The landing strip was grass rather than tarmac and few permanent buildings apart from the control tower and two blister hangars, with aircraft being protected by blast pens.

[2] In August 1942 891 Naval Air Squadron transferred from RNAS Lee-on-Solent where it had been formed to Charlton Horethorne with six Sea Hurricanes to prepare for carrier operations, later transferring to RNAS St Merryn and then embarking on HMS Dasher to take part in Operation Torch.

[2] On 1 December 1942 Charlton Horethorne was formally transferred from the RAF to the Admiralty and designated as HMS Heron II, which had previously been at RNAS Haldon.

It then became a satelitte training field for RAF Old Sarum and kept on a Care and Maintenance basis until it was de-requisitioned and returned to farmland.

A number of units were here at some point:[3] The control tower was converted by Norman Clothier a local builder in Charlton Horethorne in the sixties.