Sunday 11th November 2018 marks 100 years since the end of World War 1. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the guns of Europe fell silent. On Remembrance Day, we now pay tribute to all British and Commonwealth service men and women who put themselves in harm’s way for their country, in this and in later conflicts.
A few minutes’ walk from Admiral Windows’s Chilton show-site is what remains of RAF Harwell. RAF Harwell became operational as a bomber station in 1937. In the early years of World War 2, Wellington bombers took off from here for bombing raids over Bremen, Essen and Cologne. In 1944, Albemarles of No. 38 Group towed the Horsa gliders that would drop the first wave of troops from 6th Airborne Division onto the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. Some of these men would return home.
Beyond the memorial stone at UKAEA Harwell, part of the runway can still be seen. Buried in the undergrowth alongside the runway lies the remains of one landing light.