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Royal Air Force Bircotes or more simply RAF Bircotes is a former Royal Air Force satellite airfield located within South Yorkshire, England. Although it was named after the town of Bircotes which is in Nottinghamshire.


History

RAF Bircotes was located next the
No. 1 Group RAF No. 1 Group of the Royal Air Force is one of the two operations groups in RAF Air Command. Today, the group is referred to as the Air Combat Group, as it controls the RAF's combat fast-jet aircraft and has airfields in the UK, as well as RAF Sup ...
,
RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...
HQ at RAF Bawtry, Bawtry Hall,
Bawtry Bawtry is a market town and civil parish in the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. It lies between Doncaster, Gainsborough and Retford, on the border with Nottinghamshire and close to Lincolnshire. The town is historically part of ...
, England. The airfield consisted of a grass strip with a connecting perimeter track with T2, B1 and Bessonneau hangars plus other miscellaneous buildings. The Airfield opened in late 1941 and was used by the Avro Ansons, Vickers Wellingtons, and
Avro Manchester The Avro 679 Manchester was a British twin-engine heavy bomber developed and manufactured by the Avro aircraft company in the United Kingdom. While not being built in great numbers, it was the forerunner of the famed and vastly more successful ...
s from No. 25 Operational Training Unit RAF (OTU) at nearby RAF Finningley. A variety of training units occupied the airfield including two operational Training units: * Satellite for
No. 18 OTU Royal Air Force Operational Training Units (OTUs) were training units that prepared aircrew for operations on a particular type or types of aircraft or roles. OTUs ;No. 1 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit RAF (1 OTU): The Unit was formed in 1 ...
(March 1943 - November 1944) * Satellite for
No. 28 OTU Royal Air Force Operational Training Units (OTUs) were training units that prepared aircrew for operations on a particular type or types of aircraft or roles. OTUs ; No. 1 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit RAF (1 OTU): The Unit was formed in ...
(June - July 1944) * Satellite for
No. 82 OTU Royal Air Force Operational Training Units (OTUs) were training units that prepared aircrew for operations on a particular type or types of aircraft or roles. OTUs ;No. 1 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit RAF (1 OTU): The Unit was formed in ...
(August - October 1943) * Satellite for No. 16 (Polish) Service Flying Training School RAF (February - August 1943) * Sub site for
No. 35 Maintenance Unit RAF The following is a list of Royal Air Force Maintenance Units (MU). The majority of MUs were previously Equipment Depots (ED), Storage Depots (SD) and Aircraft Storage Units (ASU)s. No. 1 MU – No. 100 MU No. 101 MU – No. 200 MU No ...
(November 1944 - 1945) The No. 1 Group Communication Flight RAF from RAF Bawtry were also present at Bircotes from April 1941. The unit had moved from
RAF Hucknall Hucknall, formerly Hucknall Torkard, is a market town in the Ashfield district of Nottinghamshire, England. It lies 7 miles north of Nottingham, 7 miles south-east of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, 9 miles from Mansfield and 10 miles south of Sutton-in ...
and at Bircotes the unit was using Miles Masters, Airspeed Oxfords, Miles Martinets, Curtiss Tomahawks and Westland Lysanders. Towards the end of the Second World War and afterwards a number of different units used the airfield such as No. 250 Maintenance Unit RAF (MU) which formed at the airfield while under the control of RAF Maintenance Command and No. 61 MU which absorbed No. 250 MU and used Bircotes as a sub site between 1944 and 1948.


Current use

The airfield is currently farmland after being decommissioned on 13 July 1948 with little of the perimeter track left.


References


Citations


Bibliography

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External links


Roy Calvert service record details

An aerial view showing evidence of the layout of the former Airfield. The existing buildings are shown in the bottom left hand corner. Bawtry and Bawtry Hall are shown towards the east.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bircotes Royal Air Force stations in Yorkshire Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom Aviation in Doncaster Military history of South Yorkshire