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 Blakehill Farm, southwest of Cricklade in Wiltshire, was a Transport Command and airborne forces airfield built with a single overriding purpose: to launch and support airborne operations as the Allies prepared to invade northwest Europe. Construction began in 1943, and although the station was originally allocated to the USAAF Ninth Air Force, it was not used by the Americans. Instead, the RAF opened Blakehill Farm on 9 February 1944 as a major transport and glider-towing station.
The station’s early months were dominated by training and rehearsal. No. 233 Squadron arrived operating C-47 Dakotas, the workhorse transport aircraft that would carry paratroops and tow gliders. Horsa glider towing training followed quickly, expanding the airfield’s role into the complex airborne system that required precision formation flying, timed releases, and careful coordination with ground forces. These were not routine transport flights: they were rehearsals for mass operations where a mistake in navigation, timing or spacing could scatter troops and equipment over miles.
Blakehill Farm’s location was ideal for large-scale exercises over Salisbury Plain and the surrounding training areas. In April 1944 the airfield took part in Operation Mush, a rehearsal for the airborne phase of the invasion, with aircraft and gliders launching in strength to test procedures, timings and command-and-control. Such rehearsals built confidence and exposed weak points – everything from radio discipline to refuelling flow and the speed with which ground crews could load aircraft and hook up glider tow lines.
On D-Day and in subsequent airborne operations, stations like Blakehill Farm formed the ‘hidden infrastructure’ of victory. Their aircraft moved entire formations of airborne troops into battle, delivered supplies, and helped reinforce bridgeheads. The work was dangerous: transport aircraft and gliders were vulnerable to flak and fighters, and even training accidents could be severe. Yet the ability to launch airborne forces at scale depended on the disciplined, repetitive work carried out at transport airfields across southern England.
After the war Blakehill Farm continued as an airfield for a period before closure and eventual return to non-aviation use. Its WWII identity is clear and distinctive: a purpose-built airborne and transport station that trained hard, rehearsed intensively, and contributed to the airborne capability that supported the liberation of Europe.
Airborne stations were built to a rhythm of loading and launch: stores, paratroops, towing gear, briefing facilities and rapid refuelling, all designed to get aircraft airborne in strict time windows.
Training with airborne formations also involved ground troops and glider pilots, meaning the airfield was a meeting point for RAF, Army airborne units and specialist support personnel.
The scale of rehearsal activity in spring 1944 shows how seriously airborne planners treated preparation, using repeated full-scale exercises to minimise chaos on the real operation day.
For visitors and researchers today, the most rewarding approach is to combine surviving site evidence (perimeter tracks, dispersal loops, building footprints) with squadron ORBs, logbooks and local testimony, which together recreate how the station worked day to day.