RAF Pembrey

Origin

Construction of the airfield for RAF Flying Training Command started in 1937. The airfield opened in March 1939,^[1] and by September 1939 the RAF's No. 2 Air Armament School was the first unit to be stationed at the airfield.

Second World War

During the Second World War, RAF Pembrey was the airfield base for many of the period's flying aces, and Wing Commander Guy Gibson of the Dambusters.

By May 1940, the three tarmac runways were completed and the airfield transferred initially to 11 Group RAF Fighter Command and then to the newly formed 10 Group RAF Fighter Command. Supermarine Spitfire pilots of 92 Squadron used Pembrey as their base from 18 June 1940, including Squadron Leader Stanford Tuck,^[2] until 12 August,^[3][4] Geoffrey Wellum the author of the 2002 memoir, "First Light"), and Tony Bartley. During the Battle of Britain, 92 Squadron pilots who were to be at readiness at dawn spent the night in a tent set up near the aircraft.^[5].

During this period Pembrey gained honours as a Battle of Britain Airfield. Pembrey became a Sector Station within 10 Group, relinquishing this role in October 1941 to RAF Fairwood Common after it had returned to RAF Flying Training Command a few months earlier.

From January to March 1941, 256 Squadron operated from Pembrey.^[6] In early 1941, Polish Air Force Squadron 316 was formed at Pembrey, inflicted losses on enemy aircraft, and moved on to RAF Colerne in June.^[7]

Disused dome training facility and Spitfire, 2007

Between 1941 and 1945 Pembrey was host to the RAF's Air Gunnery School, involving Bristol Blenheim and Vickers Wellington bombers and Spitfire fighter aircraft,^[8] and included experimental courses.^[9] From 1943 to 1945 Wing Commander George Peter Macdonald was Commanding Officer, No. 1 Air Gunners School, and Station Commander of RAF Pembrey.^[10] The airfield is the site of one of only five Dome Trainer Buildings (for training AA gunners) still existing in the UK.

In 1942 a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 landed there in error after a dog fight over the Bristol Channel. Oberleutnant Armin Faber, Adjutant of III fighter Gruppe of JG2 who, on 23 June 1942 had been engaged by Spitfires of 19 Squadron and the Czech Wing over south Devon, England. Being forced north beyond Exeter, Faber mistook the Bristol Channel for the English Channel. Being short on fuel, he landed at Pembrey believing it to be a Luftwaffe airfield in Brittany, France. The Pembrey Duty Pilot grabbed a Very pistol and ran from the control tower and jumped onto the wing of Faber's aircraft as it taxied in. Faber was taken to RAF Fairwood Common by Group Captain David Atcherley for interrogation. He became a POW in Canada and was repatriated to Germany in exchange for wounded allied POW's. It is thought that he then fought on the eastern front. Ironically, Faber was piloting the latest enemy fighter, the Focke-Wulf 190A-3, a type the RAF had only ever seen flying over France. The depths of Faber's despair at providing his enemy with an intact Fw 190 can be gauged by the fact that he subsequently attempted to commit suicide. As news broke of his landing in Pembrey, Fighter Command despatched pilots to photograph and return the aircraft to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. The RAF finally had an Fw 190 to compare with its V.S Spitfire IX and Hawker Typhoon Ia aircraft.^[11]

Post-war

At the end of the war RAF Pembrey became an air crew holding unit for those being demobilised.

In 1946 RAF Fighter Command once again took over as custodians of the airfield with aircraft staying to 1949. Work was then put in hand to lengthen Runway 04/22 to take jet aircraft. From 1949 to 1952 21 Wing RAF Regiment (comprising 15 and 63 Squadrons RAF Regiment) were based at Pembrey. With Runway 04/22 extended to nearly 6000 feet, 1 September 1952 the airfield became home to 233 Operational Conversion Unit which flew de Havilland Vampires and Hawker Hunters until its closure on 13 July 1957. In September 1953 a Vampire crashed at the airfield, killing the pilot, Squadron Leader Lionel Hubert Wakeford DFC.^[12] Shortly before closure, in June 1957, a Hunter 1 (WT563) crashed on approach to the airfield, killing Pilot Officer Frederick William Rupert Vernon Jacques when he ejected at low level; the aircraft crashed into Kidwelly railway station.^[13][14] Both airmen were buried in St Illtyd Churchyard, Pembrey, along with 32 wartime RAF casualties, including seven from the Polish Air Force.^[15]

Post 1958 part of former RAF Pembrey airfield was turned over to agriculture and part was used as a motor racing circuit leaving only a small length of unused runway and taxiways. Most of the hangars were dismantled in 1962.

In 1968 a bomb exploded at the airfield, seriously injuring a warrant officer; in the "climate of sporadic bomb threats" the BBC interviewed people in Kidwelly about whether they believed The Prince of Wales should come to Wales.^[16]

On Thursday 22 August 1997 Pembrey was officially opened as a civil airfield and named Pembrey Airport using a single runway (04/22) with a declared length of 805 metres.

Squadrons

Pembrey was host to many squadrons and aircraft types during its active history,^[17] for example -

• Nos 595/5, 92, 118. (Spitfires)
• Nos 32, 79, 316 - formed at Pembrey. (Hawker Hurricanes)
• Nos 238, 248. (Beaufighters)
• Nos 256, 307. (Boulton Paul Defiants)
• No. 233 OCU (Vampires, Tempests, Mosquitos, Meteors and Hunters)