Sleap airfield was in use by the RAF from 1943 until 1964 and is now the base of the Shropshire Aero Club - although helicopters from nearby RAF Shawbury still visit. During WW2 the base was used for training by bomber command, and later for training Horsa glider crews. The site is busy with private planes and visitors, and the old control tower is accessible to all, and home to a rather pleasant cafe.
The surrounding countryside is littered with the buildings from the original airfield (this was a huge airfield in its prime) which can be seen as ruins or in use by the local farms. On a visit recently a trip through the rather marshy ground near old perimeter road reveals one of the last remaining Turret Trainer buildings.
As far as I can determine (information on the internet is rather limited and the onsite museum etc makes no mention of this building) the building was used to train the turret gunners from the bomber crews. https://www.historyofsimulation.com/ proviides some details here together with an indication of how the original building would have looked (as borrowed with all credit from their website below):
The large frame would have held a plaster screen, the remains of which can be seen on the floor (and apparently was intact until the 1990s) and targets images would have been projected onto this with the trainee gunners tracking and "firing" at them. The buildings are now ruined with no roof remaining, and the graffiti would suggest that some of the local kids have made a trip to this rater remote (and muddy) bit of the country.
Bomb shelter flooded (and full of tree!)
What's left of the projector screen!
The surrounding countryside is littered with the buildings from the original airfield (this was a huge airfield in its prime) which can be seen as ruins or in use by the local farms. On a visit recently a trip through the rather marshy ground near old perimeter road reveals one of the last remaining Turret Trainer buildings.
As far as I can determine (information on the internet is rather limited and the onsite museum etc makes no mention of this building) the building was used to train the turret gunners from the bomber crews. https://www.historyofsimulation.com/ proviides some details here together with an indication of how the original building would have looked (as borrowed with all credit from their website below):
The large frame would have held a plaster screen, the remains of which can be seen on the floor (and apparently was intact until the 1990s) and targets images would have been projected onto this with the trainee gunners tracking and "firing" at them. The buildings are now ruined with no roof remaining, and the graffiti would suggest that some of the local kids have made a trip to this rater remote (and muddy) bit of the country.
Bomb shelter flooded (and full of tree!)
What's left of the projector screen!
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Could you just pop Sleap & mth & yr of visit in the title bar please.
