RAF Weston-on-the-Green

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RAF Weston-on-the-Green is a Royal Air Force station located near the village of Weston-on-the-Green in Oxfordshire, England. The station comes under the control of the nearby RAF Brize Norton. It is used for parachute training for the UK military. The No. 1 Parachute Training School is based at RAF Brize Norton and uses Weston-on-the-Green regularly as a drop zone.

Basic military parachute jumping takes place at RAF Weston-on-the-Green from civilian aircraft that are based on the airfield and more advanced jumping takes place from C-130 Hercules aircraft based at RAF Lyneham.

No military aircraft are based at RAF Weston-on-the-Green. The airfield is only manned part-time by RAF personnel.

There is also a commercial Skydive weston sky-diving club.

RAF Weston-on-the-Green is one of the few remaining active RAF bases with some original pre-RAF buildings.

The airfield was used for the launch of the first hot air balloon in the UK in 1967, called the Bristol Belle and is the home of the Oxford Gliding Club, [1] one of the oldest gliding clubs in the country.

[edit] Roy Gandy's wartime recollections of Weston-on-The-Green

At the end of May 1940 a small party of us based at RAF Bicester were sent to Weston on the Green. There were about 30 of us headed by the unlikely combination of a Squadron Leader (ex WW1) and two corporals. Our mission was to contain any German parachute landing within the airfield until Army reinforcements could arrive. We opened up the original brick huts which had been closed for many years, got rid of the mice, spiders webs and dust and made them habitable, We were armed with 10 Lee Enfield 303s and a Lewis gun. We dug gun pits at corners of the airfield to where we had to scramble on our Bedford truck in the event of an enemy landing. At night, oddly enough, we had to put out flares to aid the emergency landing of any of our aircraft in difficulty. In the event the invasion didn't happen and the glorious summer of 1940 was spent in not doing very much. Cooking arrangements were difficult and as food rationing had started we exchanged our unlimited supplies of sugar, butter, bacon and tea with the villagers who gave us in exchange produce from their gardens such as spring onions, radishes, lettuce erc which made a welcome addition to our diet. I don't know how many of the party of 30 odd are still alive. As I am 91 I thought this bit of history might bring back memories to those who are still around.

Roy Gandy ex 1151158 RAF