RAF Fairwood Common

RAF Fairwood Common stood on Fairwood Common, an expanse of former grazing land on the Gower Peninsula a short distance west of Swansea in south Wales. Laid out during the early years of the Second World War, the station was declared operational on 15 June 1941 after a lengthy construction effort that involved levelling and draining the boggy heath. It served as a day and night fighter aerodrome within No. 10 Group of Fighter Command.

The station’s main task was the air defence of south and west Wales and the protection of shipping in the Bristol and St George’s Channels, and from October 1941 it carried the wider responsibilities of a sector station. A succession of units passed through, beginning with No. 79 Squadron and its Hawker Hurricanes and later including Polish-manned night-fighter squadrons and Australian crews flying Mosquitoes and Beaufighters. Over the course of the war the airfield also handled fighter-bomber, convoy-escort, air-sea rescue and armament-practice duties.

The RAF gave up the station in 1949. The site was subsequently developed for civil aviation and reopened as Swansea Airport, formally inaugurated on 1 June 1957 by the famous wartime fighter pilot Group Captain Douglas Bader. The aerodrome remains in use for general and private flying today.