RAF Westcott was a World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 station in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

. It was used by 11 OTU (Operational Training Unit) during the war, along with its satellite station RAF Oakley

RAF Oakley

RAF Oakley was a World War II three-runway airfield between Oakley and Worminghall, Buckinghamshire. It was located in a flat, damp wooded area.-World War II usage:...

. RAF Westcott opened in September 1942 with crews using Wellington

Vickers Wellington

The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a...

 bombers for training.

Many of these crews saw active service in Lancaster

Avro Lancaster

The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...

 bombers in the fierce aerial campaign waged by RAF Bomber Command

RAF Bomber Command

RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s stood at the peak of its postwar military power with the V bombers and a supplemental...

 over occupied Europe.

The RAF moved out in August 1945 shortly after nearly 53,000 liberated allied POWs who arrived by air into Westcott as the first UK staging post in their repatriation in Operation Exodus. The station closed on 3 April 1946.

In the 1960s and 1970s, it was the home of the Rocket Propulsion Establishment

Rocket Propulsion Establishment

The Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott, Buckinghamshire on the site of the former RAF Westcott has made a number of notable contributions in the field of rocket propulsion, including input on the rocket design for the Blue Streak missile and the propulsion systems on Chevaline...

. One notable feature of this era was that RAF Westcott did not appear on Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...

maps of the area.

The site is now a Venture Park, for light industry.http://www.westcottventurepark.com/