RAF Pembrey RAF Training Command The site for Pembrey was acquired in 1937. The airfield was allocated to
No. 25 Group RAF, of
RAF Training Command during its construction, and it officially opened on the 6 May 1940. The site was known as Towyn Burrows and was only just higher than the high tide level. Situated between
Burry Port and
Kidwelly, it was on a
marshy area of
coastline, the
Cefn Sidan Sands and
Pembrey Forest were between the shoreline and the airfield. The airfield opened in March 1939, and by September 1939
No. 2 Air Armament School RAF was the first unit to be stationed at the airfield, indeed, from September 1939 to June 1940 the airfield was used to train armourers and air mechanics by No. 2 AAS.
RAF Fighter Command From the 20 June 1940, the airfield was transferred to
No. 10 Group RAF of
RAF Fighter Command. Pembrey was used throughout the
Battle of Britain to rest squadrons from the defending against
the Blitz, and also to provide air defence for South Wales and to protect convoys.
Supermarine Spitfire pilots of
No. 92 Squadron used Pembrey as their base from the 18 June 1940. These included
Squadron Leader Stanford Tuck, until 12 August,
Geoffrey Wellum, the author of the 2002 memoir
"First Light", and
Tony Bartley. During the Battle of Britain, No. 92 Squadron pilots who were to be at readiness at dawn, spent the night in a tent set up near the aircraft. No. 92 Squadron returned to
RAF Biggin Hill on the 9 September, during the air battle’s peak. From January to March 1941,
256 Squadron operated from Pembrey. In early 1941,
No. 316 Polish Fighter Squadron was formed at Pembrey, inflicted losses on enemy aircraft, and moved on to
RAF Colerne in June.
RAF Fairwood Common and
RAF Angle had taken over the
air defence of the
South Wales area by the middle of 1941 and RAF Pembrey was allocated to RAF Flying Training Command.
RAF Flying Training Command Between 1941 and 1945 Pembrey was host to the RAF's No. 1 Air Gunners School, involving
Bristol Blenheim and
Vickers Wellington bombers and Spitfire fighter aircraft, and included experimental courses. From 1943 to 1945,
Wing commander George Peter Macdonald, was the
Commanding Officer of No. 1 Air Gunners School RAF, and the Station Commander of RAF Pembrey.
Operational Conversion Unit No 233 OCU formed in September 1952, at RAF Pembrey. The OCU's Badge featured the head of a
Wildcat, indicative of the fierce fighting spirit. The OCU's
Welsh motto was
Ymlaen; The
English translation is 'Forward'. The OCUs de Havilland Vampire aircraft displayed the badge below the front quarter-light of the cockpit and was the OCUs aircraft's only markings. The Station badge was also the No 233 OCU badge during this period, and was displayed on all the RAF Pembrey vehicles. The Operational Conversion Unit disbanded in September 1957 and the station closed soon afterwards.
Incidents • In June 1942, a
luftwaffe Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter aircraft landed at RAF Pembrey in error, after a
dog fight over the
Bristol Channel.
Oberleutnant Armin Faber, adjutant of III. fighter Gruppe of
JG2, had been engaged by Supermarine Spitfire aircraft of
No. 19 Squadron RAF and the Czech Wing, over south
Devon, England, on 23 June. Being forced north beyond
Exeter, Faber mistook the
Bristol Channel for the
English Channel. Short on fuel, he landed at Pembrey, believing it to be a
Luftwaffe airfield in the
Cotentin Peninsula,
Normandy, France. The Pembrey Duty Pilot grabbed a
Very pistol, ran from the
control tower, and jumped onto the wing of Faber's aircraft as it taxied. Faber was taken to RAF Fairwood Common by
Group Captain David Atcherley for
interrogation. Faber was piloting the latest
Luftwaffe fighter aircraft, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-3, a type the RAF had only seen flying over France. The depths of Faber's despair at providing his enemy with an intact Focke-Wulf Fw 190 can be gauged by the fact that he subsequently attempted to commit
suicide. As news broke of his landing in Pembrey, RAF Fighter Command dispatched pilots to photograph and move the aircraft to the
Royal Aircraft Establishment at
Farnborough. The RAF finally had an Focke-Wulf Fw 190 to compare with its V.S Spitfire IX and
Hawker Typhoon Ia aircraft. • In September 1953, a
de Havilland Vampire crashed at the airfield, killing the pilot, Squadron Leader Lionel Hubert Wakeford,
DFC. Shortly before closure in June 1957, a
Hawker Hunter I, (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. Both airmen were
buried in St Illtyd
Churchyard, Pembrey, along with 32 wartime RAF casualties, including seven from the
Polish Air Force. • 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.
Pembrey Airport On 22 August 1997 Pembrey was officially opened as a civil airfield and named
Pembrey Airport. Pembrey was associated as a service facility with the former
RAF Pembrey Sands Air Weapons Range, a Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) establishment. The airfield is now split into a number of facilities: the Welsh Motor Sports Centre occupies most of the area, part of the land has reverted to agriculture, part contains a hangar formerly used by the
Dyfed-Powys Police Air Support, whilst of the north east portion of the former RAF Runway, 04/22, was opened as
Pembrey West Wales Airport in August 1997. In 2009 it was expecting to operate charter flights into the airport. The airfield is also home to the Llanelli Model Flying Club. == Former units ==