Royal Air Force Babdown Farm or more simply RAF Babdown Farm is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

relief landing ground located west of

Tetbury Tetbury is a town and civil parish inside the Cotswold district in England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, and south of

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...

, Gloucestershire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was open between 1940 and 1948 as a relief landing ground used by training units before being used by maintenance units for storage. Part of the site has since been converted into an industrial estate, while the rest is used for agriculture.

History

Babdown was built in 1940 as a relief landing ground (RLG) with two grass runways and a

flare path ''Flare Path'' is a play by Terence Rattigan, written in 1941 and first staged in 1942.Darlow, Michael"Terence Rattigan, Biography – War", ''Official Terence Rattigan website''. Retrieved 2011-02-22. Set in a hotel near an RAF Bomber Command ...

for No. 9 Service Flying Training School initially flying Hawker Audaxes before changing to

Miles Master The Miles M.9 Master was a British two-seat monoplane advanced trainer designed and built by aviation company Miles Aircraft Ltd. It was inducted in large numbers into both the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Fleet Air Arm (FAA) during the Second Wor ...

s and

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

s. The airfield was bombed in 1940 and 1941 but no serious damage was caused. In 1942 the base was redeveloped to full RLG standard through the addition of three Sommerfeld Tracking runways and blister hangars with associated perimeter track and additional buildings. It was occupied by No. 15 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit RAF from early 1944 until June 1945 and No. 1532 (Beam Approach Training) Flight RAF. The last aircraft left during June 1945. It was used until 1948 by

No. 7 Maintenance Unit RAF The following is a list of Royal Air Force Maintenance Units (MU). The majority of MUs were previously Equipment Depots (ED), Storage Depots (SD) and Aircraft Storage Units (ASU)s. No. 1 MU – No. 100 MU No. 101 MU – No. 200 MU No ...

storing and repairing Airspeed Oxfords. As with the majority of airfields hosting training units there were a number of serious and fatal accidents due to pilot error and ageing machines which had been repeatedly used by inexperienced crews. The following units were posted here at some point: * No. 3 Flying Instructors School (Advanced) RAF with Airspeed Oxfords and Miles Masters from 1942 until early 1944 * No. 3 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit RAF * No. 9 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit RAF * No. 251 Maintenance Unit RAF At its peak there were 571 RAF personnel and 223

Women's Auxiliary Air Force The Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF), whose members were referred to as WAAFs (), was the female auxiliary of the Royal Air Force during World War II. Established in 1939, WAAF numbers exceeded 180,000 at its peak strength in 1943, with over 2 ...

(WAAF) personnel based at Babdown.

Current use

The site is now partially occupied by an industrial estate known as "Babdown Airfield" and the remainder has been returned to agriculture.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Babdown Farm Royal Air Force stations in Gloucestershire