RAF Dumfries and the Bomber War

This exhibition is all about our home airfield. In it, we tell the story of the airfield itself, why it was built and the role it would play in WW2. We also tell the story of the people who worked here, both servicemen and women from all over the country as well as civilians working in the repair depots on site. The men and women of the Air Transport Auxiliary are mentioned, as they were constantly delivering and collecting aircraft to our various units on the airfield. We also cover the maintenance units, both for aircraft storage and repair and for material, which were busy throughout the war.

However, we make a feature of the story of the training units that were based here, and the instructors and pupils who passed through their doors. Navigation, gunnery and bomb-aiming were the principal courses delivered by experienced staff, often on a break from front-line service. The pupils who completed their training most likely went on to serve in Bomber Command, and we try to show a little of what that experience would be like once they joined a squadron. You can look at the conditions a crew would face on a mission in our Halifax cockpit replica and examine our restored Frazer Nash gun turret.

We also cover the other main airfields in Dumfries & Galloway, telling a little of the activities carried out at each one, from training and bombing trials through to anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic Ocean.