RAF Broadwell

RAF Broadwell
RAF Broadwell
Broadwell, Oxfordshire in England
	RAF Broadwell Shown within Oxfordshire
Coordinates	51°45′25″N1°38′22″W / 51.75694°N 1.63944°W
Site information
Owner	Air Ministry
Operator	Royal Air Force
Controlled by	RAF Transport Command
Site history
Built	1943
In use	1943–1947
Battles/wars	Second World War
Airfield information
Runways
00/00	Concrete
00/00	Concrete
00/00	Concrete

Last updated December 17, 2024

Royal Air Force Broadwell or more simply RAF Broadwell is a former Royal Air Force station located 2 miles north of Broadwell and 3 miles southeast of Burford, Oxfordshire, and within 2 miles of RAF Brize Norton.

History

No. 512 Squadron and No. 575 Squadron were based here, flying the Douglas Dakota.

In February 1944, No. 512 Squadron was transferred to No. 46 Group at RAF Broadwell. It was a tactical Dakota squadron and started training glider towing and parachute dropping. Its first operation in the new role was a leaflet drop on 17 April 1944 over France; this was followed by intensive flying in and out of France.

Broadwell took part in the D-Day assaults alongside nearby RAF Down Ampney and RAF Blakehill Farm. On the eve of D-Day, No. 575 Squadron dropped 5 Para into the invasion drop zone. On D-day itself, 512 Squadron can claim that they were the first planes over Normandy, as 3 Dakotas piloted by Fl Lt Hyde, W.O. James Proctor and a C Flight Flying Officer dropped a specialist team at 00.02 on 6 June to try and disrupt the Merville Gun Battery before the main assault. Later on 6 June, it towed 21 Horsa gliders into France. In the next few weeks it started a casualty evacuation service from France back to England.

In September 1944, it was involved in operations at Arnhem including dropping parachutists as part of Operation Market Garden, where the squadron suffered severe casualties.

The airfield continued to be a terminus for long-range transport operations to Europe, the Middle East and India.

The following units were here at some point:^[1]

No. 6 (RCAF) Casualty Air Evacuation Unit
No. 10 Squadron RAF
No. 21 Heavy Glider Conversion Unit RAF
No. 76 Squadron RAF
No. 77 Squadron RAF
No. 91 (Forward) Staging Post
No. 92 (Forward) Staging Post
No. 94 (Forward) Staging Post
No. 104 Terminal Staging Post
No. 105 (Major) Staging Post
No. 126 Staging Post
No. 271 Squadron RAF
No. 512 Squadron RAF
No. 575 Squadron RAF
No. 2792 Squadron RAF Regiment
No. 2807 Squadron RAF Regiment

Current use

The site has returned to farmland and has a large solar farm covering it.^[2]

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References

↑ "Broadwell". Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust . Retrieved 16 May 2020.
↑ "Solar farm planned for WW2 airfield". BBC News. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2020.

External links

Media related to RAF Broadwell at Wikimedia Commons

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[ABCT-1] "Broadwell". Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust . Retrieved 16 May 2020.

[2] "Solar farm planned for WW2 airfield". BBC News. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2020.

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