The flow in the wake of a two-dimensional model with a blunt trailing edge was examined at Reynolds numbers (based on model chord) between 1·4 × 105 and 2·56 × 105. The ratio of total boundary-layer thickness at the trailing edge to model base height was approximately 0·5. Measurements were taken of base pressure and vortex shedding frequency together with traverses of the wake using a hot-wire anemometer. Traverses carried out along the wake showed a peak in the root-mean-square velocity-fluctuation at a distance equal to one base height from the model rear face. The position of the peak is referred to as the position of the fully formed vortex. The investigation was extended to a model fitted with splitter plates up to four base heights long. For each plate tested, a position of the fully formed vortex was found, and its distance from the model base was discovered to be inversely proportional to the base pressure coefficient. The flow about the model with splitter plates is described as being separated into five régimes of flow.