Home found for Second World War relic

Piece of history recovered from Thatcham garden set for new museum

A HOME has been found for this piece of history that had been sitting in a Thatcham garden.

As previously reported in the , the Kennet Valley at War Trust jumped in to action to salvage a Second World War glider crate.

The trust has now said that Philip Walker of Walker Logistics at Membury has taken the glider crate and put it into storage.

Mr Walker is forming a collection, with the assistance of the trust, to create a museum dedicated to the Second World War activities of Membury and other airfields in the Kennet Valley.

He is also in the process of restoring a Douglas C-47 aircraft that flew from Membury as part of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.

It is planned that the aeroplane will take to the skies again in 2019.

Glider crates were used to transport Waco CG4A gliders during the Second World War.

The gliders were most famously used to transport paratroopers into Normandy ahead of the D-Day landings.

RAF Greenham Common, which was turned over to the USAAF Ninth Air Force in 1943, became a staging ground for the invasion force and saw thousands of crates appear at the eastern end.

The gliders were disassembled and shipped in the crates to an airfield, where they were later
reconstructed by mechanics.

A shantytown soon appeared at Greenham as the empty glider boxes became accommodation and workshops for the men involved in their construction.