RAF Ramsbury USAAF Station AAF-469
NearMarlborough,Wiltshire, United Kingdom
Ramsbury airfield photographed in May 1944 with west oriented upwards. Taken about a month before D-Day with the airfield full of C-47s and Horsa gliders of the 437th Troop Carrier Group.
Site information
Type	Royal Air Force station
Code	RY
Owner	Air Ministry
Controlled by	Royal Air Force United States Army Air Forces
Location
Location in Wiltshire
Coordinates	51°25′49″N1°37′11″W / 51.4302°N 1.6198°W /51.4302; -1.6198
Site history
Built	1941 (1941)
In use	1942-1945 (1945)
Battles/wars	European Theatre of World War II Air Offensive, Europe July 1942 - May 1945
Garrison information
Garrison	Eighth Air Force Ninth Air Force RAF Transport Command RAF Flying Training Command
Occupants	64th Troop Carrier Group 434th/435th Troop Carrier Groups 437th Troop Carrier Group No. 23 Group RAF

Royal Air Force Ramsbury or more simplyRAF Ramsbury is a formerRoyal Air Force station, 5 miles (8 km) east-northeast ofMarlborough,Wiltshire, England.

Opened in 1942 to the south ofRamsbury village, it was used by both the Royal Air Force andUnited States Army Air Forces. During the war it was primarily a transport airfield. After the war it was closed in 1946, and today the remains of the airfield are on private land being used as agricultural fields.

Ramsbury was known asUSAAF Station AAF-469 for security reasons by theUnited States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during the war, to avoid naming its location. Its USAAF Station Code was "RY".

The airfield was fairly complete when the first operational users arrived. The USAAFTwelfth Air Force64th Troop Carrier Group, equipped withDouglas C-47 Skytrain andDouglas C-53 Skytrooper, arrived fromWestover Army Airfield,Massachusetts on 18 August 1942. Operational squadrons of the group were:

• 16th Troop Carrier Squadron
• 17th Troop Carrier Squadron
• 18th Troop Carrier Squadron
• 35th Troop Carrier Squadron

The unit was temporarily assigned to theVIII Air Support Command for training at Ramsbury, and conducted an extensive training program while flying cargo, passengers, and courier missions for several months, before leaving with paratroopers forOperation Torch, theinvasion of North Africa on 9 November 1942, being deployed toBlida Airfield,Algeria.

From November 1943 to January 1944, the airfield was used by the air echelons of the434th and435th Troop Carrier Groups fromRAF Fulbeck andRAF Langar with C-47s and C-53s. The groups conducted exercises with the101st Airborne Division.

On 5 February 1944 the437th Troop Carrier Group moved to Ramsbury fromRAF Balderton. Operational squadrons of the group were:

• 83d Troop Carrier Squadron (T2)
• 84th Troop Carrier Squadron (Z8)
• 85th Troop Carrier Squadron (90)
• 86th Troop Carrier Squadron (5K)

The 437th was a group ofNinth Air Force's53d Troop Carrier Wing,IX Troop Carrier Command.

The 437th TCS flew a combination ofDouglas C-47s and C-53 Skytrains. In February 1945 the group moved to itsAdvanced Landing Ground at Coulommiers/Voisins, France (ALG A-58).

Ramsbury was retained by IX TCC as a reserve base until the end of hostilities, finally relinquishing it to the RAF in June 1945.^[1][2]

The following units were also here at some point:^[3]

• No. 15 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit RAF
• No. 1336 Transport Conversion Unit RAF
• No. 1336 (Transport Support) Conversion Unit RAF
• No. 1537 (Beam Approach Training) Flight RAF

With the end of military control, Ramsbury was returned to agricultural use. By the mid-1960s, much of the concrete had been removed.

Today outlines of the main runways can be discerned on aerial photography, with the perimeter track being reduced largely to a single-lane agricultural road. None of the numerous dispersal pads to the southwest of the airfield remain, and there is no evidence of any of the hangars or the technical site. A very short piece of the end of 32 runway can be seen where the concrete is still at full width, at the intersection with what once was the perimeter track.

A large poultry farm has been erected at the intersection of the 32 end of the NW/SE and 02 end of the NE/SW runways. Several runoff retention ponds are visible with many metal storage silos.

• List of former Royal Air Force stations
• 82nd Airborne Division
• 101st Airborne Division

 This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Freeman, R.Airfields of the Eighth - Then and Now. After the Battle. London, UK: Battle of Britain International Ltd., 2001.ISBN 0-9009-13-09-6.
• Freeman, Roger A. (1996) The Ninth Air Force in Colour: UK and the Continent-World War Two. After the BattleISBN 1-85409-272-3
• Maurer, M.Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. USAF Historical Division. Washington D.C., USA: Zenger Publishing Co., Inc, 1980.ISBN 0-89201-092-4.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toRAF Ramsbury.

• Ramsbury Airfield at www.controltowers.co.uk

• Royal Air Force stations in Wiltshire
• Airfields of the IX Troop Carrier Command in the United Kingdom
• Military airbases established in 1942
• Military airbases closed in 1945

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• Commons category link is on Wikidata