RAF Tarrant Rushton, Dorset Airfield Site,

Situated to the east of Blandford Forum, set on the top of a hill with expansive views across Dorset and Badbury Rings (Iron Age hill fort). This page takes you on an anti-clockwise walk around the airfields perimeter track.

61 - Aircraft Shed - T2 - 3653-65/42.
RAF Tarrant Rushton, Airfield Site.
Construction started in September 1942 by George Wimpy to an 'A' class bomber airfield. Designed for five T2 hangars, only four were built and two remain. With 48 looped (spectacle) and two frying pan dispersals. 1024 men and 135 WAAF's were the complement but I am sure this number fluctuated.

Plan.
Three runways with the main running North/South. There is a deep valley which gave aircraft and gliders a helping start to instant height. To the North East was the Communal sites and just up the valley, the camp where the paratroopers were billeted prior to their operations. Four T2 hangars and an Airfield site where RAF admin/training took place. A farm in the middle of the airfield and two roads were removed and a new road was built around the northern half of the airfield boundary, added to link these roads. A large bomb store was placed at the south side of the airfield, just off this plan. It can be found in the TR Menu page.

61 - Aircraft Shed - T2 - 3653-65/42.
The uprights are doubled iron angles bolted together increasing their strength. These hangars were designed to be bolted together with as few men and equipment as possible. When one was dismantled in I think Yorkshire and then re built, the structural engineer said that it was way stronger than it ever needed to be. Perhaps that is why they have lasted so well.

2 - Operations Block - TB - 13023/41.
3 - Latrine - TB 9036/41.
5-6 - Station HQ Offices - N 12400/41.
7 - Picket Post TB 12404/41.
8 - Briefing room - N - 13023/41.
14 - Parachute Store - TB - 11137/41.
15 - Tow Cable Building - TB - AAC/228/42.
23 - Crew Locker Room & Drying Room - N - 15657/41.
30 (29-31) - Workshops - TB & N - 5851/42.
39 - Photographic Block - N - 4781/42.

TB - Temporary Brick.
N - Nissen huts.
AAC/228/42 - I am presuming that this is an Army Air Corps type building No.228/42.

Perimeter track.

Called track because they started out as cinder tracks in the 1930's but by 1942 they had to be 50ft wide to take heavy bombers and a concrete base and tarmac finish.

A view from the tower.
51 - Maintenance Unit & Oil Bowser - N.
52 - Emergency Standby Set. 56 - Floodlight Trailer Shed - TB - 12411/41.
61 - Aircraft Shed - T2 - 3653-65/42.

Another view from the tower.
23 - Crew Locker & Drying Room - N - 15657/41.
29 - Workshop - TB & N - 5852/42. 53 - N.F.E. Store - TB - 12411/41.

Perimeter track to where the control tower once stood very roughly, the two white lines show where the road to the Control Tower went off.

Watch Office.
54 - Watch Office - T.B. - 12779/41.
It has one oddity that the left lower window is a larger one? Mike Lees kindly gave me a set of his photos to use on the website, thank you Mike.

Watch Office.
54 - Watch Office - T.B. - 12779/41.
With the later observation room on the roof, it was stored at the Steam Fair site at Tarrant Hinton, not at all sure where it is now .

Watch Office.
The view from the roof. A good view of Badbury Rings in the distance.

Frying pan dispersal.
Continuing along the perimeter track in an anti-clock wise direction. Now a public right of way. Only one now of two dispersals that were here. These two are larger than standard circular dispersals, why? Well some say they were used as to swing the compass?

Frying pan dispersal We found this in the concrete of the dispersal, North West or Norman Wisdom???

November 2025 a re visited and we found no tie downs? and this NW. We did look at it being a compass platform, to alighn the aircraft’s compasses. But for a CP you only need N,S,E & W. Not NW?

A post war photo of the airfield site.
The two frying pan dispersals show up well and the many dispersed Nissen huts littering the woods and fields.

Perimeter track.
You can see the WW2 perimeter track changing into the newer Cold War loop.

Perimeter track.
We are still on the perimeter track where it meets the main runway. The concrete here is of a later date and part of the cold war history of TR.

Airfield here, you can see the main runway and the run around loop on the left and the V Bomber dispersal on the far right.

Perimeter track lighting.
The main runway leaving to the left and contact lighting for the V bombers to follow.

The main N/S runway 150ft wide, 6,000 ft long looking south.

Main runway.
A Hamilcar taking off on Runway 19. Note the yellow circle, it is a defence site with what looks like a Bofors gun and the red circle the tented area of the gunners camp. These were added just prior to D-Day. The thinking was that after D-Day, the German's may counter attack our airfields with either aircraft or parachutists and gliders. Extra AA guns were rushed into many airfields, only to be removed for Operation 'Diver'. The V1 attack on the south east.

Perimeter track.
There were Scissor aircraft dispersals by the trees but only two remain..

Scissor dispersals.

There were 48 Scissor dispersals on the airfield and these are the only two left. Called Scissor or B-5 Standard Class 'A' "Loop" design.

This area is where Hangar T2 '#4'.
All that is left are the marks in the ploughed soil.

Site plan of Hangar T2 '#4' and its ancillary buildings: -
120 - Machine Gun & Cannon Range - TB - 147/41.
121 - Maintenance & Battery Charging - N - 829/43.
122 - Tech. Latrine - TB - 9026/41.
123 - Maintenance Unit Staff Block N.
124 - Maintenance Unit & Oil Bowser N 12772/42.
125 - Latrine - TB - 9026/42.
127 - Aircraft Shed - T2 - 3653 65/42.
128 - Aircraft. Armament Equipment. Store - N.
129 - General Purpose Hut - N.
130 - Flame Float Store - N - [Type D] 12725/41.
131 - Defence Hut - N.
142 - Transformer Plinth.
TB = Temporary brick or half brick.
N == Nissen.

