During it's brief history RAF Davidstow Moor in North Cornwall was home to Coastal Command squadrons involved in Air Sea Rescue [ASR], U-Boat hunting and anti shipping patrols. Personnel came from the UK, Canada, United States, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Czechoslovakia and Holland.
My father Claude Knight was stationed there and the airfield was part of my Royal Mail post round. I have been lucky enough to talk to many people with first hand experience of what went on there in wartime. This has been an ongoing project over the last 40 years.
The site is intended to give the researcher access to my personal archive which includes squadron and airfield records, details and lists of personnel, both service and civilian, the memories of those I have talked to and corresponded with, my own photograph collection, a local crash log, background information about the area and it's people before and after the war and anything else that may be of interest.
It will be as full a record as I can make it but until it is complete please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions or would like to add to the site or my archive.
RAF Davidstow Moor lies two miles north east of Camelford in North Cornwall. It is at the junction between the A39 and the A395. The main entrance today is past the site of the Dairycrest factory and entered from the A395. The aerodrome is crossed by the road from Camelford to Altarnun.
50.635N 4.61W
Air Ministry AM S584074[136]
SX150 850
700 acres
970 ft above sea level
3 miles from the foot of Roughtor and Brown Willy
On the sites of the tenements of Larkaburra, Griggs Down, Higher Griggs Down and Goosehill
RAF Coastal Command 19 Group
Coastal Command was founded on 14 July 1936 as part of the Royal Air Force. Its role was to defend the UK from seaborne attack and to protect British shipping. In February 1941 19 Group Coastal Command became operational. It covered an area to the south west of England. RAF Davidstow Moor became part of 19 Group Coastal Command. It's intended role was to strengthen 19 Group's anti U-Boat campaign in the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay.