RAF Broadwell

RAF Broadwell lay in west Oxfordshire, set in farmland a few miles south-east of Burford and close to the larger station at Brize Norton. It opened on 15 November 1943 and, unlike most stations of its era, was never a bomber base. Laid out with three concrete runways in the standard triangular pattern, it came under RAF Transport Command and was built for the airborne and air-transport role that would define its short wartime career.

Its two principal resident units were No. 512 and No. 575 Squadrons, both flying the Douglas Dakota. From here they towed gliders, dropped paratroops, ferried supplies and carried out leaflet sorties over occupied France. Broadwell’s Dakotas were heavily committed to the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 and again during Operation Market Garden in September 1944, when the station’s aircraft took part in the airborne assault at Arnhem. The squadrons also flew casualty-evacuation flights, bringing wounded men back from the Continent.

The station continued in service after the war until it closed on 31 March 1947. The land has since returned largely to agriculture, with one of the former runways still traceable on the ground and a public bridleway crossing the site; much of the western part is now occupied by a solar farm.