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Welcome to the Bentwaters Cold War Museum –  this site will provide you with all the information you need to find out more about the museum, and to plan your visit. The museum is an ideal all weather visitor attraction, and is run by volunteers from the Bentwaters Aviation Society – further information on the society and museum project can be found on their website here.


What can you see at the museum?

The museum is based in the former USAF hardened command post on the former Bentwaters airfield, we believe that currently this is the only such building open to the public in the UK and Europe. The main “war operations room” and “Battle cabin” have been restored to original condition, the BT telephone exchange room, and decontamination showers and airlock are also as original. Other rooms within the building have been turned into exhibition rooms, covering the history of RAF Bentwaters from W.W.II until the base closed in 1993. Included in this are histories of the units that operated form the airfield, particularly the 81st FW

 


Another room is dedicated to the history of the other airfield which was part of the “twin base” complex RAF Woodbridge, again covering the period from W.W.II until the present day.
We have other exhibition rooms featuring information on the “Special Operations/Rescue Squadrons” that were based at RAF Woodbridge, and also the “Aggressor” Squadron based at Bentwaters.

 

 

Visitor's Guide

You can download our Visitor's Guide by going to the Visitor Info page, or by clicking the image below. It is in PDF format for easy downloading and reading on you computer/phone/tablet.

Here are some comments made after our 2013 season opening weekend …

 

Michelle Allen -  Had an excellent visit today thank you. It was great to have so many knowledgeable and passionate staff on hand to make the museum come to life. Looking forward to my next visit.

Justin Ward - Really can’t say enough good things about BCWM. As far as aviation museums go, this must now rank up there as one of the best in East Anglia. Where BCWM really excels though, is with its staff. The knowledge displayed by the 4-5 i spoke to about the history of Bentwaters, and the items displayed within the museum was amazing. I get the impression there is a real passion amongst them for what they are doing. Really looking forward to the summer open day now, when hopefully all the outdoor exhibits can be displayed fully. Massive pat on the back to everyone involved- you can sit back this evening and be very proud of yourselves!

Matthew North -  Came up today with my 4 year old nephew. He really enjoyed the alien hunt and I’m going to come back by myself and have a real good look around as I saw many things that I found interesting! You guys are doing a fantastic job and I hope you are all really proud of yourselves and the hard work you have put in.

Steve Harvey - Was my first visit today, came with my father, an excellent museum, very interesting, lots of memories of great aircraft. Look forward to coming again.