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 detailsAn 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