Twin Bases - RAF Bentwaters, RAF Woodbridge


History CD

 


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"Bentwaters: The Living Years"

by Graham Haynes

 BUY this CD NOW! 
 £32 
charged to your US$ credit card packed and posted to your home

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Woodbridge Books
66 Thoroughfare
Woodbridge
Suffolk IP12 1AL
United Kingdom

Email rgreen(a)woodbridge3.freeserve.co.uk 
Fax International +44 1394 382382
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Below are some samples of the pictures.

The first one I have left at the original quality and size.
The other seven have been reduced in quality from the original on the CD.
All these sample images carry a disfiguring notice which is not present on the CD images.
Click on the thumbnails to see the full-size picture.

f86a-sabre-joewilliams(c).jpg (247180 bytes)

a10-stormhitdispersal(c).jpg (141601 bytes)

a10thunderbolt(c).jpg (31442 bytes)

f100d-zell(c).jpg (53075 bytes)

f101voodoo(c).jpg (37645 bytes)

towerandvoodoos-micksudds(c).jpg (43802 bytes)

f4phantom(c).jpg (35283 bytes)

voodoopilots-georgepennick(c).jpg (63421 bytes)

Question: Is it worth the cover price?

Answers:
1. What price would you put on a lifetime of memories?
2. Can you afford to miss this limited-edition opportunity?
3. If you're still not sure, take a look at the associated web site

Comment from Paul C Low:

"I told Graham right away what I thought of all his work on that CD. Great piece of work..."

 

Review by Linn Barringer, April 2001

Someone asked me about this CD, "Is it just photographs from Commie Corner?"
Now I can answer with an emphatic "No, it is much more than that."

Yes, there are plenty of (high quality) pictures from Commie Corner but there are hundreds of other equally high quality, mostly screen-filling, pictures.  But the CD is not just a compendium of pictures - it is a thoroughly researched electronic book about Bentwaters.

Content

The CD has an Introduction by the author and Foreword by Major General Roger R. Radcliff USAF (ret). With just three other sections, it doesn't look much at first.  But, as you progress through the pages, it turns out to be over 260 Megabytes of stories, histories, biographies, planes, patches and people.  As you read through the histories of Bentwaters and Woodbridge, where there is a mention of a particular squadron, there is a link to a separate page about that squadron, with history, patches, maps, pictures as appropriate. Similarly with mentions of aircraft there is a link to a gallery of pictures, including visiting aircraft. So the CD contains much more than it first appears.
Here's the full content list:
Foreword by Major General Roger R. Radcliff, the 'Twin Bases' last commander
History of both RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge
History of the 81st TFW and its component squadrons (78th, 91st, 92nd, 509th, 510th and 511th TFSs and the 527th AS. Also 116th FIS)
Biographies of 81st Commanders
81st TFW patch gallery
History of other non-81st squadrons based at Bentwaters (87th FIS & 512th FIS)
Descriptions & technical info of every USAF aircraft type that was based at Bentwaters (majority with separate photo galleries). These are: Boeing SB-29, Grumman SA-16A Albatross, North American F-86A Sabre, Stinson L-5E Sentinel, Douglas TB-26C Invader, North American F-86D Sabre Dog, Republic F-84F Thunderstreak, de Havilland Canada L-20A Beaver, Lockheed T-33A, Douglas C-47D Skytrain, McDonnell F-101A/C Voodoo, North American T-39A Sabreliner, McDonnell Douglas F-4C/D Phantom II, Fairchild Republic A-10A Thunderbolt II, General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon
Photo galleries & descriptions (inc. aerial photos) of the Bentwaters infrastructure (buildings, weapons strores etc.)
Visiting aircraft photo gallery
Open Day photo gallery
The Woodbridge section follows similar lines and includes:
History of the 20th TFW, 79th TFS, 67th SOS, 21st SOS
Descriptions & technical info of Woodbridge-based aircraft types (only those not covered in Bentwaters section). These are: Republic F-84G Thunderjet, North American F-100D/F Super Sabre, Sikorsky HH-3E Jolly Green Giant, Kaman HH-43B/F Huskie, Sikorsky HH-53C Super Jolly Green Giant, Lockheed HC-130H Hercules, Lockheed HC-130N Hercules, Lockheed HC-130P Hercules, Sikorsky MH-53J Pave Low IIIE, (again all with photos, F-100 with separate gallery)
Photo galleries & descriptions (inc. aerial photos) of the Woodbridge infrastructure
Section & photo gallery on Exercise Hazel Flute 94 - the 2-week RAF Harrier deployment to Bentwaters in September 1994.
There are around 1200 photos/images on the CD-ROM and a lot of text!

Quality

Just a few of the pictures are from the same source as those that appear on this web site. However, because of web download times, I always reduce the physical image size, and reduce picture quality.  Because the CD is viewed directly, Graham has been able to use large, high quality pictures.

Memories

But remember, this is not just a CD of pictures.  Anybody who enjoys this web site, will also enjoy Graham's CD. And, if  you served at Bentwaters (or Woodbridge) you just might be able to spot some old friends (architectural, mechanical or human!) among the stories and pictures.  You could call this CD "The companion CD to Linn Barringer's Bentwaters Web Site."


Collecting and sharing contributions about the Twin Bases of RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk, England since 1995. Copyright © 1995-2009 Linn Barringer, All Rights Reserved.