RAF Folkingham in Lincolnshire used to host the bustle of soldiers and war vehicles during World War II and the Cold War. Now, it is abandoned with only rusting and rotting military vehicles left as testaments of the war that once raged around the globe.
Many of the vehicles that line along the north and south main runways of the base were once very useful vehicles that helped won the World War II for Britain. The war machines were very efficient allies during the battle on the beaches of Normandy.
In 1963, RAF Folkingham was shut down and the war vehicles were then left at the mercy of the forces. In the abandoned base, various vehicles including decommissioned military vehicles, lorries and agricultural vehicles collect dust and rust due to decades of desertion. The oldest of the vehicles date back from the 1940s and were used to expel invading German forces during the Second World War.
The once bustling 6,000 ft-long runway of the RAF base is but a forsaken graveyard of parked old military vehicles which have surrendered their fate to time and the forces.
“It is quite eerie – the vehicles were stretched along the runway for as far as I could see. I couldn’t even see the end of the line,” Vernon reportedly said.
“It is in the middle of nowhere and it was very cold. I wasn’t sure I was supposed to be there so I was very careful not to disturb the vehicles,” he added.
Among the collection of decommissioned war vehicles in the DUKW amphibious truck. The said truck was used during the D-Day landings. Other World War II vehicles also include pump engines and military trucks.
Farming vehicles also scatter on the site including agricultural tractors, earth-movers, bulldozers and JCBs.
Vernon, 36, also noted the other signs of life which thrive in the site but they were apparently not soldiers and military personnel.
“I saw the antlers poking out of the crane and when I went for a closer look I saw two deer heads in there. One was on the drivers seat and the other was at the back of the cab,” Vernon said.
‘They can’t have been there long, they were still quite intact. I have no idea why they were there, or how they got there,” he noted further.
RAF Folkingham was used as a military air base during the World War II by the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force. It was a fully operational airfield which opened in 1940.
The air field is located 30 miles south of Lincoln. For 23 years, the airfield including the host of military vehicles served Britain’s war effort from World War II to the Cold War.
In August of 1963, the RAF air base was shut down and sold for agricultural use being situated in the middle of the countryside.
Today the vehicles which can be found littered on the private property are owned by Nelson M. Green and Sons Ltd. They left the hundreds of scrap vehicles along the runway to sell the spare parts.