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| Liberator of VB-103 taking off from Runway 23 |
Dunkeswell Airfield (EGTU) is an airfield in East Devon,
England. It is located approximately 5 miles north of the town of Honiton. Today
it is a busy civilian airfield with a mix of light aircraft, microlights and
parachuting.
The airfield was opened in 1943, during the Second World
War, as RAF Dunkeswell. The station was originally planned as a RAF Fighter
Command, then a RAF Coastal Command airfield, but was transferred for use by
American units. Dunkeswell was unique in
that it was the only British airfield where the United States Navy Fleet Air
Wing was stationed in World War Two. Dunkeswell was affectionately called by
the Americans “Mudville Heights”.
It was first used by the American United States Army Air
Force's Antisubmarine Command, 479th Antisubmarine Group, as a base of
operations to fly antisubmarine missions over the Bay of Biscay using
specialized B-24 Liberator bombers from August until November 1943.
In November the United States Army Air Forces turned over
the antisubmarine mission to the United States Navy and its Liberators were
reassigned to Navy Patrol Bomber Squadron VPB-103, Fleet Air Wing 7, which
continued aerial antisubmarine operations from the station, the AAF aircraft
being redesignated under the USN/USMC system of the time as PB4Y-1 Liberators.
This was the first United States Navy unit to train with the RAF, later
followed by VB-105 and VB-110. The Naval antisubmarine squadrons moved to the
nearby RAF Upottery in November 1944.
