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 Squires Gate – better known today as Blackpool Airport – was requisitioned by the Air Ministry before the war and expanded rapidly from 1938 onward. Its coastal position on the Lancashire shore gave it several wartime roles: fighter and night-fighter protection for the industrial North-West and Irish Sea approaches, Coastal Command training and operations, and large-scale ground training and technical instruction supported by Blackpool’s abundant accommodation and transport links.
Operational squadrons stationed at Squires Gate during the war included bomber and fighter units in the opening months, and later fighter and night-fighter elements such as No. 96 Squadron and No. 256 Squadron. No. 256 Squadron is particularly associated with the Boulton Paul Defiant, an early-war turret fighter that served as a night fighter over Britain before being replaced by more capable types. The station also hosted No. 308 (Polish) Fighter Squadron for an extended period in 1940-41, reflecting how exiled Polish airmen formed and operated squadrons from British bases after the fall of Poland and France.
Squires Gate was also a major training and instructional centre. RAF Coastal Command established an operational presence, and specialist schools included the School of General Reconnaissance, which trained aircrews for maritime reconnaissance using aircraft such as the Avro Anson and Blackburn Botha – types suited to navigation, observation and over-water procedure training in the Irish Sea. Alongside aircrew training, the station hosted the No. 5 School of Technical Training for air mechanics, producing skilled tradesmen needed to keep the RAF’s aircraft serviceable in combat conditions. The wider ‘training wing’ concept at Blackpool meant large numbers of recruits received basic instruction and drills, using the town’s facilities for accommodation and training activities.
A distinctive industrial chapter was the Vickers ‘shadow factory’ built on the airfield. This wartime production facility manufactured and assembled large numbers of Vickers Wellington bombers, which were then tested and delivered from the airfield. Shadow factories were a key part of Britain’s strategy to disperse aircraft production and increase output under the threat of bombing, and Squires Gate’s role in turning out Wellingtons connects it directly to Bomber Command’s operational capability.
By 1945, RAF Squires Gate had contributed in multiple ways: as an operational fighter base, a Coastal Command training location, a technical training centre, and an aircraft production and delivery site. After the war the airfield returned to civilian use, but its wartime footprint remains visible in the airport’s layout and surviving buildings. The story of Squires Gate is therefore not a single-unit narrative but a layered one – showing how one station could combine defence, training and production to meet the shifting demands of total war.
For researchers and visitors, RAF Squires Gate can often be understood through the surviving pattern of its runways, perimeter track and dispersal points. Even where buildings have vanished, aerial photographs and ground traces can reveal the technical site, the former station entrance, and the ‘domestic’ camps where personnel lived. These physical clues help connect the local landscape to the wider wartime system of aircrew generation, logistics and operations.