RAF Chivenor

RAF Chivenor stood on the northern shore of the River Taw estuary in north Devon, near Braunton and Barnstaple. Civil flying had used the site from 1934, but it was taken over by the Royal Air Force and opened as a station on 25 October 1940. For most of the war it answered to Coastal Command, and its location facing the Atlantic approaches made it a natural base for maritime patrol and anti-submarine work.

In its early years the station chiefly served as a training base, home to No. 3 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit flying Bristol Beauforts, Blenheims and Beaufighters. From 1942 it became an operational anti-submarine base, with Wellington-equipped squadrons including No. 172 hunting U-boats over the Bay of Biscay; several Whitley- and Wellington-flying units rotated through, among them Polish No. 304 Squadron. Coastal patrols from Chivenor pressed the campaign against German submarines through to 1945.

After the war the airfield turned to fast-jet instruction, hosting No. 229 Operational Conversion Unit with Vampires, Meteors and Hunters, and later Hawk-equipped reserve squadrons. A long-running RAF search-and-rescue helicopter presence began in the 1950s. The RAF withdrew flying in 1995, after which the site passed to the Royal Marines as a barracks while retaining a military and gliding role.