Harwell
HARWELL: Military aerodrome
Note: This picture (2005) was obtained from Google Earth ©
Rather unusually for such a site, no evidence of the WW2 airfield appears to be evident.
Military users: 1930s: Royal Air Force
226 Sqdn (Hawker Audax’)
WW2: RAF Fighter & Bomber Command 38 Group
75 Sqdn [Sep 1939 to April 1940) (Avro Ansons & Vickers Wellingtons)
105 Sqdn [1937 to 1939] (Hawker Audax, later Fairey Battles)
107 Sqdn (Bristol Blenheims)
148 Sqdn (Vickers Wellingtons)
215 Sqdn (Vickers Wellingtons)
226 Sqdn (Fairey Battles)
295 Sqdn (Armstrong-Whitworth Albermarles)
570 Sqdn (Short Stirlings)
15 OTU (Vickers Wellingtons)
Location: W of A34, NW of Chilton village, 6nm S of Abingdon
Period of operation: 1937 to 1945
Runways: WW2: 15/33 1189x46 hard 07/25 1280x46 hard
11/29 1829x46 hard
NOTES: The Albermarles and Stirlings listed above were I think used as glider tugs, and if this assumption is correct, almost certainly participated in the D-Day landings. What does seem more certain is that they also took a part in Operation Market, the ill-fated shambles to capture the road bridge at Arnhem in The Netherlands during 1944.
HARWELL is famous, (or infamous depending on your point of view), for being for many years, and even today I believe, a major research centre for the Atomic Energy Commission. There is (or was) a Prohibited Area up to 2500ft shown on CAA aviation charts.
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