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RAF Henstridge, on the Somerset-Dorset border, was a wartime airfield whose main identity is linked to training and support rather than prolonged front-line operations. The south-west and western counties hosted a mixture of coastal, training and relief fields, and Henstridge contributed to that system by providing runway space and airfield capacity away from the most threatened south-east, while remaining accessible to other training and operational sites.
Training stations depended on repetition. Pilots and crews needed hours of circuits, navigation practice and instrument work before they could be trusted in operational conditions. Satellite and secondary fields like Henstridge helped to absorb that volume and reduce congestion at larger parent stations. That made training safer and more efficient: fewer aircraft in the circuit, more runway availability, and better separation between different kinds of flying (for example, circuits on one field while navigation departures continued elsewhere).
Airfields in this category also served as relief landing grounds. Weather in Britain could close a station unexpectedly, and aircraft – training or operational – needed alternative runways to avoid fuel exhaustion or risky approaches. A reliable inland airfield could save crews and aircraft, and its value increased as air traffic grew. Henstridge’s existence therefore strengthened resilience in the region’s air network.
The station community combined flying and ground work. Instructors and trainees created constant air movement; maintenance staff worked under heavy usage conditions; and operations and signals personnel coordinated flying patterns and weather information. Even if the aircraft types and unit numbers changed over time, the core activity remained consistent: build competence and provide spare capacity.
- Primary wartime role: training and support flying within the south-west/western airfield network.
- Typical activity: circuits and landing practice, navigation and instrument training, and diversion/relief landings.
- Why it mattered: added runway capacity, reduced training congestion, and improved safety through redundancy.
After the war, many training and support fields were quickly reduced and returned to civilian use. RAF Henstridge’s wartime significance lies in representing the supportive layer of air power: a practical field whose value was cumulative – measured in training hours delivered, safe landings made, and the smooth functioning of a much larger system under constant pressure.
Henstridge’s story also reminds us that the RAF’s training footprint was intentionally distributed. Spreading flying across multiple fields reduced local accident risk and made the system more resistant to disruption. When one airfield was fogged-in or temporarily closed, others could keep syllabi on track. That redundancy was not accidental; it was part of wartime planning to maintain steady output under British weather and wartime wear.
The significance of a smaller training station is often best captured by outcomes: fewer accidents, more confident pilots, and a smoother flow of crews to later stages. Henstridge’s value was therefore real even when it was quiet, because the training machine only worked when many such stations did their job consistently.