RAF Barford St John
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Royal Air Force Barford St John or more simply RAF Barford St John is a Royal Air Force station just north of the village of Barford St. John, Oxfordshire, England. It is now a non-flying facility, operated by the United States Air Force as a communications centre with many large communications aerials, and is a satellite of RAF Croughton.
History
RAF use
RAF Barford St John was opened on 30 July 1941 as a training facility for RAF Flying Training Command. It had three grass runways, used primarily by Airspeed Oxfords of No. 15 Service Flying Training School RAF from RAF Kidlington.[1] The airfield was rebuilt as an RAF Bomber Command airfield with paved runways and night operations equipment and reopened as a satellite for RAF Upper Heyford in December 1942.[1] In 1943 the station served as flight test centre for its Gloster E.28/39 and Gloster Meteor jet aircraft.[2] Bomber Command and No. 16 Operational Training Unit was stationed there with Vickers Wellingtons until December 1944.[1] No. 1655 Mosquito Training Unit RAF replaced the Wellingtons at that time.[1] After the war the airfield was closed in 1946 and placed into care and maintenance.[1]
The site was used for some background filming for the 1949 film Twelve O'Clock High.[3][4][5]
The following units were also there at some point:[6]
- No. 4 Squadron RAFTemplate:Sfn
- Satellite for No. 21 Heavy Glider Conversion Unit RAF (December 1944)Template:Sfn
- No. 169 Squadron RAFTemplate:Sfn
- No. 170 Squadron RAFTemplate:Sfn
USAF use
In 1951 the United States Air Force opened a communications (transmitter) centre on the airfield.[2] The site has a Scope Signal III installation which was used to modernize "Giant Talk", Strategic Air Command's world-wide command and controls network, which operates from RAF Croughton.Template:Sfn
See also
References
Citations
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Bibliography
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