A limited civil air
service was continued during WW2 using Dragon Rapides to Liverpool and
Belfast. Ronaldsway was taken over by the RAF in 1940 but apart from a
remote direction finding station to the north east, I'm not sure what military
air traffic control facilities were provided at the airfield, possibly
just the ubiquitous Runway Control Caravan.
As far as I can tell,
Civil ATC continued operating from its pre-war location until the airfield
was extensively re-built for the Royal Navy in 1943.
   
In 1944 the Royal Navy
took over a completely rebuilt airfield with four asphalt runways, numerous
buildings and hangers and a brick built control tower used for military
movements only, control of the civil air link being transferred to the
'barn site' on the former Ronaldsway Farm on the 1st April. This occasionally
lead to some disputes between civil and military controllers as to the
runway in use. It probably took considerable effort for the RN to change
runways with the Runway Control Caravan (and Radar talkdown vehicles) having
to be moved from one site to another, however the Dragon Rapides really
needed to land into wind, there are at least two recorded instances of
them leaving the edge of the runway due to crosswinds. They were probably
much happier with the smaller grass airfield!
    
Civil control was still
by 'procedural' means with the help of D/F, but the Navy installed Surveillance
and Precision Approach radar. Control over both civil and military aircraft
landing and taking off on the runways would have been by Aldis Lamp or
Very pistol flare from the Runway Van located on concrete loops constructed
close to the threshold of the runway in use. Royal Navy aircraft practising
aircraft carrier landings would be 'batted down' by the Landing Signals
Officer standing on the side of the runway.Interestingly, most of the operational
airfield would have been invisible from the civil control window at the
Barn Site!
         
   
After WW2 the airfield
and all facilities was bought by the Isle of Man Government and civil air
traffic control moved into the former Royal Navy tower building, where
it continues into 2010. In the late 1940s Air Traffic Control was being
carried out using a mixture of M/F, H/F and VHF radio frequencies, the
radar having presumably been removed by the Royal Navy when they vacated
the airfield.
  
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