RAF Harwell

RAF Harwell
Harwell, Oxfordshire
A Short Stirling of No. 295 Squadron RAF, taking off from RAF Harwell towing an Airspeed Horsa glider, 17 September 1944. This was one of 25 Stirling/Horsa combinations which carried the Headquarters of I Airborne Corps to landing zones near Groesbeek, Nijmegen as part of Operation Market Garden
RAF Harwell
Coordinates	51°34′30″N 1°18′43″W / 51.575°N 1.312°W / 51.575; -1.312
Type	Royal Air Force station
Site information
Owner	Air Ministry
Controlled by	Royal Flying Corps  Royal Air Force
Site history
Built	1914 (1914)
In use	1914-1945 (1945)
Battles/wars	Second World War

Royal Air Force station Harwell or more simply RAF Harwell is a former Royal Air Force station in former Berkshire, England, near the village of Harwell, located 4.8 miles (7.7 km) south east of Wantage, Oxfordshire and 17 miles (27 km) north west of Reading, Berkshire, England.

The site is now the Atomic Energy Research Establishment and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and is located in Oxfordshire.

The airfield was built by John Laing & Son at the junction of three parishes in 1935. The bulk lay within Chilton parish; about a third was in East Hendred; and the smallest portion was in Harwell. The first Commanding Officer, upon being asked what the name of the new airfield should be, responded that it should be named after the parish in which his house lay – and this happened to be Harwell.

From its opening in February 1937 until March 1944, various bomber squadrons were stationed at the airfield. On the outbreak of the Second World War, it became part of No. 38 Group RAF, initially used leaflet missions over France using Vickers Wellington bombers, later bombing raids on Bremen, Cologne and Essen. There were numerous Luftwaffe raids on the airfield from August 1940 until September 1941. The original grass field was replaced with concrete runways between July and November 1941.