RAF Harrowbeer
The location that I have chosen for my final major project will be shot across RAF Harrowbeer. This particular site is situated in the parish of Buckland Monachorum, Devon. This particular location sits within the boundary of Dartmoor National Park. This was once a WW2 Airbase, the airfield was called Harrowbeer which was due to the close similarity for R.N.A.S. Yeovilton.
The airfields were to be built with tarmac to avoid the consistent amount of problems that arose whilst using grass runways, this decision was made by The Air Ministry. The rubble from the Plymouth Blitz was transported through the use of the railways, it would be taken up to Yelverton to be used as the core material for the building of the runways. Other outside sources were used as well, rocks from local quarries or mines were also transported to help for the building of the runways as well as being utilized to build a variety of buildings for the airbase. The layout of the airbase consisted of 3 runways in an 'A' shape formation, with two bellman hangars as well as eight blister hangars which were on a smaller scale. A small building was used nearby which was given the name of 'Ravenscroft', this was later on given the name of the 'Officers Mess', this was used as the HQ, which is now a nursing home. Another building just in front of this 'Knightstone' became the control tower for the station (or the watch office) but this has now been transformed into a restaurant with a tea room. During the year of 1941, the decision was made that a new watch-tower would be built nearer to the center of the airfield.
Again, during the year of 1941, the first recorded operational unit to utilise this WW2 base, were 55 Squadron, who were known to fly Bristol Blenheims, in fact the first aircraft to land on the base was a 'Blenheim 1F Bomber, this was a unique aircraft, the crew modified this bomber to transform into a fighter with the development of four additional machine guns. Next types of aircraft to land were the hurricanes, this particular station was predominantly used as a fighter station.
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All that is left are the remains of the runways and hangar bases, but the blast pens ('E' bays) on the perimeter of the airfield still form a prominent feature of the airbase which played such a crucial role in the Allied victory in the Second World War.
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