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 Honeybourne, near Evesham on the Worcestershire-Gloucestershire border, was developed during the war as part of the RAF’s expanding network of training and support airfields. The Midlands and western counties were useful for this purpose: they provided space, relative distance from the most heavily attacked coasts, and airspace where repeated training patterns could be flown with manageable congestion.
Honeybourne’s wartime identity is best understood as supportive and flexible. Stations in this category commonly acted as satellites to larger training units, taking the overflow of circuits and landings practice and providing additional runway availability. Training output was an industrial requirement. Crews needed hours of practice in navigation, instrument flying and landing procedures before progressing to conversion units and operational squadrons. By distributing training across multiple airfields, the RAF reduced risk and kept throughput high. Honeybourne’s value, therefore, lay in capacity and safety as much as in any single resident unit.
Support airfields also strengthened resilience. Weather, accidents and infrastructure problems could close a parent station unexpectedly. When that happened, satellites provided alternative landing grounds and prevented training backlogs. They could also accept diversion landings from aircraft returning along operational routes, especially in poor visibility. These roles were often invisible in wartime headlines, but they saved lives and preserved aircraft.
The station’s ground organisation reflected its purpose. Flying control and signals managed traffic, meteorology informed safe flying decisions, crash and fire services responded to incidents, and maintenance teams kept training aircraft serviceable under heavy usage. The personnel mix included instructors, trainees and a large proportion of technical and support staff, alongside WAAF members central to communications and administration. Life on such a station was defined by routine and repetition, but the pressure was real: maintaining output without allowing standards to slip was essential because mistakes in training could become fatal in operations.
- Primary wartime role: training support and relief capacity within the Midlands/western RAF network.
- Typical activity: circuit training, navigation and instrument practice, diversion and relief landings, and short-term unit support.
- Why it mattered: reduced congestion and risk while maintaining steady training throughput.
After the war, many support airfields returned quickly to civilian use, leaving lighter physical traces than major bomber bases. Honeybourne’s historical significance lies in representing the ‘middle layer’ of air power: the training and redundancy infrastructure that allowed the RAF to sustain operations over years by continuously producing competent crews and providing spare runway capacity when it was most needed.
The airfield’s contribution therefore sits in the same category as many training satellites: it made the whole system safer. By providing more room to practice, it reduced the likelihood of mid-air conflicts and runway incidents. In wartime terms, fewer accidents meant more aircraft available and more aircrew surviving to become operational. That is why even modest support fields deserve attention.
It also reflects the RAF’s ability to scale training rapidly. When demand rose, the service expanded flying across satellites and relief grounds rather than overloading a single base. Honeybourne’s role fits that scalable approach, one of the reasons Britain could maintain throughput under pressure.