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RAF Wigtown (often remembered locally as Baldoon Airfield) was built in 1941 on the Machars peninsula in south-west Scotland, close to the River Bladnoch. In wartime terms it sits slightly off the main ‘bomber county’ narrative: it was primarily a training station, created to develop the specialist skills of air observers and, later, to provide advanced flying for observers in the RAF’s expanding multi-crew system. That role matters, because the observer/navigator was the crew member who turned a cockpit into a weapon system – finding the target, timing the run, and getting the aircraft home in darkness and weather.
Wartime role
Wigtown opened as a relief landing ground for RAF West Freugh, but the plan quickly widened. The station became home to No. 1 Air Observers School from September 1941, using the Avro Anson – an aircraft ideally suited to training because it allowed navigation, wireless procedure and observational work at realistic speeds. In February 1942 the school evolved into No. 1 (Observers) Advanced Flying Unit, continuing on Ansons until November 1945. The ‘advanced flying’ label is important: by this stage trainees were expected to operate in more complex conditions, integrating navigation, radio work, map reading, drift calculation and the practical art of identifying features over sea and land.
Units and aircraft
Although training dominated, Wigtown also hosted operational visitors and short-term detachments, reflecting how even a ‘training’ airfield could be pulled into wider needs. A detachment from No. 114 Squadron operated Bristol Blenheims from July to September 1941. Later, in 1943, Hawker Typhoon squadrons used the station during the period when the Typhoon was being developed into a formidable low-level strike aircraft: No. 174 and No. 175 Squadrons were present from July to October 1943, and No. 182 Squadron operated briefly in September 1943. The Typhoon presence ties Wigtown into the tactical air war and the RAF’s constant cycle of rest, re-equipment and work-up.
- No. 1 Air Observers School – Avro Anson (from Sep 1941)
- No. 1 (Observers) Advanced Flying Unit – Avro Anson (Feb 1942 – Nov 1945)
- Detachment, No. 114 Squadron – Bristol Blenheim (Jul-Sep 1941)
- No. 174, No. 175 and No. 182 Squadrons – Hawker Typhoon (1943)
Key moments
The station’s story also includes the problems of place. Its early grass runways suffered badly from flooding, prompting the installation of concrete runways during 1942 – an engineering response that mirrors similar upgrades across Britain as aircraft weights increased and training programmes intensified. The airfield’s remoteness was a strength for training, but the weather of the Solway region made instruction realistic and demanding: crosswinds, low cloud and driving rain were not theoretical hazards, but day-to-day conditions that sharpened navigational judgement.
After the war
Wigtown’s WW2 era ended with training, but the airfield briefly re-emerged in a post-war trials role. A Bomber Command Trials Unit operated Avro Lancasters from June 1947 into 1948, before the station finally closed in May 1948. That post-war coda reinforces the underlying theme: Wigtown was a practical station used for practical work – first teaching observers to operate in British conditions, then briefly supporting evaluation flying as the RAF transitioned into the post-war world.