Affectionately called by the Americans “Mudville Heights”, of the three airfields Dunkeswell is possibly the best documented and has it’s own memorial museum housed within the perimeter of the war time airfield.

Post-war it has also remained the most active with a flying school and club facilities that go back several decades, it is also well known within the parachuting fraternity and has  a first rate parachute school, In recent years Micro light flying has also operated from the field. All these activities are surrounded by a good deal of commercial trading from the large number of industrial units, many of which are the original wartime buildings.

Constructed by Wimpey during 1941-42, Dunkeswell was intended as a 10 Group, Fighter Command station, but with the newly-built airfield at Culmhead providing additional defence for Exeter and with the repelling of the German air offensive during the Battle of Britain, the RAF’s attention turned more towards offensive operations and the need for additional bomber bases.

There was also an urgent need to bolster the strength and ability of  Coastal Command because of the major disruption being caused by German U-Boats.

From their established bases, that were situated along the west coast of France and the north coast of Spain. The U-Boats were causing heavy losses to the vital shipping convoys which were carrying much-needed supplies across the Atlantic to Britain. RAF Coastal Command was in charge of the anti submarine activities and was regularly searching the Bay of Biscay with long range aircraft with some success. But by the autumn of 1942 Germany had equipped the U-boats with devices capable of detecting long wave radar used on the aircraft, thus reducing the chance being caught on the surface. To counter this, Coastal Command sought the support of the United States Army Air Force to supplement its efforts by providing long range B-24 bombers equipped with the new microwave Radar that the enemy could not detect so easily.