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Busy Skies over Tarrant Rushton

The highways and byways trailing through the Tarrant Valley are quiet and peaceful. They serve to link the Tarrant villages and hamlets of Hinton, Gunville, Launceston, Monkton, Rowston, Rushton, Keyneston and Crawford that stretch along the route of the pretty valley stream: it has been this way for centuries. But 70 years ago the necessities of war disturbed this tranquil scene.

In May 1942 work commenced on the building of an airfield at Tarrant Rushton. So urgently was it needed flying operations begun even before it had been completed and continued until 1945. The 300-acre site became home to hundreds of airmen from Britain and Commonwealth countries and their support staff all contributing to the defence of Britain and the battle for freedom in Europe.

Halifax and Stirling bombers left Tarrant Rushton on sorties stretching far into the skies over occupied Europe. Glider pilots were trained here: for these men there was no ride home; it must have taken a special kind of courage. The Glider Pilot Regiment despatched its huge Hamilcar and Horsa gliders from here full of equipment, some destined for French Resistance fighters and on occasions they would quietly drop secret agents from the Special Operations Executive deep into enemy territory.

Men and women of great courage – heroes and heroines – passed through this place.

The main runway at Tarrant Rushton was over a mile in length and able to service the enormous Hamilcar glider. This aircraft could carry a seven-ton tank and still have room for guns and ammunition needed by our forces in Europe: Halifax bombers towed them.

Constructed on an area of flat and windy agricultural land 300 feet above the Tarrant Valley it was an ideal site for an airfield. The 18th century Crook Farm was lost to the project. The construction statistics are staggering. The endeavour meant laying twenty miles of drains, a six mile water main, ten miles of extra roads and ten miles of conduit and in difficult times half a million tonnes of concrete, over thirty thousand square yards of tarmac and four million bricks were used.

This massive enterprise employed workers from the Irish Free State and involved building three runways, concrete hard standings for fifty aircraft, a four-mile perimeter road, accommodation for 3,000 personnel, hangers and a control tower, and it was all completed in under a year.

Flying operations at Tarrant Rushton Airfield – call sign ‘Cheekbone’ – and known as the “secret airfield” because of all the undercover work it did, were led by Squadron Leader Joe Soper and a team of officers, airmen and WAAF’s working from the control tower.

Aircraft from Tarrant Rushton played an important role on D-Day. The first of the six glider-borne troops set off at 2300 hours on June 5th and a few minutes into June 6th 1944 landed the very first Allied troops in Normandy. Tarrant Rushton’s 298 and 644 squadrons flew 2,284 missions into occupied Europe between April 1944 and May 1945.

After the Victory in Europe the airfield was stood down but before it could become derelict it was taken over in June 1948 by the commercial business ‘Flight Refuelling’ who stayed for 30-years.

The airfield was quickly back in the thick of things when ‘Flight Refuelling’ became involved in the Berlin Airlift between July 1948 and August 1949 when they flew over 4,000 sorties using Lancastrians and Lancasters. The airfield went on to welcome more modern aircraft including Meteors and F-84’s visiting to be adapted for in-flight refuelling.

The airfield was officially closed on the 30th of September 1980 and the Tarrant villages returned to the quiet unhurried lifestyle they have enjoyed over the centuries.

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