Monument record 8113/1 - Ammunition Depot

{1} No 233 Maintenance Unit Braybrooke officially opened as a Foreward Ammunition Depot on 15th May 1943. By July the site was transferred to the Americans, US 8th Air Service Command. The Depot "consisted of several miles of second class roads within the triangle formed by the villages of Braybrooke, Arthingworth and Desborough. The store capacity was 17,500 tons of bombs and it would serve up to 15 local heavy bomber airfields, plus the two fighter airfields at Atcham and Goxhill. After the war the site was quickly cleared and returned to the Ministry of Supply May 8 1946. In May 1990 there was virtually no trace of the Depot, however it is just possible to make out some of the bomb storage bays at the verge of the roads that served as the depot.

{2} With ref to 223 MU - "Many 500lb bombs were stacked along the roadsides, and at intervals prefabricated huts full of detonators. There were manned sentry boxes on the approach roads and farmers needed passes to get into there fields."

{3} Letter dated 21/10/1999 states "There are quite a few regularly spaced concrete bases on the south side of the Arthingworth to Desborough Road between SP770822 and SP773824."

{4} Part of [the field] next to the Arthingworth Road housed American airforce buildings. These remained until the early sixties and the outline of the foundations can be seen on aerial photos. Further along there are several pullins where ammunition was stored.

<1> HALPENNY B.B., 1991, Action Stations 2: Military Airfields of Lincolnshire and The East Midlands, p. 242 (unchecked) (Book). SNN45875.

<2> Northamptonshire Women's Institute, 1992, Northamptonshire Within Living Memory, p.191 (unchecked) (Chapter). SNN39673.

<3> Cadman G., 2014, 20th Century Military Archaeology in Northamptonshire: Logs 1, 2 & 3, p.225 (unchecked) (Report). SNN104868.

<4> Fisher, J., 2007, Ridge and Furrow at Desborough, (unchecked) (Correspondence). SNN106895.

Record last edited

Jul 9 2010 11:00AM