Middleton Hall, RAF Mildenhall
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Middleton Hall, RAF Mildenhall by Bob Jones as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Middleton Hall, RAF Mildenhall
Image: © Bob Jones Taken: 14 Oct 2008
When the airbase was in the hands of the Royal Air Force, this building was the Officers' Mess. The base is now administered by the United States Air Force and Middleton Hall has been maintained in its original condition and is used for special occasions, such as entertaining visiting dignitaries. New arrivals at the Base are also given their induction lecture at the Hall. Middleton Hall is named after Flight Sergeant Rawdon Middleton who commanded a Short Stirling aircraft back to the English coast after a raid across the Swiss Alps to Turin, Italy. The Short Stirling was not designed for high altitude work and for this raid, Middleton and other squadron aircraft were forced to fly through the various passes over the Alps to reach their target. Middleton was badly wounded by flak over the target and under dreadful conditions flew the aircraft back across the Alps to England. Upon reaching the English coast and almost out of fuel, Middleton realizing he could not reach an airfield and insisted his crew bail out. The aircraft then turned out to sea and was lost.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
52.37186
Longitude
0.474746