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 Windrush was a satellite training airfield in Gloucestershire, opened in 1940 in the Cotswolds near the village of Windrush. Unlike the famous operational bomber bases, Windrush was built to do something quietly decisive: to keep pilots flowing through the training pipeline at speed, with enough runway capacity and space to absorb heavy usage. In wartime Britain, that was a strategic necessity. If training slowed, squadrons at the front would be starved of replacements; if training expanded too fast without enough airfields, accidents and congestion would rise.
World War II story
The airfield began as a Relief Landing Ground for RAF Chipping Norton and later came under the control of RAF Little Rissington. Its physical form reflected its purpose: two runways laid with Sommerfeld tracking (metal mesh) and a concrete perimeter track, plus blister hangars and modest technical buildings added in 1942 as the training system matured. This was not designed for large bomb loads or deep-penetration raids; it was built for repetitive circuits, cross-countries, formation practice and instrument work – day after day, in all seasons.
Units and aircraft
Windrush is strongly linked with the organisations that trained pilots for RAF service flying schools and advanced units. Units recorded at the airfield include No. 6 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit, No. 6 Service Flying Training School and No. 15 Service Flying Training School. The training mix varied, but the aircraft types associated with No. 6 (Pilots) AFU and related formations included Airspeed Oxfords, Avro Ansons and North American Harvards – machines that bridged the gap between basic training and the demands of multi-crew or high-performance operational aircraft. The Harvard in particular gave pilots experience of speed, higher power handling and more advanced aerobatics, while the Oxford and Anson supported navigation, radio procedure and crew coordination skills.
- No. 6 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit – associated types: Oxford, Anson, Harvard (and other trainers)
- No. 6 Service Flying Training School – pilot training pipeline
- No. 15 Service Flying Training School – pilot training pipeline
What happened here
A training airfield’s ‘operations’ were measured in hours flown and pilots progressed, rather than targets hit. A typical day could include early-morning weather and briefing, then continuous waves of take-offs and landings as instructors pushed trainees through navigation legs, forced landings, instrument approaches and formation exercises. Because training aircraft were flown by students, the airfield’s safety culture – air traffic control, clear circuit procedures, runway maintenance and rapid accident response – was critical. The very existence of a satellite like Windrush reduced pressure on main stations, spreading risk and allowing squadrons of trainees to keep flying even when weather or incidents closed another field.
Legacy and remains
Windrush closed on 12 July 1945 and returned largely to agricultural use, but it has been remembered through surviving structures and restored elements such as the watch tower. The National Trust has held parts of the site, and local heritage records preserve the story of the airfield’s runways, hangars and wartime layout. For visitors, Windrush is a lens on the training machine that underpinned the RAF’s wartime strength: the quiet airfields where pilots learned the discipline that later kept them alive in operational cockpits.