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 Castle Combe, just outside the Wiltshire village of the same name, was created to support the RAF’s huge wartime flying training programme. It opened in May 1941 on land owned by the Castle Combe estate and initially served as a practice landing ground and relief field for nearby RAF Hullavington, home to a major flying training school. This relationship – main station plus satellites – was typical of the training system, allowing aircraft to spread out, reducing congestion, and providing alternative landing options when weather or workload made the parent base difficult to use.
The station’s day-to-day life was shaped by the realities of intensive training. A grass airfield in Wiltshire could become waterlogged, and repeated circuits by training aircraft quickly churned surfaces into unsafe conditions. To keep Castle Combe usable, Sommerfeld tracking was laid to create runway strips, supported by a perimeter track and dispersal points that allowed aircraft to taxi and park away from the landing area. These practical engineering measures were vital: the RAF’s training effort depended on keeping aircraft flying consistently, even when weather and heavy use made grass airfields unreliable.
Castle Combe’s wartime role remained centred on training and instructor development. As the war progressed, the station supported advanced phases of pilot instruction and was associated with units involved in producing instructors and improving flying standards. Aircraft such as the Airspeed Oxford were common in the training environment, used for navigation, instrument flying and multi-engine familiarisation depending on unit requirements. For trainees, the satellite experience was crucial: repeated landings at unfamiliar fields built confidence, improved judgement and prepared pilots for the variety of airfields they might encounter later in service.
While not a frontline combat base, RAF Castle Combe still experienced the pressures and risks of wartime flying. Training accidents, mechanical failures and weather-related incidents were part of the background reality at training stations across Britain. Ground crews worked constantly to keep aircraft safe and serviceable, handling routine maintenance, repairing minor damage and ensuring that fuel, spares, communications and airfield services were available for a high volume of daily sorties.
The post-war story adds another significant layer. From 1946 to 1948, the station’s buildings were used as temporary accommodation for Polish ex-service personnel, reflecting the complex human aftermath of the war and the presence of many Allied veterans who could not or did not return home. The airfield was decommissioned in 1948 and returned to civilian ownership.
Castle Combe’s later conversion into a motor racing circuit has preserved elements of the wartime landscape in an unusual way. The control tower survives and remains in use, and parts of the perimeter track and airfield layout echo in the modern circuit. RAF Castle Combe therefore offers a tangible reminder of the wartime training machine: a satellite field where thousands of circuits were flown, skills were built through repetition, and the RAF’s operational strength was quietly sustained.