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 St Mawgan, also in Cornwall near Newquay, was built and expanded during the war as part of the county’s dense Coastal Command infrastructure. Cornwall’s airfields formed Britain’s ‘Atlantic shield’: they allowed aircraft to cover the Western Approaches, escort convoys, and extend anti-submarine pressure into the Bay of Biscay. St Mawgan’s wartime identity sits within that shield, providing runway capacity, training space, and operational flexibility when other stations were saturated or weathered in.
Unlike some airfields defined by a single long-resident squadron, St Mawgan’s WWII story is best understood through roles and rotation. Coastal Command and associated training units used Cornish stations as needs shifted between operational patrol, conversion, and crew work-up for different aircraft types. St Mawgan supported the movement of aircraft and personnel, handled large volumes of training traffic, and provided diversion capacity for patrol aircraft returning low on fuel or with mechanical problems. In an Atlantic environment, that ‘safe place to get down’ could save aircraft and crews as surely as a rescue launch.
Aircraft types commonly seen across Cornwall’s wartime Coastal Command stations included the Vickers Wellington (in maritime configuration), Lockheed Hudson, Bristol Beaufighter (for strike and anti-shipping tasks), and longer-range types such as the Consolidated Liberator. St Mawgan’s facilities and runway standard allowed it to accommodate a range of these types as detachments and units rotated. The ‘unit’ story therefore often appears in short postings and temporary flights: a squadron detachment arriving to cover a surge in activity, a conversion flight using the airfield for work-ups, or training elements practising navigation, instrument approaches and radar procedure.
St Mawgan’s ground side was heavy with technical work. Maritime sorties were long and punishing; engines ran hard, airframes absorbed salt air, and electronics required constant calibration. The station’s technical areas, workshops, and stores systems were built to keep aircraft serviceable and to minimise downtime. Airfield defence and security were also part of the picture, especially as the threat of raids and espionage was taken seriously at coastal bases.
- Primary wartime role: Coastal Command support/training and operational flexibility within the Cornish Atlantic airfield network.
- Typical units: rotating Coastal Command squadrons and training/operational conversion detachments; airfield support and defence elements.
- Aircraft commonly associated with the Cornish Coastal Command environment: Wellington (maritime variants), Hudson, Liberator, and strike types such as Beaufighter for anti-shipping phases.
St Mawgan’s WWII value lies in enabling continuity. It helped keep maritime coverage steady by absorbing movement, training and diversion traffic – exactly the kind of infrastructure contribution that made the Atlantic air war sustainable.
Because Cornwall’s airfields operated as a cluster, it is often useful to interpret St Mawgan by how it interacted with neighbours: sharing diversion planning, supporting detachments, and absorbing overflow flying. That shared-load model increased resilience and allowed the RAF to keep aircraft in the air even when individual stations were saturated, damaged or weathered in.