When large shipments of ammunition be-
gan to arrive in late August, more depots
were needed. A site surveyed by the British
but not yet used was found in the Cots-
wolds, northeast of Cheltenham. Activated
as Kingham (O-670) on 11 September,
this depot became by early 1943 the larg-
est U.S. ammunition depot in England.
Kingham is recorded as being AAF number 543 under 8th Air Force Service Command. It is actually due east of Cheltenham and on a main rail line. I had not seen this listed as also being an Ordnance Depot.
In my original list of USAAF temporary ammo storage sites (from some TNA file) I had 'Kinghorn', which I spent ten years plus trying to trace. Paul Bellamy alerted me to Kingham, and I noticed that on the fourth carbon from a bad typewriter, the 'orn' could easily have been confused with 'am'. The thing which frustrated me was that it was down as the largest site, with 25,000 tons capacity. It had to be somewhere.
We use cookies to improve our website and your experience when using it. Cookies used for the essential operation of this site have already been set. By continuing to use this site you are agreeing to this. To find out more about the cookies we use and how to delete them, see our privacy policy.