Qualla: RAF Towyn https://qualla.com/raf-towyn en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/5/raf-towyn-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: RAF Towyn https://qualla.com/raf-towyn RAF Towyn: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-towyn/ Photo credit Myself (Adrian Pingstone)., Public domain. On 8 July 1944 a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress of the 569th Bomber Squadron, USAAF, came in low over the Welsh coast looking for somewhere to land. The pilot's intended destination was RAF Llanbedr to the north; he was nowhere near it. RAF Towyn lay below, three short grass runways squeezed between the beach and a railway line, none of them anywhere near long enough for the four-engined bomber bearing down on them. The pilot put her down anyway. The B-17 ran out of runway, crossed the Cambrian Coast Railway tracks, and finally came to rest inside an air raid shelter on the airfield's edge. All fifteen crew survived. The shelter, presumably, did not. RAF Towyn never received Spitfires or bombers; it existed mostly so the Royal Artillery had something to shoot at. The B-17 that crashed there is its most famous accidental visitor.

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Image: Myself (Adrian Pingstone). | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/5/raf-towyn-wp/gcm5-raf-towyn-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Towyn: The Drone and the Tow https://qualla.com/raf-towyn/ Photo credit --Immanuel Giel 10:07, 21 August 2007 (UTC), Public domain. Towyn opened in 1940 as a satellite for the Royal Artillery Anti-Aircraft Practice Camp at Tonfanau just up the coast. Its purpose was simple and slightly absurd: to provide targets, both pilotless and towed, for gunners learning how to shoot at aircraft. From September 1940 the ...

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Image: --Immanuel Giel 10:07, 21 August 2007 (UTC) | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/5/raf-towyn-wp/gcm5-raf-towyn-the-drone-and-the-tow.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Towyn: Maycrete Huts and Bessonneau Hangars https://qualla.com/raf-towyn/ Photo credit (WT-en) Xboxbob at English Wikivoyage, Public domain. The station design was wartime expedient. Three grass strips, the longest 1,189 metres, the shortest only 640. A control tower built to specification 952/40, a standard small-airfield drawing rolled out by the Air Ministry. The main site was Maycrete huts (prefabricated concrete ...

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Image: (WT-en) Xboxbob at English Wikivoyage | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/5/raf-towyn-wp/gcm5-raf-towyn-maycrete-huts-and-bessonneau-hangars.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Towyn: Emergencies on the Welsh Coast https://qualla.com/raf-towyn/ Photo credit Celuici, CC BY-SA 4.0. Towyn was designated as a diversionary airfield for Cardigan Bay. When aircraft over the sea ran into trouble, Towyn was the first piece of dry runway they could find. Twelve Lockheed P-38 Lightnings of the 97th Fighter Squadron landed in formation on 16 December 1943, all in tro...

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Image: Celuici | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/5/raf-towyn-wp/gcm5-raf-towyn-emergencies-on-the-welsh-coast.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Towyn: Morfa Camp and What Came After https://qualla.com/raf-towyn/ Photo credit Mikeyp72, CC BY-SA 4.0. In December 1943, U Flight and 1605 Flight were combined into No. 631 Squadron RAF, the unit that did most of the station's flying for the last eighteen months of the war. In May 1945 the squadron moved to RAF Llanbedr (the airfield the B-17 had been trying to find the year befor...

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Image: Mikeyp72 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/m/5/raf-towyn-wp/gcm5-raf-towyn-morfa-camp-and-what-came-after.mp3 0:06 5 full