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 Thame was a wartime airfield at near Tetsworth/Thame in Oxfordshire, with close links to the Haddenham/Thame glider area. During the Second World War it served as a grass airfield used for airborne and glider training, and as a flexible relief landing ground. brought into intensive use during 1942-45 as airborne forces expanded.
Like most British wartime stations, RAF Thame 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.
Who flew from here
Aircraft commonly associated with wartime flying here: Airspeed Horsa glider, Hamilcar glider, Whitley/Halifax/Stirling (as glider tugs in the wider system), Tiger Moth and Oxford (ancillary flying in the training environment).
Records for RAF Thame 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.
- Linked with the Glider Pilot Regiment training system
- No. 1 Glider Training Squadron / later glider-training organisations using the area
- Frequent use by towing aircraft and glider combinations during airborne exercises
What happened here
The airfield’s purpose was practical rather than glamorous: safe grass surfaces for repeated tows, landings, and rapid turnaround of glider crews.
Work here fed directly into large-scale airborne operations, where glider pilots needed precision at night, under fire, and into confined landing zones.
Research tip: if you’re tracing people connected to the airfield, look for unit Operational Record Books (ORBs), station diaries, and local newspaper reports. Squadron codes, aircraft serials and incident cards can often tie a single photograph to a precise date, aircraft and crew – turning a generic image into a documented historical moment.
After the war
Many glider fields were intentionally ‘low profile’; the story is often best read through surviving field boundaries, local photos, and training records.
Landscape and flying conditions: RAF Thame’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.
Why the unit mix matters: different aircraft left different ‘signatures’ on an airfield. Heavy bombers required long runways, robust hardstandings and large bomb dumps; fighters emphasised rapid dispersal, camouflage and quick reaction; Coastal Command demanded navigation aids and long-range fuel planning; glider bases focused on safe towing circuits, landing strips and assembly areas. Identifying the dominant type helps interpret what survives on the ground today.