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RAF Snitterfield, west of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, was built during the war as a Class A satellite station with hard runways and multiple dispersals. It illustrates an important wartime reality: not every airfield existed primarily to host front-line squadrons. Many were designed to provide relief landing capacity, specialised training space, and operational flexibility for nearby parent stations.
Snitterfield’s operational life was closely tied to flying training. From May 1945 into 1946 it served as a Relief Landing Ground for No. 20 Service Flying Training School, whose main base was RAF Church Lawford. Relief landing grounds were essential in the training system: they reduced congestion, provided alternative runways in poor weather, and allowed training units to spread aircraft movements across multiple sites. Snitterfield also hosted No. 1533 Beam Approach Training Flight from 1944 until early 1945, flying Airspeed Oxford aircraft. Beam approach training was a precursor to modern instrument landing systems, teaching crews to use radio aids for approach and landing in poor visibility – skills that saved lives during wartime when weather and blackout conditions made visual approaches hazardous.
Another key unit was No. 21 Flying Training School, which operated the North American Harvard from April 1945 until 1946. The Harvard was a powerful advanced trainer, used to prepare pilots for the performance and handling of operational fighters and fast aircraft. Training on the Harvard demanded accuracy and discipline and helped bridge the gap between elementary biplanes and the high-performance machines used in combat.
Although Snitterfield was primarily a training and relief site, it was not immune from wartime danger. Recorded incidents in the area include aircraft crashes in bad weather and storms – an example of the risks inherent in a high-tempo training environment. Even ‘non-operational’ flying could be deadly, particularly at night, during instrument approaches, or when aircraft diverted in poor visibility. Such losses were part of the hidden cost of sustaining the RAF’s aircrew pipeline.
Today, Snitterfield’s wartime layout can still be read in the landscape, even where buildings have gone and runways have been repurposed. Portions of the site are associated with modern leisure and aviation use, including gliding activity, which provides a striking continuity: the airfield remains a place where people learn and practise flying skills. Snitterfield’s history therefore offers a grounded view of the RAF war effort – less about headline operations and more about the infrastructure and instruction that made those operations possible.
For researchers and visitors, RAF Snitterfield can often be understood through the surviving pattern of its runways, perimeter track and dispersal points. Even where buildings have vanished, aerial photographs and ground traces can reveal the technical site, the former station entrance, and the ‘domestic’ camps where personnel lived. These physical clues help connect the local landscape to the wider wartime system of aircrew generation, logistics and operations.
Beam approach training at Snitterfield also points to the growing sophistication of wartime air navigation and landing aids. Standardised radio approach procedures reduced losses in poor weather and helped crews recover at night – skills that were just as important for training units as for operational squadrons. The presence of such specialist flights shows how the RAF continually improved safety and efficiency even under wartime pressure.