In March 1942 1,250,000 US servicemen were now based in the UK and were seeking placement. At the end of the month the headmistress of Wycombe Abbey School received an official notice stating that in less than 2 week’s time the girls would have to vacate the site for the USAAF 8th Bomber Command.
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On their first night at the school the internal communication system broke down as next to each bed was a bell and the sign ‘if distressed during the night please ring for mistress.’
For the next 3.5 years this base became known as ‘Pinetree.’ It was numbered 101 in list of USAAF bases and no base had a lower number.
The pristine Abbey grounds were soon being churned up by heavy trucks whilst the verdant slopes became decorated with tents and Nissen Huts. Also set up were parade grounds, guard posts, kitchens and mess halls. A baseball diamond and basketball courts were built whilst the chapel became the movie theatre. By the end of the war some 12,000 military personnel were stationed here.
When the American GIs arrived in Wycombe they brought with them candy, Coca-Cola, cigarettes and nylon stockings. Wages were 5 times as much as the British Tommies with no living expenses. The GI’s were slick and gum-chewing and had plenty of time and money for fun. And the local unmarried girls couldn’t believe their luck!
The popular refrain of the time—that the Americans were “over-paid, over-sexed and over here”—encapsulated a complex mixture of local admiration, gratitude, and resentment. Nowhere was this interaction more personal than in the phenomenon of the “GI Brides.” In time many local girls married American servicemen perhaps meeting their future husbands in the local pub, the Flint Cottage, which even had its dedicated “Yank’s Bar”.
Before venturing overseas GIs had been issued with a booklet: ‘Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain 1942’. And here are some of the pertinent messages contained within:
You will find that England is a small country – smaller than N Carolina or Iowa. If you are from Boston or Seattle the weather may remind you of home; if you are from Arizona or N Dakota you will find it hard to get used to.
In ‘getting along’ the first important thing to remember is that the British are like the Americans in many ways – but not in all ways. You will quickly discover differences that seem confusing or even wrong. Like driving on the left side of the road, and having money based on an ‘impossible’ accounting system, and drinking warm beer. But once you get used to things like that, you will realise that they belong to England just as much as baseball and jazz and coca-cola belong to us.
You will naturally be interested in getting to know your opposite number, the British soldier, the ‘Tommy’ you have heard and read about. You can understand that two actions on your part will slow up the friendship – swiping his girls, and not appreciating what his army has been up against. Yes, and rubbing it in that you are better paid than he is.
The British don’t know how to make a good cup of coffee. You don’t know how to make a good cup of tea. It is an even swap.
The best authority on all problems is the nearest bobby ‘policeman’ in his steel helmet. British police are proud of being able to answer almost any question under the sun. They’re not in a hurry and they will take plenty of time to talk to you.
One thing to be careful about – if you are invited into a British home and the host exhorts you to ‘eat up there’s plenty off the table’, go easy. It may be the family’s ration for a whole week spread out to show their hospitality.
In the UK women have won the right to the utmost respect. When you see a girl in khaki or air-force blue with a bit of ribbon on her tunic – remember she didn’t get it for knitting more socks than anyone else in Ipswich.
In the early months a bunker was erected 25 feet underground costing £200,000. The Pinetree Command Centre comprised three floors extending over 23,000 sq ft and covered in concrete. It had air conditioning which kept temperatures at a steady 20ºC. Emergency power and food/water supplies allowed the underground complex to be self-supporting. Liaising with RAF Bomber Command at nearby Naphill under Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris, from this secret underground operations room bombing raids over western Europe were conceived, planned and directed. And when the signal was given US war planes took off from dozens of airfields in the east of England to attack the Third Reich. On one day, 24 Dec 1944, it dispatched 2034 heavy bombers (and 936 fighters) to hit targets behind enemy lines.
This was the home of the biggest military communications hub in the country. There was a telephone exchange installed which dealt with an estimated 14,000 calls a day – the largest telephone switchboard in England.
The first man in charge at ‘Pinetree’ was Brigadier-General Ira Eaker. On his arrival one of the first things he said was ‘We won’t do much talking until we’ve done more fighting. After we’ve gone, we hope you’ll be glad we came.’
On 6 January 1944 Brig-General James Doolittle took over. He was charged with ensuring that whenever D Day came there was not an enemy aircraft to be seen in the sky anywhere near the landing zones.
A welcome break from the constant pressure was when the 65 strong band of Glenn Miller made up of service personnel played to the troops here on 29 July, 1944. Their signature tune was ‘Moonlight serenade’. This was one of Miller’s last concerts before his plane went missing over the English Channel on 15 December, 1944 on his way to Paris. Actors James Stewart and Clark Gable also passed through ‘Pinetree’.
The US forces vacated Wycombe Abbey in July 1945.
General Eaker was given the Freedom of the Borough of Chepping Wycombe on 23 February, 1946. In his acceptance speech Eaker said it gave him ‘great happiness to come back to High Wycombe for many reasons. I have always thought that one the greatest evidences of the kindness and hospitality extended from the earliest moment of our arrival was that you made available to us one of the finest landscapes in the whole island – Wycombe Abbey School’.
By 1952, with the onset of the Cold War, US troops in the shape of the 7th Air Division of US Strategic Air Command were back again. This time they were based up Marlow Hill at Daws Hill House where US and RAF Bomber Commands had met during the Second World War to discuss bombing operations. The bunker was reinforced against nuclear attack and equipped to direct US nuclear bombers and, later, cruise missiles. This development placed this quiet Buckinghamshire town on the front line of global nuclear strategy.
This overt nuclear role had significant local consequences. Between 1982 and 1985, a peace camp was established outside the base gates, with protesters demonstrating against the deployment of American cruise missiles on British soil.
Following the end of the Cold War, the bunker was deactivated in 1993 and the base gradually wound down and was officially closed in 2007. Then the land was sold for redevelopment in 2011. Today, the site is a housing estate called “Pine Trees,” a direct reference to the old headquarters’ codename. Street names such as Kennedy Avenue, Arizona Way, and Eisenhower Lower Close, Eaker Street and Doolittle Avenue serve as a permanent reminder of the base’s American legacy. In a fitting final chapter, the historic bunker itself was granted Grade II listed status in 2013, preserving its unique structure as a monument of national and international importance. The bunker currently sits inside the grounds of Wycombe Abbey School.
Today RAF Naphill is the HQ of UK Space Command.