RAF Down Ampney

RAF Down Ampney lies in the Wiltshire countryside, 3 kilometres south-west of RAF Fairford and 5 kilometres north-east of Cricklade. The airfield opened in February 1944 and closed three years later. It belonged to a network of transport bases that included RAF Broadwell and RAF Blakehill Farm. No. 48 Squadron and No. 271 Squadron flew Douglas Dakotas from here on major missions. These aircraft towed Airspeed Horsa gliders and dropped paratroopers during the Second World War. The squadrons flew to Normandy on D-Day, landing the main elements of the 3rd Parachute Brigade. They later supported Operation Market Garden at Arnhem and the Rhine crossing. Casualty evacuation flights brought wounded personnel back to England, each flight taking about eighty minutes. RAF nurses worked on these flights, tending to the injured during the journey. A memorial now stands at the southern end of the old runway. It lists the units that flew from Down Ampney and the operations they supported. The inscription ends with the words ‘We will remember them’. Visitors walk past the memorial and the empty airfield, where the grass runway still stretches across the landscape.