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 Broadwell lay on the Oxfordshire-Cotswolds fringe, a few miles south-east of Burford and close to RAF Brize Norton. Built as a concrete-runway station and opened on 15 November 1943, Broadwell arrived late in the war Рyet it stepped straight into one of the most demanding jobs of all: moving men and matériel by air for the liberation of Europe.
Broadwell operated under RAF Transport Command and became part of No. 46 Group’s cluster of airborne-forces airfields in the region. The station’s triangular runway pattern and dispersals were designed for high-tempo transport flying, and from the outset the airfield’s rhythm was set by Dakotas (the RAF’s name for the Douglas C-47). These aircraft carried paratroops and stores, towed assault gliders, evacuated casualties, and linked Britain with forward air routes as the campaign moved onto the continent.
Two of Broadwell’s best-known wartime residents were No. 512 Squadron and No. 575 Squadron, both Dakota squadrons that trained and operated in the airborne role. Broadwell also hosted No. 271 Squadron RAF and specialist organisations such as a Casualty Air Evacuation Unit and RAF Regiment elements tasked with ground defence. Alongside the flying squadrons, Broadwell saw a succession of staging posts and terminal units – evidence that it was as seen as a processing and routing hub as well as a flying base.
By 1944 Transport Command’s mission was shifting from routine freight and personnel movement to large-scale airborne operations – flights that had to place formations over precise release points, often at night and often under fire. That demanded disciplined navigation, radio procedure, formation keeping and reliable instrument flying. A further sign of the airborne focus was the presence of heavy glider conversion activity in the locality, as crews trained to tow and handle larger assault gliders used to deliver troops, guns and vehicles.
For D-Day, Broadwell’s Dakotas trained for and flew missions connected to Operation Neptune, including glider-towing and transport work in support of the landings. Later in the year the station’s Dakota force was involved in Operation Market Garden (Arnhem), when aircraft towed gliders carrying airborne troops and equipment into the Netherlands. These missions were hazardous: low-level transit, intense flak, and the additional drag and vulnerability that came with towing a large wooden glider, often into weather that made navigation and timing even harder.
The station closed on 31 March 1947, part of the post-war drawdown that saw many wartime airfields returned to agriculture. Even so, Broadwell’s wartime significance is clear. It was built not for glamour, but for throughput – an operational factory for airborne warfare and logistics where Dakotas, crews and ground staff helped deliver key operations in 1944-45 and kept the flow of people and supplies moving until victory.