1. Carew Cheriton airfield was an airship station (RNAS PEMBROKE;MILTON AIR STATION - NPRN 407783) in the first world war, and was developed in the 1930s to accept aeroplanes to complement nearby Pembroke Dock's flying boat base. The airfield has a decoy site nearby. In recent years, the airfield has been cleared leaving only a perimeter track, a few stretches of concrete and hangar foundations and a control tower of unusual design. Other survivals include a dome turret training building. The domestic buildings were demolished to make way for the widening of the A477.

Event and Historical Information:
In August 1939, Carew Cheriton became the base for part of 217 Squadron flying Avro Ansons for coastal patrol and convoy work. A detachment of Wellingtons arrived in November 1939 but soon returned to East Anglia. The Coastal Command Development Unit was formed at the airfield on 22 November 1940. The unit undertook a variety of trails using Lockheed Hudson, Bristol Beaufort and Armstrong Whitworth Whitley aircraft, and flying boats from Pembroke Dock. The tests included ASV radar development, bomb and depth charge attacks on submarines and surface vessels by night with the aid of parachute lights and later with Leigh Lights. The Coastal Command Development Unit moved to Ballykelly in December 1941.
On 22 October 1941, three Bristol Beaufighters and seven Bristol Blenheims formed a combat unit for patrols over the Irish Sea and to prevent German battleships leaving the port of Brest. The unit also provided escort for BOAC DC-3 service from Lisbon to Chivenor or Whitchurch, and an escort for the Irish mail steamer. The airfield was transferred to the control of Training Command in the spring of 1942. Two units were accommodated to tow targets for the School of Anti-Aircraft Defence at Manorbier and for No4 Armament Practice Group which gave weapons instruction to the crews of the Whitleys, Short Sunderlands and Beaufighters of Coastal Command. A further transfer to Technical Training Command followed with No 4 Radio Direction Finding School arriving on 11 December 1942 to became known as 10 Radio School. The Radio School disbanded on 13 November 1945. The RAF air station finally closed on 24 November 1945.

Sources include:
Defence of Britain Project
Jones, I, 2007, Airfields and Landing Grounds of Wales: West, pg66-75
Phillips, Alan, 2006, Military Airfields Wales, pg51-61
Smith, David J, 1982 Action Stations 3: Military Airfields of Wales and the North West, pg 60-2

See related record for Carew Cheriton Control Tower, NPRN 413171.

RCAHMW, June 2008.

2. Royal Commission aerial reconnaissance on 29th July 2013 recorded parchmarks of the original airship station buildings. See NPRN 407783

T. Driver, RCAHMW, 2014.