Hangar T2 '#4.
'Flight Sim design of the area with grateful thanks to 'Terry Wallis flight sim.' for the picture.
This gives a good idea of how it may have looked.

Perimeter track.
At the bend in the distance is the threshold of runway 08.Runway.
08 4,200ft long x 150ft wide.

Perimeter track.
Coming around to the threshold to runway 01.
Runways were numbered by the RAF as 1,2 & 3 etc., when the Americans came into the war they used the compass layout.
This is the area where gliders and tugs were assembled in four rows ready for take-offs for all their operations on the continent.

Main runway.
Halifax bombers lined up on D-day. The Halifax could tow the Horsa and Hamilcar gliders that were used here for the main D-Day Operations and in fact were used on all the airborne operations of the war in Europe.
On this lift it was the first in history that tanks were taken to war by air.

Runway 01.

5th June 1944: -
Three Albemarle’s with Horsa gliders took off for the Merville battery. From RAF Harwell. Six Halifax's with Horsa gliders then took off for the bridges over the River Orne.
From RAF Tarrant Rushton.
6th June: - 30 Halifax's with Horsa & Hamilcar gliders for the afternoon lift.

V bomber track to their QRA (Quick Reaction Alert).
Four Valiant bombers on several occasions flew down here and the crews were located an old US Army hospital of Grim's Dyke, Martin. Most or all has now been removed.
In the event of a nuclear war in the early 60's these aircraft would have flown off to bomb Russia whilst we sat as children with our heads under our school desks.

In a nuclear alert, the bombers would have flown into TR fully loaded with their nuclear warheads, then awaited here or up at Grim's Dyke camp. When the button was pressed, they would rush to their fully loaded and fuelled planes and take off for Russia.
I have talked to an ex RAF test pilot about this, "Could a V bomber fully fuelled for a flight to and from Russia on the standard RAF WW2 runway". He was very sceptical that the planes could take off fully loaded for a return journey?? So were they coming back??

QRA
You can see here how the QRA worked. Valiants flew in (Already bombed up?), landed one at a time and trundled down the main runway to the QRA. They would park up in their bays and then using the fuel from dedicated tankers. The ground crew would use the Marsden Shed that was built specifically for the QRA as storage and they and the pilots lived at Grims Dyke, a disused US Army hospital, kept open presumably for this very use. All the TR accommodation by that date had been completely removed.
All the numbered items are from WW2 and may have been re used by the RAF??
93 - Petrol Installation (Aviation) - 72,000galls. - 9846/41.
94 - Fused & Spare Bomb Store - N.
95 - Latrine - TB - 9026/41.
96 - GP Hut - N.
113 - Smoke Bomb Store - N - 4778/42.
114 - GP Hut - N.

Perimeter track Marston Shed for servicing equipment for the QRA. The Marston Shed was a wartime corrugated iron steel shed that could be easily dissembled, transported and re assembled.

Marston Shed for servicing equipment of the QRA.
Still a good sturdy building.

T2 #'3' One of the best T2 hangars to photograph as it sits out on its own. Its starting to get a bit of wind damage these day.

T2 #'3' 84 - Aircraft Shed - T2 - 3653-65/42.
I did manage to take this picture without too many piles of wood pulp. All the huts are now removed from around the hangar..

T2 #'3.
85 - Aircraft Armament Equipment Store - N. (removed just base visible).
86 - GP Hut - N. (General Service - Now removed).
87 - Latrine - TB - 9026/41. (Now removed).

87 - Latrine - TB - 9026/41. (Now removed).
Interesting, if Latrines can be interesting, this one has an added extension. It could be that the main part are for the men and the small extension is for the officers.

86 - GP Hut - N. (Now removed).
16ft Nissen hut with a porch on each end, probably due to the cold wind that blasts across the airfield. The porches were for blackout. At night with lights on inside, if the door was opened, light would shine out. So porches were added to stop the light shining outside.

Perimeter track to more Loop (scissor) dispersals and the site of T2 #'2' now removed There was to be another T2 built along here but only the concrete base was laid out

Perimeter track View across to the Sick Quarters site a small gaggle of 24ft & 16ft Nissen huts arranged to hold sick from the nearly three thousand men & women stationed here and also the war casualties from returning bombers or training accidents.

Perimeter track.
In the small valley between here and the hangar was the Petrol Installation (Aviation) 72000gal) - 9846/41.
As you have seen there were two identical petrol supplies. They had a small hut 70. and a circular roadway where tankers coming in can deliver their loads and then leaving out onto the road calling into the 69 Picket Post, to sign in out of the airfield.

Petrol Installation & crew huts.
64 - Squadron Offices - N - 13213/41.
65-67 - Flight Offices - N - 13213/41.
68 - Crew and Locker Room - TB 16657/41.
69 - Picket Post - TB - 12404/41.
70 - Petrol Installation (Aviation) 72000gal - 9846/41

T2 Hangar #1.
61 - Aircraft Shed - T2 - 3653-65/42.

T2 Hangar #1
Original light fittings in place.
Visited November 2025 and they are still there.

T2 Hangar #1.
Two Nissen 24ft huts were placed along the side of the hangar as flight huts..

From Ken Hawkins via email 26th March 1981.

The runways were being broken up and I made the final authorised flight into the last usable part of the one remaining runway. Peter West of Southern Television, accompanied by a cameramen, met and interviewed me and my son, Harvey, on the runway. Time of arrival 08:25 Departure 09:45.
Aircraft - Cessna 172 reg - G-BBKC.
I feel a tremendous amount of honour to have been able to give this mainly unsung airfield it's last piece of publicity.