Airfields of the Eighth Then and Now

Book excerpt: This work is a nostalgic look at the airfields used by the Eighth in the United Kingdom during the World War II. Conceived in war, the airfields experienced their moments of glory and, when the war ended, were left empty and derelict to die. The few which remain virtually intact have only survived because some private or public concern has formed a practical use for them, although not always as airfields. Some of the more remote airfields still dot the countryside the same as when the last plane left their runways and the last truck departed through the main gate. They are bleak, windswept and mouldering but they retain the atmosphere of the fine, high endeavours of the people who inhabited them and the aura of ineffable sadness that hangs over memorials to fighting men.