RAF Fauld

RAF Fauld
	Located near Hanbury in Staffordshire
	RAF Fauld
Coordinates	52.8471°N 1.7306°W
Type	Bomb Store
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Controlled by	Royal Air Force
Open to; the public	no
Condition	Sealed
Site history
Built	1939
In use	Royal Air Force 1939-1966; United States Army 1967-1973
Battles/wars	Second World War

Royal Air Force Fauld is a former Royal Air Force underground munitions storage depot located 2 miles (3.2 km) south west of Tutbury, Staffordshire and 10.4 miles (16.7 km) north east of Rugeley, Staffordshire, England.

History

250 lb MC bombs being stacked in one of Fauld's tunnels

250 lb MC bombs transported by narrow gauge railway at RAF Fauld

The site was controlled by No. 21 Maintenance Unit RAF which stored munitions underground.

The explosion

At 11:11 am on Monday, 27 November 1944 an explosion destroyed a large part of the site and killed about 70 people.

Post 1944

The depot was used until 1966 when the site was closed. However, in late 1966 when France withdrew from NATO's integrated military structure the site was briefly used between 1967 and 1973.[1]

References

Reed, John, (1977). "Largest Wartime Explosions: 21 Maintenance Unit, RAF Fauld, Staff. November 27, 1944", After the Battle, 18, Pp 35 - 40. ISSN 0306-154X.

External links

Fionn's Websites - Coal Mining and Mines Rescue - The day the world blew up

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[reed-1] Reed, John, (1977). "Largest Wartime Explosions: 21 Maintenance Unit, RAF Fauld, Staff. November 27, 1944", After the Battle, 18, Pp 35 - 40. ISSN 0306-154X.