RAF Tempsford Memorial Barn

One of the hundreds of airfields set up by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) during WWII, RAF Tempsford was established in 1940. Placed between an old Roman road and the railway to Peterborough, it was an unique facility: Named Gibraltar Farm and designed to resemble a working farm, it was set up to help facilitate infiltrations by Allied special agents into Nazi-occupied Europe.

From RAF Tempsford, aircraft flew across the Channel to drop supplies to resistance movements, while Westland Lysander planes (you can see an example at the nearby Shuttleworth Collection) dropped or picked up agents who quickly clambered up and down a ladder kept outside the plane to enable touchdowns and takeoffs in mere minutes. Accounts of the agents, who included female members of the Special Operations Executive (or, as Churchill called it, the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare), are full of heroism and bravery, although many agents died in action.

After the war, the main barn, where agents received their gear and kits before flights, was preserved as a memorial to the agents, even as the rest of the airfield was converted back into farmland and for private commercial use. It now makes for a fascinating sight and poignant visit.