RAF Birch

Royal Air Force Birch or more simply RAF Birch is a former Royal Air Force station in Essex, England. The airfield is located 2 mi northeast of Tiptree; about 43 mi northeast of London

Opened in 1942, it was used by both the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces. During the war it was used primarily as a reserve transport airfield. It was closed after the war, in late 1945.

Today, the remains of the airfield are located on private property in agricultural use.

Royal Air Force use
The following units were here at some point:
 * No. 48 Squadron RAF
 * No. 233 Squadron RAF
 * No. 381 Maintenance Unit RAF
 * No. 382 Maintenance Unit RAF
 * No. 383 Maintenance Unit RAF
 * No. 384 Maintenance Unit RAF

United States Army Air Forces use
Birch was known by the USAAF as USAAF Station AAF-149 for security reasons and was referred to as such, instead of by location. Its USAAF Station Code was "BR".

Current use
After release from military control, the airfield was returned to agricultural use.

Today, most of the concreted areas have been removed for hardcore, leaving single-tracked farm roads along the main runway, one secondary runway, and parts of the perimeter track. Blind Lane (a public road) now runs along the other secondary runway (02/20), its original course having been displaced when the airfield was built. Some hardstanding is used by Essex Council for garden waste composting, the main site being accessed via the main runway. A few loop hardstands remain intact, off the remains of the single-tracked perimeter track along the north side of the airfield. However, other than these farm roads, there is little remaining of a wartime airfield that was never used, other than some ghostly disturbed areas visible in aerial photography. These represent loop dispersal hardstands and the long-since-removed perimeter track.