Memorial stones for forgotten wartime airfields

The Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust arranged for the two stones to be laid

Memorials have been unveiled at two World War Two airfields.

RAF Atcham and RAF High Ercall in Shropshire both saw use as training bases and USA airmen were stationed at both later in the war.

The memorials have been arranged by the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust to remember the people who served there and the role they played in the war.

Today, the airfields have gone and have been replaced by business units and farmland.

Colin Wildblood, the chair of Atcham Parish Council and son of Leading Aircraftsman Reginald Wildblood, who served at the base, said: "Maybe we should be doing more to remember airfields like this.

"I think maybe the general population don't even know they are here."

The memorial stones remember all those who served at the two bases

Kenneth Bannerman, the chairman and founder of the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust, said: "Atcham was a major airfield in World War Two for both the Royal Air Force and the Americans."

He also said it was "an advanced fighter training airfield and played a really big part in the winning of World War Two".

RAF Atcham initially opened as an RAF fighter airfield in 1941, before US pilots arrived the following year to train in P-47 fighters.

Part of it now forms Atcham Business Park, but there are still traces remaining, including one of the runways, which is now part of the B4394.

RAF Atcham became a training base for US pilots

High Ercall's airfield was used by RAF Maintenance Command at the start of the war, before being used by night fighter pilots in 1941.

In 1942 it too became a base for US pilots, who flew Spitfires.

Later in the war it also became a training base and it is now used by Greenhous Group, which stores cars there.