Qualla: RAF Haverfordwest

RAF Haverfordwest: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rhydgaled, CC BY-SA 3.0. The first time the airfield was switched on, it blacked out the town. The newly-laid runways and hangars at Withybush had been wired into the Haverfordwest civilian power station, and the moment full electrical load hit the grid in late 1942, the whole place - both town and airfield - went dark. The engineers shrugged, ordered an oil-fired generator, and got on with the war. RAF Haverfordwest was always a bit improvised. It opened before it was finished, took twice the aircraft it was designed for, and trained crews who would die in the Bay of Biscay hunting U-boats. Then in 1945 it closed, and the fields turned mostly back into farms.

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Image: Rhydgaled | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Haverfordwest: An Airfield Built in a Hurry

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 4.0. In March 1941, Coastal Command needed somewhere new for bomber crew training. They settled on a flat patch between the villages of Rudbaxton and Crundale, two miles north of Haverfordwest. The land was good - level, hedgerows for boundaries, no major obstacles. The construction w...

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Image: Nilfanion | CC BY-SA 4.0

RAF Haverfordwest: Hunting From the Coast

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Searle, CC BY-SA 2.0. The work at Haverfordwest was deadly serious. RAF Coastal Command had the job of finding U-boats and protecting Allied convoys, and the Atlantic war was being lost as 1942 turned into 1943. No. 3 (C) OTU operated Vickers Wellingtons, Avro Ansons, Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys, and...

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Image: Mike Searle | CC BY-SA 2.0

RAF Haverfordwest: Cameras Over the Preselis

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Searle, CC BY-SA 2.0. In January 1945 a completely different kind of unit arrived: No. 8 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit, fresh from RAF Dyce near Aberdeen, equipped with de Havilland Mosquitos and Supermarine Spitfires. These were photo-reconnaissance trainees, learning to fly very fast and very ...

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Image: Mike Searle | CC BY-SA 2.0

RAF Haverfordwest: Aircrew Holding

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Waterborough, CC BY-SA 3.0. By the summer of 1945 the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan had trained more pilots and aircrew than the postwar RAF could absorb. They needed somewhere to wait. No. 20 Air Crew Holding Unit was formed at RAF Haverfordwest on 18 June 1945, followed by No. 21 in August. Young...

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Image: Waterborough | CC BY-SA 3.0

RAF Haverfordwest: What Came After

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Searle, CC BY-SA 2.0. RAF Haverfordwest never reopened as a military base. The runways, control tower, and most of the hardstands survived because they were already there - and someone realised that civilian Wales could use a regional airport. Today the site operates as Haverfordwest Airport, a public...

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Image: Mike Searle | CC BY-SA 2.0