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 Panshanger was a small, grass aerodrome on the edge of Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire that quietly did an important job: turning civilians into competent military pilots at the very start of their flying careers. Although an airfield existed here before the war, its wartime story is tied to elementary flying training. In June 1941, No. 1 Elementary Flying Training School expanded its activities onto the Panshanger site, using the de Havilland Tiger Moth as the standard trainer. From these fields, pupils learned the fundamentals – circuits, forced landings, navigation basics, instrument appreciation and flight discipline – before moving on to more advanced types and specialist streams.
As the war intensified, Panshanger expanded. Additional Tiger Moths and new buildings appeared, and by late 1942-1943 the station infrastructure included more formal control and administrative facilities. In 1943 the aerodrome was officially renamed RAF Panshanger, reflecting its integrated role in the wartime training system. Training stations like this were the gateway into the RAF’s enormous production-line of aircrew, feeding pilots onward to Service Flying Training Schools, Operational Training Units and, ultimately, squadrons in Bomber, Fighter, Coastal or Transport Command.
Hertfordshire’s wider wartime aviation landscape also mattered here. Panshanger’s locality placed it near key aircraft industry sites, and the airfield has been associated with defensive deception measures that helped confuse enemy reconnaissance and bombing efforts aimed at nearby industrial targets. Whether acting as a diversionary ‘alternative’ landing ground or as part of wider decoy arrangements, small sites could contribute to keeping the air war’s pressure away from factories, airfields and towns.
Aircraft at Panshanger were dominated by the Tiger Moth – a fabric-and-wood biplane whose forgiving handling made it ideal for beginners. The station’s flying would have been punctuated by the rhythms of wartime training: dawn readiness, weather limitations, engine and airframe servicing, and the constant churn of students and instructors. While not an operational ‘front line’ airfield, it was very much part of the front line of production, because every combat pilot began somewhere.
After 1945, Panshanger retained aviation associations for a time before eventually reverting to civil use. Its wartime significance today lies in what it represents: the early-stage training pipeline that produced the pilots who would later fly Spitfires, Hurricanes, Halifaxes, Lancasters, Wellingtons and Mosquitos across every theatre of the conflict.
WW2 units, roles and aircraft:
- No. 1 Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) – basic pilot training
- Primary aircraft: de Havilland Tiger Moth
- Associated role: training/relief landing ground and local defensive deception context
Panshanger’s wartime footprint is often subtle, but it is worth pausing on its legacy. Elementary training stations produced far more than pilots: they produced standardised habits – checklists, radio discipline, circuits and emergency drills – that reduced accidents later in the pipeline. Even when little survives on the ground, the airfield’s historical importance remains embedded in the thousands of first solos and first instrument lessons that began here.
Panshanger’s wartime footprint is often subtle, but it is worth pausing on its legacy. Elementary training stations produced far more than pilots: they produced standardised habits – checklists, radio discipline, circuits and emergency drills – that reduced accidents later in the pipeline. Even when little survives on the ground, the airfield’s historical importance remains embedded in the thousands of first solos and first instrument lessons that began here.