Page 19 - Dennis Ovenden

RAF DUMFRIES

This was the biggest airfield in south west Scotland, and served many functions during the war.
Construction began in 1938 and it was opened in 1940. It was home to three maintenance units,
preparing and repairing aircraft for the war effort and also had repair facilities for Scottish Aviation
and Blackburn Aircraft who had contracts to repair and modify aircraft on site. These activities
meant that this was an extremely busy airfield, its runways echoing to the sound of aircraft being
delivered and collected by the Air Transport Auxiliary several times a day.

However, the other role of Dumfries was as a training base. Throughout the war bomb aimers,
gunners and navigators trained here, with most of the men then being posted to Bomber
Command. The main training unit here was 10 Bombing and Gunnery School, which became 10
Air Observers School and finally 10 (Observer) Advanced Flying Unit. The airfield-controlled
satellite landing grounds from Stranraer to Haddington and Cumbria, all used to store aircraft for
the maintenance units. The airfield also controlled several bombing and gunnery ranges
in the area. After the war the airfield was used for scrapping aircraft with hundreds meeting their
fate here. It eventually became a training centre for National Service recruits into the Royal Air
Force Regiment in the 1950s before closing for good in 1957.

Today, much of the airfield remains. Though the runways are largely lost to housing, the vast
majority of the buildings remain as Heathhall and Catherinefield Industrial Estates. Most of the
hangars still stand, and if you have entered Dumfries from Moffat you will pass several of these
which are still in use by engineering and haulage companies.

©RAF Dumfries