miles (13 km) away was contaminated with uranium-235 and that they had discovered high concentrations of radioactive contamination around the air base. However, a subsequent report commissioned by Newbury District Council and Basingstoke and Deane found that there was no evidence that there was a nuclear accident.
Departure of SAC
The Strategic Air Command (SAC) departed Greenham common on June 30 1964. From 1967 the base saw occasional use, for example in the NATO Reforger exercises. From 1973 the base became the home of the International Air Tattoo, a large scale international military Airshow. In 1977 the USAF announced plans to reactivate the base to house KC-135 aerial refueling tankers due to a lack of capacity at the KC-135's main UK base, RAF Mildenhall. This lead to widespread local opposition and in 1978 the British Defence Secretary vetoed the plan.
Cruise deployment
The Soviet deployment of the SS-20 missile from 1975 caused major concern in the NATO alliance. The longer range, greater accuracy, mobility and striking power of the new missile was perceived to alter the security of Western Europe. It was feared that the Soviet Union could launch a nuclear strike against Western Europe with a reduced threat of nuclear retaliation (i.e. than an attack on the continental United States). After discussions, NATO agreed to a two part strategy:
- To pursue arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union to reduce their and the American INF arsenals
- To deploy in Europe from 1983 up to 464 ground-launched cruise missiles (GLCM), as well as 108 Pershing II ballistic missiles.
The UK's share of this total was 160 missiles, 96 based at Greenham Common and 64 at RAF Molesworth. At Greenham Common six hardened shelters were built and operated by the US 501st Tactical Missile Wing; each of which held two launch control centres (LCC), four mobile launchers and one or two recovery vehicles. To launch the missiles the system would leave the base to pre-determined dispersal sites, increasing the surviability compared to fixed sites.
From 1981 "womens' peace camps" were established in protest at the deployment of the cruise missiles and drew worldwide press and attention. They came to be known as "The Greenham Women."
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which called for the removal of all INF systems from Europe, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 lead to a massive draw down in United States nuclear forces in Europe - particularly Cruise missiles.
Return to Civilian Use
Greenham_Common_bunkers.jpg
On September 11 1992, the USAF returned Greenham Common airbase to the RAF and on February 9 1993, the Greenham Common airbase was declared surplus to requirements by the Secretary of State for Defence.
On 24 March 1997 the land was purchased by the Greenham Common Trust for £7 million and returned to a variety of civilian uses. A business zone, named New Greenham Park, is sited on one portion of the former airbase and as of 2002 housed over 150 businesses. Considerable efforts have been made to restore large areas of the Common to something approaching its former natural state.
External links
- http://www.greenham-common.org.uk/
- Greenham Common given 'all-clear'-leaving childhood leukaemia clusters a mystery (http://www.soton.ac.uk/~newrep/vol14/no12news.html)
- West Berkshire Council: Greenham and Crookham Common: A Timeline (http://www.westberks.gov.uk/westberkshire%5Cservices.nsf/Public/AllServices/AB54B5633EA295D680256A5400394B24?OpenDocument)