Dunkeswell Airfield Heritage Centre
About
Dunkeswell Airfield Heritage Centre, run by the South West Airfields Heritage Trust, tells the remarkable wartime story of Dunkeswell, a Devon airfield that became one of only a small number of United States Navy air bases operating from British soil during the Second World War. Opened in 1943, RAF Dunkeswell was handed to the US Navy's Fleet Air Wing 7, whose PB4Y Liberator patrol bombers flew long-range anti-submarine missions deep into the Atlantic and Bay of Biscay, hunting German U-boats attempting to slip in and out of their French Atlantic ports.
The centre's displays, housed on the perimeter entry road to the still-active Dunkeswell Airfield, use reproduction uniforms, scale models, original artefacts and archive film to reconstruct daily life on a wartime airbase that briefly transformed a quiet stretch of the Devon countryside into a genuinely international military installation, with American and British aircrew, ground crew and support personnel operating side by side. A substantial collection of around 350 photographs documents the base and its personnel in detail, offering a rare visual record of Anglo-American cooperation at squadron level rather than at the more familiar high-command view of wartime alliance.
The airfield's anti-submarine role sat within the wider Battle of the Atlantic, one of the longest and most strategically decisive campaigns of the Second World War, and Dunkeswell's Liberators made a real contribution to closing the mid-Atlantic "air gap" where U-boats had previously been able to operate beyond the range of Allied land-based aircraft. The heritage centre's displays give proper weight to this less well-known dimension of the airfield's history alongside the more visible physical remains of the base still traceable in the surrounding landscape.
Open seasonally from Good Friday through the summer, on Thursdays to Sundays plus bank holiday Mondays, the centre is run on a donation basis by volunteers with a strong personal connection to the airfield's history. For visitors interested in the less familiar corners of Second World War aviation history, Dunkeswell offers a genuinely distinctive story: an American naval air base, hidden in the Devon hills, fighting the Battle of the Atlantic from English soil.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Visit between Good Friday and the end of the season - the centre is closed over winter.
- Arrive by car, as the site is rural with only limited public transport nearby.
- Bring a donation, as admission is donation-based rather than fixed-price.
- Ask the volunteers about the airfield's American connections - many have detailed local knowledge worth hearing firsthand.
- Allow around an hour to see the displays and, if arranged, take a wider look around the airfield.
- Combine your visit with the wider Blackdown Hills countryside, a short drive away.
- Contact the Trust in advance if you would like a guided airfield tour beyond the heritage centre itself.
Highlights
Fleet Air Wing 7 and the US Navy at Dunkeswell
The centre's central story is Dunkeswell's transformation, after opening as an RAF station in 1943, into one of only a handful of United States Navy air bases operating from British soil during the Second World War, home to the PB4Y Liberator patrol bombers of Fleet Air Wing 7. This American naval presence in the heart of rural Devon represents a genuinely distinctive chapter of Anglo-American wartime cooperation, one far less familiar to most visitors than the more commonly told stories of US Army Air Forces bomber and fighter bases elsewhere in England.
The Battle of the Atlantic and the Mid-Ocean Air Gap
Dunkeswell's Liberators flew long-range anti-submarine patrols deep into the Atlantic and Bay of Biscay, contributing to closing the strategically critical mid-Atlantic "air gap" where U-boats had previously been able to operate beyond the reach of Allied land-based aircraft, hunting Allied shipping largely unmolested from the air.
The heritage centre's displays explain this less visually dramatic but strategically decisive campaign, situating Dunkeswell's daily patrol missions within one of the longest and most consequential campaigns of the entire Second World War.
The Photographic Archive of Base Life
A collection of around 350 photographs documents daily life at wartime Dunkeswell in unusual depth, capturing American and British aircrew, ground crew and support personnel at work and at leisure on the airfield. This substantial photographic record offers visitors a genuinely detailed, human-level view of what it was actually like to live and work on an Anglo-American airbase in rural Devon during the war, well beyond the more familiar official combat and briefing-room imagery.
Reproduction Uniforms and Personal Equipment
Reproduction uniforms and personal equipment allow visitors to see, close up, what US Navy and RAF personnel stationed at Dunkeswell would actually have worn and carried, from flight gear to everyday base dress. This hands-on, tactile element of the display complements the more documentary photographic and archival material, giving younger visitors in particular a more immediate physical connection to the base's wartime personnel, and helping bring to life the everyday practicalities of service life on a working operational airfield rather than only its combat missions.
Collections
Dunkeswell Airfield Heritage Centre documents the wartime history of RAF/US Navy Dunkeswell, one of only a small number of American naval air bases operating from British soil during the Second World War, home to the PB4Y Liberator patrol bombers of Fleet Air Wing 7 flying long-range anti-submarine missions over the Atlantic and Bay of Biscay.
Reproduction uniforms, scale models, original artefacts and a substantial archive of around 350 photographs and film footage reconstruct daily life on the base and its role in the Battle of the Atlantic, one of the Second World War's longest and most strategically significant campaigns. Run by volunteers of the South West Airfields Heritage Trust on the perimeter of the still-active Dunkeswell Airfield, the centre connects its historical displays directly to the surviving physical landscape of the wartime base.
The US Navy at Dunkeswell
Fleet Air Wing 7's PB4Y Liberators and the airfield's role as a rare American naval base on British soil.
The Battle of the Atlantic
How Dunkeswell's long-range patrols contributed to closing the mid-Atlantic air gap against U-boat operations.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.