RAF Exeter

RAF Exeter lay at Clyst Honiton in Devon, where the airfield had opened on 31 May 1937 as a civil aerodrome before being taken over for military use. It came under RAF Fighter Command in the summer of 1940 and formed part of No. 10 Group, guarding the air approaches to South West England.

Throughout the Battle of Britain and the years that followed, the station operated as a fighter base. Among the units flying from it were Nos. 213 and 87 Squadrons with Hawker Hurricanes, the Czechoslovak No. 310 Squadron on Spitfires, and several Polish squadrons including No. 307 in the night-fighter role. Beaufighters, Defiants, Whirlwinds and Mosquitoes were also flown from the field, which carried out day and night defence as well as air-sea rescue work. Its importance drew repeated Luftwaffe bombing during 1941 and 1942.

In 1944 the airfield was handed to the United States Army Air Forces as Station 463, where the 440th Troop Carrier Group assembled with Douglas C-47 transports. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, the group lifted American paratroops for the drop into Normandy. The RAF relinquished the site in 1946, and on 1 January 1947 it returned to civil aviation; it remains in use today as Exeter Airport.