WONZ 297 – Wings Over Britain: Bottisham

The Wings Over New Zealand Show

Guest: Jason Webb

Host: Dave Homewood

Recorded: 26th of July 2023

Published: 15th of February 2024

Duration: 16 minutes, 31 seconds

In this mini-episode of Wings Over Britain Dave Homewood meets Jason Webb at the Bottisham Airfield Museum, at former RAF Bottisham in Cambridgeshire. The museum presents the history of the wartime station, which has now reverted back to countryside, including its time as a Royal Air Force station with Army Cooperation P-40s and Mustangs, and then as a USAAF fighter base with Mustangs. It also covers the local area’s war efforts with displays depicting the Home Front organisations such as the Home Guard and Air Raid Precautions (ARP) units.

The museum is located in genuine wartime buildings from the airfield, and includes recreations of various offices and living quarters to show how life was there during WWII, plus lots of aviation artefacts, genuine uniforms, models, photos and much more depicting the base’s history, and there is a stunningly realistic replica P-51D Mustang “Lou IV” acting as centrepiece and gate guard.

Quick Links:
• Bottisham Airfield Museum Website
• Bottisham Airfield Museum on Facebook

Jason Webb with the Mustang replica.

Jason Webb took Dave Homewood and Mike Shreeve for a drive in the Jeep around the perimeter of the former airfield to show where its boundaries used to stretch to. See the video Dave took below:

The music in this episode is I Vow To Thee, My Country by Gustav Holst.

Thanks to Mike Shreeve for his assistance with this episode.