This is a very short history of the airfield. I am currently working on a book to be published in 2027.
In 1941 the Air Ministry wrote to the New Forest Verderers proposing that land at Beaulieu Heath was requisitioned as a wartime airfield. More airfields were needed, and the land was extremely suitable for medium bombers and aircraft to take off from once concrete runways were laid down. Compensation was agreed for the loss of grazing land, and permission was granted for construction to start.
Construction was completed in around ten months, and the airfield opened in August 1942. At its peak, there were sometimes over two thousand people working on the site. When it opened, it was initially operational as a Coastal Command base for squadrons engaged in anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic and Bay of Biscay.
The anti-submarine operations involved squadrons including Halifaxes of No. 405 (Vancouver) Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force. 405 Squadron was on loan from Bomber Command to Coastal Command. Also flying from the airfield was 224 Squadron RAF. This Squadron sank two U-boats whilst operating from Beaulieu. They were the first successes against U-boats by RAF Liberators, an American-made medium range bomber.
In May 1943, No.311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron arrived at Beaulieu, made up of Czechoslovak airmen who had escaped from German-occupied Europe. They were also tasked with U-Boat hunting, primarily in the approaches to the Bay of Biscay. It was the RAF’s only Czechoslovak-manned medium and heavy bomber squadron. It suffered the worst losses of any Czechoslovak formation in the RAF, with 511 fatalities. Thirty-two of those deaths occurred when operating out of Beaulieu.
Towards the end of January 1944, the airfield became home to two Hawker Typhoon squadrons of the Second Tactical Air Force. No.257 and No.263 Squadrons conducted fighter bomber sorties over France, and targeted enemy shipping in the Channel.
In April 1944, Beaulieu Airfield was transferred to American control and became USAAF Station AAF-408, where it first became home to the 365th Fighter Group (aka the Hell Hawks) who flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighter bombers. The Hell Hawks supported the D-Day invasion, and lost seventeen airmen whilst operating from the airfield, two of whom were lost on D-Day itself.
At the end of July 1944, the Hell Hawks left for an airfield in France, and the USAAF 323rd Bombardment Group (aka the White Tails) arrived. They flew Martin B-26 Marauder medium bombers and conducted bombing missions over occupied Europe as the Allies advanced. Towards the end of the August, the 323rdBombardment Group also left for France.
During the post-war period, RAF Beaulieu became a home for experimental work of the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment (AFEE) who worked with gliders, parachutes, rotary wing aircraft, including captured German technology until 1950. One of the German aircraft tested during this period was the Fa 223, the first helicopter to ever cross the English Channel.
Beaulieu Airfield was eventually returned to the Crown and Forestry Commission in 1959, at which point the dismantling of the building and runways began. Today, the former wartime aerodrome has returned to heathland managed by the Forestry Commission, but some aspects of the airfield remain.