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RAF Spanhoe – also known during the war as Wakerley or Harringworth – was a transport and troop carrier airfield built near Uppingham, on the Northamptonshire/Rutland border. Opened in late 1943 and developed to Class A standards, it was allocated to the United States Army Air Forces as Station AAF-493 (code ‘UV’). Unlike many heavy bomber fields, Spanhoe’s wartime role centred on the air transport and airborne assault missions that supported the liberation of Europe.
The station’s principal wartime resident was the 315th Troop Carrier Group, part of IX Troop Carrier Command. Operating Douglas C-47 Skytrains, the group’s squadrons at Spanhoe included the 34th, 43rd, 309th and 310th Troop Carrier Squadrons, each with its own fuselage code. Troop carrier work demanded intense training: close formation flying at low altitude, night navigation over blacked-out countryside, precision paratroop drops, and the towing of troop-carrying gliders such as the Airspeed Horsa. Spanhoe’s runways and dispersals supported a fast-turnaround system designed to generate large numbers of transport sorties within narrow operational windows.
In the build-up to D-Day, Spanhoe’s crews undertook formation and paratroop-dropping exercises, working alongside airborne troops to coordinate timing and drop accuracy. On 6 June 1944, aircraft of the 315th participated in the Normandy airborne operations, delivering paratroops into France in the hours before the seaborne landings. Troop carrier units also undertook resupply missions, dropping containers and equipment to isolated forces and evacuating casualties on the return flights – an often overlooked but essential part of airborne warfare.
Spanhoe’s wartime history also includes tragedy. On 8 July 1944, two C-47s of the 315th collided shortly after take-off during an exercise, killing aircrew and Polish paratroops – an accident that underlines the hazards of crowded training skies and close-formation flying. Despite such risks, the troop carrier mission continued at high intensity through 1944-45, supporting airborne operations, resupply tasks and the continuing movement of men and mat√©riel as the front advanced.
The 315th later moved to an advanced landing ground in France as Allied forces pushed east, and Spanhoe closed soon after the war. Today, much of the airfield has returned to agriculture, though parts of the runway pattern remain. Spanhoe’s story highlights the air mobility side of the Allied victory: the C-47s and their crews who turned airfields like this into launchpads for airborne troops and lifelines for forces fighting beyond the beachheads.
For researchers and visitors, RAF Spanhoe 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.
Troop carrier operations from Spanhoe were as much about logistics as drama. After the paratroops dropped, the same C-47s were used to move supplies, evacuate wounded personnel and transport key staff between bases. Crews also trained in towing gliders and dropping supply containers, which required precise airspeed control and timing. The combination of intense training and real-world missions made Spanhoe a high-tempo station despite its short operational life.