RAF St Eval

50.4782, -4.9996 — view on OpenStreetMap ↗

About

RAF St Eval, near Padstow on the north Cornish coast, opened in 1939 and became one of the most important Coastal Command stations. Its squadrons flew Bristol Beauforts, Lockheed Hudsons and Consolidated Liberators on anti-submarine and anti-shipping patrols over the south-western approaches throughout the Battle of the Atlantic. The station closed in 1959 and is now a defence high-frequency transmitter site; the surviving parish church of St Uvelus serves as a memorial to the airmen lost from the field.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including RAF St Eval — Wikipedia and St Eval — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.

Photographs

Former bomb store at St Eval. This is on the edge of the former St Eval airfield. On the gate was notice of a planning application to convert five to holiday cottages and five to stables.
ⓘ licence & creditDavid Hawgood / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Former_bomb_store_at_St_Eval_-_geograph.org.uk_-_50489.jpgView source & full licence →
Two Royal Air Force Bristol Beauforts (N1173/MW-E and AW242/MW-B) of 217 Squadron, Royal Air Force, patrolling the British coast near St. Eval, Cornwall (UK)
ⓘ licence & creditRAF official / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bristol_Beauforts_217_Squadron_in_flight2.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Coastal Command Beaufort I W6537/OA-F of No 22 Squadron starting up at St Eval, December 1941. The accumulator trolley in the foreground supplied the necessary electrical power to the aircraft and was disconnected once the engines were running. Unlike other Beaufort squadrons, No 22 fitted a Vickers 'K' gun in the nose compartment of its aircraft, to be used for flak-suppression during low-level attacks.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Woodbine G (Mr) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bristol_Beaufort_-_Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Coastal_Command_CH17131.jpgView source & full licence →
B-50 of the 93d BG at RAF St Eval, 1950.
ⓘ licence & creditPhoto source in book given as United States Air Force / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:B-50-93dbg-1950.jpgView source & full licence →
Aerial view of the RAF Coastal Command airfield RAF St Eval in Cornwall, UK.
ⓘ licence & creditNo 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RAF_St_Eval_aerial_photograph_WWII_IWM_HU_92963.jpgView source & full licence →

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