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 Valley on Anglesey, opened for operations on 1 February 1941, was built with a clear wartime purpose: to protect the north-west of England and the vital shipping lanes of the Irish Sea. As a Fighter Sector Station under No. 9 Group, it sat in a strategic position – close enough to respond quickly to threats over water, yet far enough from the south-east that it could also function as a resilient backstop if enemy activity shifted. The airfield’s early months were defined by defensive urgency, frequent weather challenges, and the reality that aircraft operating over sea needed rapid rescue support.
Initial fighter cover was provided by Hawker Hurricanes, with detachments from 312 (Czechoslovak) Squadron and 615 (County of Surrey) Squadron. Night defence followed, including Bristol Beaufighters from 219 (Mysore) Squadron providing nocturnal cover. Valley also became linked to the Royal Australian Air Force: No. 456 Squadron RAAF formed here on 30 June 1941 and became operational in September flying Boulton Paul Defiants before re-equipping with Beaufighter IIs. These night fighters patrolled the Irish Sea approaches, aiming to intercept intruders and protect shipping and industrial targets during the dark hours when navigation errors and surprise raids could be deadly.
The Irish Sea environment shaped Valley’s story in another way: the high volume of training and operational flying over water led to accidents, and air-sea rescue became a critical local mission. No. 275 Squadron formed at Valley in October 1941 with Westland Lysanders and Supermarine Walrus amphibians, conducting rescue work until it moved out in 1944. In practical terms this meant crews, spotters, and rescue boats working in grim conditions to locate and recover downed aircrew – an unglamorous but life-saving part of the wartime aviation system.
From 1943 Valley gained an additional, and often overlooked, strategic role: a major United States Army Air Forces ferry terminal. As aircraft arrived in Britain via transatlantic routes, Valley handled the onward movement and staging of USAAF traffic. The scale could be immense. The airfield became a waypoint for a wide range of Allied types, and the US presence sometimes reduced the intensity of RAF operations on site, not because the base became less important but because it became crucial to keeping the Allied air pipeline flowing. On busy days, large numbers of B-17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B-24 Liberators passed through, and aircraft also arrived from Iceland and later through southern routes involving the Azores and North Africa.
This ferry role continued into the endgame of the European war. Once Germany surrendered, the flow reversed: Valley became part of the huge logistical effort to move aircraft and men back across the Atlantic for redeployment. Thousands of bombers transited through, each carrying passengers and crew, turning the station into a processing point for a war that was ending in Europe but still continuing elsewhere.
RAF Valley’s WW2 identity, therefore, is layered: a front-line fighter and night-fighter station in 1941-43, an important air-sea rescue hub, and then a USAAF ferry and movement terminal that quietly underpinned Allied air power. Its story is not just about the squadrons that flew from its runways, but about how an airfield can become a strategic ‘switchyard’ in a global air network.