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 Calshot occupied one of the most unusual wartime ‘airfields’ in Britain: a seaplane and flying-boat base on Calshot Spit at the mouth of Southampton Water. Long before 1939 it had built a reputation for experimentation and training, and that legacy mattered in the Second World War because Calshot was designed to run complex flying operations where the ‘runway’ was water. It had slipways, hangars, workshops, marine craft and a sheltered operating area protected by the mainland and the Isle of Wight, giving crews a safer environment in which to learn the demanding skills of water handling, mooring, maintenance afloat and recovery of aircraft in trouble.
When war broke out, the operational flying-boat squadrons that had been based at Calshot moved to frontline stations better positioned for patrol work, and the flying-boat training squadron also relocated in 1940. Calshot’s wartime role then shifted decisively into support: repair, maintenance and modification of RAF flying-boats, with a particular emphasis on the Short Sunderland. That made the station a vital link in Coastal Command’s wider machine. Sunderlands flew long, exhausting anti-submarine patrols and convoy escorts; keeping them serviceable demanded constant attention to engines, turrets, radios, hull integrity and corrosion control. Calshot’s engineers, riggers and specialists turned aircraft around for further operations, and its waterfront facilities allowed work that simply could not be done at a conventional land aerodrome.
The station also contributed directly to wartime emergencies. During the evacuation of Dunkirk in late May 1940, Calshot dispatched seaplane tenders to assist with rescue and ferrying duties; crews from the station helped bring hundreds of men back to safety. In the same year, a small number of ex-Norwegian Heinkel He 115 floatplanes arrived, and the type’s ability to land on water away from normal airfields gave it value for covert work – landing and collecting agents and operating in places where conventional aircraft could not easily go.
From 1942 onwards, air-sea rescue became a defining theme. Calshot housed a succession of rescue and marine craft units, training boat crews and maintaining the fast launches and support vessels needed to recover aircrew from the Channel and the Solent approaches. This was high-risk, physically demanding work: in winter, survival time in the water could be measured in minutes. During the build-up to and during the D-Day landings, rescue craft linked to Calshot provided quick-response coverage for the intense air activity over the Channel, standing by to pick up downed airmen and protect them from capture or drowning.
Although Calshot was not a classic ‘sortie-generating’ fighter or bomber base, its wartime value was immense because it sustained a specialist capability – flying-boats and marine operations – that Britain relied on for long-range maritime warfare. The station’s story is also unusually tangible today. Many of its buildings survive in altered form, including hangars later adapted for recreation use, and the layout along the waterfront still reads like a working service base. RAF Calshot’s Second World War history is therefore best understood as a blend of engineering, seamanship and aviation: the quiet, constant support that kept aircraft and crews in the fight, and the rescue work that saved lives when missions went wrong.