Colerne is a former RAF base, now (2006) home of 21 Signals Regiment and also Bristol University Air Squadron and an Air Experience Flight. Charmy Down was a Fighter Command station, later used by the USAAF, which closed in 1946 and returned to agriculture.

Published sources are open to interpretation over some of the history, so we are always glad to hear from anyone with personal recollections of Colerne or nearby Charmy Down. Contact us

RAF Colerne was planned as a major base. A survey was done in 1936 and construction began in 1939. By mid-1940 it was sufficiently advanced to become operational within 10 Group Fighter Command as a subsidiary of RAF Middle Wallop, and fighters rotated through it daily, but no squadron was based there until June 1941 when 125 Sqn with Defiants arrived. After that, up to a dozen fighter squadrons were based here for significant periods of time, while 18 more fighter squadrons were here for shorter periods, a couple of days up to a couple of months. There was also a big maintenance presence, with 39 MU being joined by 218 MU from March 1942.

RAF Charmy Down alongside the A46 road near Cold Ashton was set up in November 1940 as a Fighter Command station, and 125 Defiant Squadron moved to it in August 1941, joined by 87 Squadron with Hurricanes, and 263 and 137 Squadrons with Whirlwinds. Bomber Command then briefly located 88 and 107 Squadrons here with Bostons, and then in 1944 it became a USAAF base with P38 and P51 fighters supporting the D-Day invasion.

The Defiant night-fighters of 151 and 264 Squadrons were succeeded at Colerne by Beaufighters and then Mosquitos. During the invasion, air forces from Colerne and Charmy Down patrolled the invasion beaches and conducted support operations as the land forces advanced. At times this meant rapid deployment to forward airfields such as Predannack in Cornwall, or to France.

No. 39 Maintenance Unit was based at Colerne from Jan 1940 handling Hurricanes and Spitfires and ferrying them out to North Africa, the Middle East and Far East. No 218 MU formed in Mar 1942, and handled e,g, new Lancasters arriving from Canada, some of which were then sent back. Evidence from the 1960s indicates that the Maintenance Units occupied the hangars on the north side of the airfield.

Amongst the many units passing through Colerne was 616 squadron, the first Allied squadron with jets, relocating with Gloster Meteor Is from Culmhead and then re-equipping with Meteor IIIs, before moving to RAF Manston to combat the Doodlebug (V1) menace. After the war, 74 and 245(ex-504) Squadrons operated Meteors briefly from Colerne and Charmy Down.

In 1946 Colerne was transferred to Maintenance Command, with 218MU being replaced in 1948 by 49 MU which continued to 1962, while 39MU was closed in 1953. By 1951 Brigand T4 and T5 were being handled, several being recorded as write-offs in that year, as well as Buckmasters.
There are many rumours and eye-witness stories from this period of surplus military arcraft and parts being buried around the airfield.

In 1952 the station returned to Fighter Command and Brigand trainers together with Balliols and Vallettas formed part of No. 238 Operational Conversion Unit, training radar operators for night and all-weather fighters.This unit moved to RAF Leeming in 1957.

In 1957 Colerne transferred to Transport Command with 24 Sqn and 511 Sqn flying Handley Page Hastings, using the squadron hangars and dispersal area on the south-east side near Colerne village. In 1958 511 Sqn reformed as 36 Sqn. (A new 511 Sqn was formed at Lyneham shortly after as a Britannia squadron) From 1959 to 1961 No 114 squadron operated a small number of Hastings from the hangar in the middle of the station. In 1962 2 Sqn RAF Regiment who were parachute trained, arrived, and later also 47 Air Dispatch Sqn, Royal Corps of Transport.

In 1967 the Hastings was replaced by the Lockheed C130K Hercules, and the two air squadrons moved to RAF Lyneham, but Colerne became the main engineering base for the RAF Hercules.

On 10th September 1973 Hercules XV198 crashed into the wood to the northeast of the airfield and burnt out, killing all five aboard who included an air loadmaster. The crash was attributed to "engine failure during a 3-engine touch and go landing". Comparisons have been made with an accident to a Hercules at Fairford when an engine was said to have "gone into reverse", meaning a propellor went into reverse pitch.

In 1976 the C130 engineering work also went to Lyneham. Control of Colerne passed to the Army, and it was used at first by the Junior Leaders Regiment, then after 1992 by 21 Signals Regiment which had been withdrawn from Germany. 21 Sigs has an element of air co-operation in its training for which the runway remains operational, and it is a convenient location for the Bristol University Air Squadron and the ATC Air Experience Flight that previously operated from RAF Filton.

An air museum with occasional public access was operated by the RAF for some years up to 1976, and included for example the Hawker P1052 prototype, a Sea Fury, and various marks of Canberra. This collection mostly went to other museums, but Spitfire Mk II P7350, which was renovated for the Battle of Britain film, then joined the RAF Memorial Flight as the oldest flying Spitfire.