RAF Abingdon

RAF Abingdon was laid out on the gravel terraces of the upper Thames a few miles south-west of Oxford, built between 1929 and 1932 and formally opened on 1 September 1932 as a permanent light-bomber station. It passed to the new Bomber Command in 1936 as part of No. 1 (Bomber) Group, and through the late 1930s its resident Nos. 15 and 40 Squadrons worked up on the biplane Harts and Hinds that gave way to the Fairey Battle. Both squadrons left for France within hours of the declaration of war in September 1939, flying out as part of the Advanced Air Striking Force.

For the rest of the conflict Abingdon’s role was training rather than operations. Nos. 97 and 166 Squadrons, flying the twin-engined Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, arrived in September 1939 and were merged in April 1940 to form No. 10 Operational Training Unit. From then until 1946 the station’s task was to turn out crews for the operational squadrons of No. 4 Group, a less celebrated but essential part of the bomber war.

After 1945 Abingdon became a Transport Command base, flying Avro Yorks during the Berlin Airlift of 1948–49 and later hosting No. 1 Parachute Training School. The RAF finally left in July 1992 and the site became the Army’s Dalton Barracks.