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 Upwood, in Cambridgeshire, was part of the RAF’s major expansion in the 1930s and illustrates how quickly an airfield’s role could evolve under wartime pressure. Designed to accommodate medium bomber units, it opened in 1937 and initially hosted No. 52 Squadron (Hawker Hinds) and No. 63 Squadron (Hawker Audaxes). Both units became training squadrons and operated types such as the Fairey Battle and Avro Anson – aircraft that marked the transition from inter-war practice to the demands of modern conflict.
When the Second World War began, Upwood’s first wartime occupants included No. 90 Squadron flying Bristol Blenheims, later joined by No. 35 Squadron, which operated Blenheims and Ansons. On 8 April 1940, these squadrons were merged into No. 17 Operational Training Unit, turning Upwood into a major training hub. Even as a training station, Upwood was not immune to danger: it was attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft in 1940 (twice) and again in 1942, a reminder that East Anglia and the Midlands were within reach of German raiders.
One of the most dramatic episodes connected to Upwood was the capture of German spy Josef Jakobs on 1 February 1941. Parachuting into the area, he broke a leg and was caught by local farmers. He carried maps of the RAF Upwood area, a code device and a large amount of cash – evidence of the strategic value the enemy placed on RAF stations, even those not currently sending bombers over Germany. Jakobs was later executed at the Tower of London, a grim wartime footnote that anchors Upwood’s story in the wider intelligence war.
Upwood’s wet ground and serviceability problems shaped its development. When No. 17 OTU prepared to transition to heavier Vickers Wellington bombers, it was judged that the grass airfield would not stand up to the pounding, and the unit departed for RAF Silverstone in April 1943. That gap allowed Upwood to be rebuilt as a hard-runway station: three concrete runways were completed by October 1943, transforming its operational potential.
The new runways brought operational squadrons. No. 139 Squadron arrived in late January 1944 flying de Havilland Mosquitos and soon undertook specialist tasks such as dropping target indicators over Berlin. On 5 March 1944, No. 156 Squadron arrived with Avro Lancasters and began flying heavy operations from Upwood, including attacks on targets such as Stuttgart. As part of the Pathfinder Force tradition, these units were linked to precision target marking and the use of advanced navigation and bombing aids – roles that demanded high skill and carried high risk. At its wartime peak, the station’s working population exceeded 2,500.
As the war ended, Upwood’s Lancasters were tasked for humanitarian operations such as food drops to the Netherlands (Operation Manna) and the repatriation of former prisoners of war (Operation Exodus). The airfield then returned to Mosquito operations with No. 105 and No. 139 Squadrons continuing into 1946. Upwood’s WW2 history, therefore, runs from inter-war training to bomber crew production, through infrastructure transformation, and into the intense specialist work of Mosquitos and Lancasters at the sharp end of the air offensive.