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 Wath Head, in Cumberland (now Cumbria), was not a classic front-line fighter station or a heavy bomber base; it was a Satellite Landing Ground (SLG), created to solve a different wartime problem: how to disperse, store, and prepare aircraft away from the most obvious targets. Operating as No. 10 SLG, it ran from March 1941 to 1 December 1945 and was also known by alternative names such as Jenkins Cross. In essence, it was part of the RAF’s ‘hidden infrastructure’ that kept aircraft moving through maintenance and storage systems.
Satellite Landing Grounds were designed to be difficult to spot from the air and to blend into the countryside. Typically they used grass runways and minimal permanent construction, relying on camouflage, existing farm buildings, and small technical sites. The idea was simple: reduce vulnerability by spreading aircraft and equipment across multiple locations rather than concentrating them at a single airfield that could be bombed. In wartime Britain – especially after the experience of early Luftwaffe attacks – this dispersal logic became a standard defensive measure.
Wath Head’s primary users were RAF Maintenance Units, which handled the delivery, storage, preparation, and in some cases modification of aircraft before they reached operational squadrons. In the early part of its SLG life, it was used by No. 12 Maintenance Unit operating from RAF Kirkbride. Later, from January 1944, responsibility passed to No. 18 Maintenance Unit from RAF Dumfries. These maintenance organisations were the aviation equivalent of logistics depots: receiving aircraft, keeping them serviceable, making sure engines, instruments, and control surfaces met standards, and arranging the paperwork and ferrying required to move aircraft onward.
Although not ‘operational’ in the way a bomber station was, a site like Wath Head still had a busy wartime rhythm. Aircraft would arrive in batches, be parked in dispersed positions to reduce risk, and be cycled through inspection and preparation. Ground crews worked in all seasons, often in less comfortable conditions than the fully built-up bomber bases, because SLGs were deliberately austere. The work demanded technical skill: even simple tasks such as preserving engines, preventing corrosion, maintaining tyres and hydraulics, and ensuring airframes remained airworthy could be critical when aircraft were needed urgently at the front.
Wath Head’s location in Cumbria connected it to the wider north-west maintenance and training ecosystem. Stations such as Kirkbride, Silloth, and Dumfries formed part of a network that supported both Coastal Command and training needs, and SLGs helped provide space and security for aircraft holdings. This mattered especially as aircraft numbers rose and as repair and replacement flows intensified. The ability to store, prepare, and distribute aircraft efficiently was a strategic advantage – one that rarely appears in dramatic combat narratives but directly affected how quickly squadrons could be re-equipped or reinforced.
To understand RAF Wath Head in WW2 terms is to appreciate the RAF’s logistical backbone. While fighters and bombers took the headlines, sites like this quietly ensured that aircraft were available, serviceable, and positioned where they were least likely to be destroyed on the ground. That behind-the-scenes role is exactly why SLGs existed – and why Wath Head deserves its place in the wartime airfield story.