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 Kemble, near Cirencester in Gloucestershire, is best understood as a wartime support and servicing airfield – one of the many stations whose main contribution was to keep aircraft flowing through the system rather than to host a single famous front-line squadron. Its inland location in the Cotswolds offered practical advantages: space, good access to road and rail links, and relative safety from the most frequent coastal raids. These qualities made it suitable for maintenance, storage and the processing of aircraft and equipment as the RAF expanded and the Allies built up in Britain.
In the Second World War, the RAF and the American air forces had to manage an enormous ‘throughput problem’. Aircraft arrived from factories and repair organisations, were modified to the latest standards, inspected and test-flown, documented, and then issued onward to operational or training units. Maintenance and servicing stations absorbed this work. They were essentially industrial depots with runways: hangars and workshops were as important as the flying field, and success was measured in serviceability and delivery reliability.
Kemble’s wartime life would therefore have been driven by engineering schedules rather than by nightly ‘ops’. Aircraft might be parked in numbers, moved through inspection and repair cycles, and flown for acceptance and post-maintenance checks. Ground personnel included airframe and engine specialists, instrument and radio trades, armourers, stores clerks, drivers and administrators. Their disciplined work reduced bottlenecks and prevented small issues becoming operational failures elsewhere. Safety mattered too: parked aircraft, fuel storage, and workshop processes all carried risk, demanding strict procedures.
- Primary wartime role: maintenance, storage and aircraft-processing support within the RAF’s inland logistics network.
- Typical activity: inspection, modification and repair work, acceptance and test flights, and routing of aircraft onward to units.
- Why it mattered: increased aircraft availability by smoothing the flow between production, repair and operational service.
After 1945, as wartime demand collapsed, servicing and storage stations were reorganised or closed, but many retained aviation value because of their runways and space. Kemble’s Second World War significance lies in illustrating that air power depended on an industrial back-end. Aircraft had to be kept serviceable, standardised and delivered on time, and support airfields like Kemble were where that quiet but decisive work happened.
Support stations were also where standardisation happened. As equipment and modification states changed, depot airfields ensured aircraft were configured correctly before reaching squadrons. That reduced surprises at the front line and helped units operate with compatible systems – a practical advantage when operating at Allied scale.
Kemble also shows how the RAF managed space as a resource. Parking and storing aircraft safely required perimeter dispersals, traffic discipline and protection against weather damage. When large numbers of aircraft were moving through the system, having a place to hold them without blocking operational stations was a significant advantage, and it reduced the risk of congestion-related incidents elsewhere.