RAF Moreton in Marsh

Military Conversion and Post-War Downsizing

The site is now the home of the Fire Service College, the national training center for the United Kingdom's fire and rescue services. The vast expanse of the former airfield is used for large-scale, realistic training exercises, including simulated aircraft crashes, industrial incidents, urban search and rescue scenarios, and motorway pile-ups. While the main function is no longer aviation, many original features of the airfield are still visible and incorporated into the college campus, including sections of the three runways, the perimeter track, and several wartime hangars and buildings. The layout of the WWII airfield is still clearly discernible from aerial imagery.

RAF Moreton-in-Marsh was a significant Royal Air Force station during World War II. Opened in November 1940, its primary role was as a training base for RAF Bomber Command. It was home to No. 21 Operational Training Unit (OTU), which was responsible for the final stage of training for bomber crews, primarily on Vickers Wellington aircraft. At the OTU, individual airmen (pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, wireless operators, and air gunners) were brought together to form complete crews and trained to operate as a cohesive unit before being posted to front-line squadrons. The station played a vital role in supplying a continuous flow of trained crews for the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. Like many OTUs, it was an extremely busy airfield with a high rate of flying activity and, consequently, a number of training accidents. After the war, its role diminished, and it was briefly used by the Polish Resettlement Corps before flying operations ceased.

There are no plans or prospects for reopening RAF Moreton-in-Marsh as an airport. The site is fully occupied and utilized by the Fire Service College, a critical piece of national infrastructure. The cost and complexity of relocating the college and converting the heavily modified site back to a functional, modern airfield would be prohibitive. Its current use is well-established and permanent.