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.
Overview
RAF Ternhill was a wartime airfield at near Market Drayton in Shropshire. During the Second World War it served as one of the RAF’s important pre-war and wartime flying training centres, producing pilots at scale. reopened in the RAF Expansion Period (mid-1930s) and used throughout the war for training schools and flying units.
Like most British wartime stations, RAF Ternhill functioned as a small, self-contained town. Beyond the runways were technical areas for maintenance and armament, dispersed hardstandings to reduce losses during raids, and domestic sites where airmen, WAAFs or naval personnel lived, trained, and waited for the next tasking. On operational nights or intensive training days the routine revolved around briefings, meteorology, aircraft servicing, and a tight rhythm of take-off and recovery windows.
Units and aircraft
Aircraft commonly associated with wartime flying here: Tiger Moth, Miles Master, Airspeed Oxford, North American Harvard (typical across advanced training establishments).
Records for RAF Ternhill show a mix of operational and support activity. Some units were long-term residents with a stable identity, while others arrived as detachments – often for conversion training, gunnery work-ups, dispersal, or to cover a specific operational requirement. That pattern is typical of the RAF’s wartime system: stations were constantly re-tasked as the air war shifted from defence to offence, from the Battle of the Atlantic to the bomber offensive, and later to preparations for the invasion of Northwest Europe.
- No. 10 Flying Training School / 10 Service Flying Training School (formed at Ternhill)
- No. 5 Flying Training School and its later redesignation as No. 5 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit
- Earlier training depot activity from WW1 era also linked to the site’s long instructional heritage
What happened here
Ternhill’s wartime importance lay in consistency: thousands of sorties in circuit, navigation and instrument work, turning civilians into military pilots.
The station’s training rhythm also supported the wider network by providing relief capacity when other schools were bombed, saturated, or weather-bound.
Wider context: the RAF and its Allies depended on layered infrastructure. Training stations produced crews, conversion units taught them to survive in heavier or faster aircraft, and operational bases launched combat sorties. Even a ‘quiet’ airfield could be strategically important as a diversion, a dispersal site, or a specialist hub for ferrying, target-towing, glider operations, or meteorology.
After the war
The airfield’s long service life means its story bridges eras; traces of wartime layout and training infrastructure remain part of its historical footprint.
Landscape and flying conditions: RAF Ternhill’s geography influenced operations. Prevailing winds dictated runway selection, while local terrain and weather shaped training and safety. In winter, short daylight and low cloud increased the workload; in summer, longer hours enabled intensive training programmes and high sortie rates. These practical factors are often reflected in accident reports and ORBs, which mention crosswinds, icing, fog, and diversion landings.