Full WW2 control tower details and photos for this wartime airfield are coming soon. Please check back later as this is work progress. If you would like to contribute information or photos please get in touch.
RAF Benbecula, on the windswept islands of the Outer Hebrides, was shaped by geography. Sitting on the Atlantic edge of Britain, the station looked out toward the ‘Faroes-Iceland gap’, a critical corridor where German U-boats threatened Allied convoys. Benbecula’s wartime role therefore belonged to Coastal Command: long-range patrols, convoy protection, and the slow, exhausting hunt for submarines and surface raiders in some of the harshest flying conditions in Europe.
The site had a pre-war civilian aviation presence, but from 1941-42 it became a Royal Air Force station under Coastal Command control. The airfield was classed as a General Reconnaissance base and operated aircraft that could stay aloft for long periods over cold ocean. Types associated with the station included the Lockheed Hudson and, notably, long-range Boeing Fortress aircraft used in the anti-submarine role, as well as Vickers Wellingtons adapted for maritime patrol work.
Several squadrons are linked with Benbecula’s operational history. From 1942, No. 206 Squadron operated Fortresses from the airfield, with No. 220 Squadron augmenting the effort in 1943. As tactics and equipment evolved, Fortresses were replaced by Wellington units including No. 179 Squadron and the Polish-manned No. 304 Squadron, whose crews continued the difficult grind of patrols in hostile weather, often flying for hours without sight of land. Later, No. 36 Squadron took over as the war moved into its final phase, and Benbecula’s aircraft remained part of the protective screen that helped keep the Atlantic lifeline open.
The operational rhythm at Benbecula was very different from a bomber station in Lincolnshire. Sorties were long, navigation depended on careful dead reckoning and radio aids, and crews had to manage fatigue, icing risk and rapidly changing Atlantic fronts. Successful missions often produced no dramatic combat, yet their cumulative effect was enormous: deterring U-boat attacks, spotting contacts, forcing submarines to dive, and guiding surface escorts to threats before convoys were hit.
After the war the airfield transitioned into today’s Benbecula Airport, and modern buildings sit among wartime remnants. Benbecula’s Second World War story remains a powerful example of Coastal Command’s essential, sometimes overlooked contribution: persistent patrols from remote bases that helped keep Britain supplied and the Allied invasion effort viable.
Remote stations like Benbecula required strong local logistics: fuel, spares and food had to be shipped or flown in, and maintenance teams had to be self-sufficient when weather cut lines of supply.
Coastal Command patrols also generated intelligence – reporting shipping sightings, weather conditions and enemy movement patterns that fed into wider operational planning.
Even when aircraft did not engage the enemy, forcing a U-boat to dive could disrupt an attack and protect a convoy, making ‘quiet’ missions strategically valuable.
For visitors and researchers today, the most rewarding approach is to combine surviving site evidence (perimeter tracks, dispersal loops, building footprints) with squadron ORBs, logbooks and local testimony, which together recreate how the station worked day to day.