RAF Beaulieu - History

History

An airfield at Beaulieu had been used as a landing ground as early as 1910 and was taken over by the military for flying training during the First World War. In the inter-war years, it was not considered suitable for enlargement to meet the requirements of the RAF during its expansion in the late 1930s. Nevertheless, with the fall of France in 1940 and the need for more airfields in the southern counties, the site was again reviewed but passed over in favour of a much more suitable area about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the west of the original aerodrome.

The new airfield opened as a Class A bomber airfield main feature of which was a set of three intersecting concrete runways placed at 60 degree angles to each other in a triangular pattern. Its runways included a main of 5,900 feet (1,800 m) (10/28), 4,100 feet (1,200 m) (04/22), and 4,098 feet (1,249 m) (16/34). 50 "frying pan" hardstandings were constructed connecting to an enclosing perimeter track, of a standard width of 50 feet (15 m).

The station was constructed largely of Nissen huts of various sizes. This was where the group and ground station commanders, squadron headquarters and orderly rooms were located. Also on the ground station were where the mess facilities; chapel; hospital; mission briefing and debriefing; armoury and bomb dump; life support; parachute store; supply hut; station and airfield security; motor transport and the other ground support functions necessary to support the air operations of the group. These facilities were all connected by a network of single path support roads.

The technical site, connected to the ground station and northwest side of the airfield consisted of various organisational, component and field maintenance shops along with two T-2 type aircraft hangars, one at the site, the other on the south side of the airfield at a cluster of dispersal pads connected to the perimeter track. This is where the ground crew and other personnel necessary to keep the aircraft airworthy were located, whose mission was to repair the aircraft. Aircraft severely damaged in combat were dismantled and transported to depots for major structural repair. The ammunition dump was located outside of the perimeter track, surrounded by large dirt mounds and concrete storage pens for storage of bombs and ammunitions.

A number domestic accommodation sites were dispersed away from the airfield, within a mile or so of the technical support site, also using clusters of Maycrete or Nissen huts. These huts were either connected, set up end-to-end or built singly and made of prefabricated corrugated iron with a door and two small windows at the front and back. They provided accommodation for 2,197 servicemen, including communal facilities and a sick quarters.