TCW Museum &
Historical Training Facility

The HTF was devised to commemorate expeditionary signals and airfield activation within the RAF. Expeditionary signals can trace its roots back to the Royal Flying Corps in the use of spark transmitters and Morse code during WWI.

Having then been caught off balance by the speed of the German advance through France and Belgium in June 41 and the evacuation of the British forces from Dunkirk. The RAF changed the way it viewed operations, and associated ground to air communications. The formation of the short-lived Army Co-operation Command in Dec 1940, looked to develop this concept further.

Lord Louis Mountbatten then went on to develop the close air support concept in the guise of the RAFs Servicing Commando Units. After WWII several Tactical Signals Units (TSUs) were combined to form TCW in 1969. Since then the Unit has been deployed to every theatre of operations in which the UK has participated. This has ranged from peace-keeping duties in Namibia to a war fighting role in the Falklands and from Forward Helicopter Units (FHU) in the Cold War to combined operations in the 21st Century.

The HTF was developed by Unit personnel using a collection of artefacts as well as information collated from archive evidence and the cooperation of the Royal Signals – Blandford, the RAF Signals Museum – Henlow and the. RAF Museum – Stafford.

The exhibits on display contain artefacts from all eras of the RAFs expeditionary Signals and A6 services. However, although there are obvious omissions, some are due to lack of information and availability, others due to their current security classification.

The HTF was officially opened on 12 Apr 2007 by COS Spt, AVM Bob Allan who  endorsed its purpose and development.  Since then, it has played host to numerous visitors and VIP’s, and after relocation and consolodation, reopened by Air Commadore Jamie Thompson in Oct 2022.

In order to develop further, donations of time, information, artefacts, memorabilia and constructive advice are imperative to its continued success, plse enjoy the site and feel free to contact the team using the email contact page.