Royal Air Force Scorton or more simply RAF Scorton is a former

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

satellite station located next to the village of Scorton in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England. The base was opened in October 1939 as part of 13 Group

RAF Fighter Command RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft. It operated throughout the Second World War, winning fame during the Battle of Britain in 1940. The ...

and a satellite station of RAF Catterick. It was used by the

, the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...

, and the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Ninth Air Force The Ninth Air Force (Air Forces Central) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. It is the Air Force Service Component of United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), a joint D ...

during the war. The famous No. 56 Squadron RAF flew

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced conti ...

s from Scorton during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Also the USAAF 422d and 425th Night Fighter Squadrons were stationed at Scorton flying the

Northrop P-61 Black Widow The Northrop P-61 Black Widow is a twin-engine United States Army Air Forces fighter aircraft of World War II. It was the first operational U.S. warplane designed specifically as a night fighter. Named for the North American spider '' Latrodec ...

fighter. After the war, it was kept for a while as a Maintenance Unit base, then disposed of in the 1950s. It is now a site of gravel extraction.

History

The location was chosen for its flat terrain and its situation close to the now disbanded Eryholme-Richmond branch line that had a sub branch line to

Catterick Garrison Catterick Garrison is a major garrison and List of modern military towns, military town south of Richmond, North Yorkshire, Richmond, North Yorkshire, England. It is the largest British Army garrison in the world, with a population of around 14 ...

and RAF Catterick. The first unit to use the airfield was a detachment of

Bristol Blenheim The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War, with examples still being used as trainers until the end of the war. ...

aircraft from No. 219 Squadron, which had reformed at RAF Catterick in the same month that Scorton had opened. Although originally designated as a satellite station, in 1941, the site was extended into a 'full' RAF station with 12 hangars and three tarmac runways, with the main east/west runway measuring compared to RAF Catterick's runway which was . This was done because Catterick could not be extended as it was sandwiched between the Great North Road and the

River Swale The River Swale in Yorkshire, England, is a major tributary of the River Ure, which becomes the River Ouse, Yorkshire, River Ouse, that empties into the North Sea via the Humber Estuary. The river gives its name to Swaledale, the valley throu ...

. At the same time, the decoy landing site at Birkby (to the east near to Danby Wiske, came under the command of Scorton, having previously been an asset of RAF Catterick. On its re-opening, the first squadron allocated to Scorton was No. 122, which was equipped with Mark V Spitfires for convoy patrols over the North Sea. No. 122 left for

RAF Hornchurch Royal Air Force Hornchurch, or more simply RAF Hornchurch, is a former Royal Air Force List of former Royal Air Force stations, sector station in the parish of Hornchurch, Essex (now the London Borough of Havering in Greater London), located to ...

in 1942, with No. 406 Squadron RCAF and No. 219 Squadron later operating from the base. Initially, four aircraft from No. 406 Sqn were detached to Scorton from RAF Drem in February 1942, with the rest of the squadron following in the same year. Both 219 and 406 would later move out again and during 1943, No. 167 Squadron was reformed at Scorton, before moving to

RAF Castletown Royal Air Force Castletown or more simply RAF Castletown, is a former Royal Air Force satellite station that operated during the Second World War. Built near to Castletown in Caithness, Scotland the station opened in 1940 and closed in 1945. ...

. Between the spring of 1943, and the spring of 1944, Scorton was host to No. 604 Squadron who arrived from RAF Ford in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

and No. 56 Squadron from

RAF Martlesham Heath Royal Air Force Martlesham Heath or more simply RAF Martlesham Heath is a former Royal Air Force station located southwest of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. It was active between 1917 and 1963, and played an important role in the development o ...

. The squadrons flew Beaufighters and

Typhoons A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

respectively. 422d Night Fighter Squadron Northrop P-61A-10-NO Black Widow 42-5565

In May 1944, the USAAF

transferred two

night interceptor squadrons, No.s 422 and 425, to Scorton from RAF Charmy Down near Bath in

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, to train and fly with the RAF night fighter Operational Training Unit assigned there. Initially flying

de Havilland Mosquito The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the World War II, Second World War. Unusual in that its airframe was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or " ...

es, their first P-61 arrived at Scorton in May 1944 and their first assignment was to chase night-flying V-1 "buzz bombs". Scorton was known as ''USAAF Station AAF-425'' for security reasons by the USAAF during the war, and by which it was referred to instead of location. The Black Widows would be vectored to intercept approaching V-1s by ground control. Since the V-1 was a little faster than the P-61, the Black Widow had to approach the V-1 from behind and go into a slight dive in order to catch up with it. The first Black Widow V-1 "kill" took place on 16 July 1944, credited to pilot Herman Ernst and radar operator Edward Kopsel of the 422nd Night Fighter Squadron. One of the greatest dangers involved in killing V-1s was the possibility of getting too close to the flying bomb when one fired at it, running the risk of damage to their own plane if the bomb exploded when hit. After

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

, the USAAF Black Widows moved to Advanced Landing Grounds at Maupertus (A-15) (422d NFS) near Cherbourg and Vannes (A-33N) (425th NFS) in Brittany France to intercept German night fighters and bombers attacking Allied positions. After the two American squadrons vacated the base, it was quiet again for a period before the site was transferred from Fighter Command to Balloon Command who used the site for storage. At the end of the war, the airfield was surplus to requirements, but was used first by No. 221 Maintenance Unit, and then with No. 91 Maintenance Unit, who vacated the site in 1952.

Units

* No. 26 Squadron RAF (1944) – North American Mustang I * No. 56 Squadron RAF (1944) – Supermarine Spitfire IX * No. 122 Squadron RAF (1941–1942) – Supermarine Spitfire IIA, IIB and VB * No. 130 Squadron RAF (1943) – Supermarine Spitfire VB * No. 167 Squadron RAF (1942) – Supermarine Spitfire VB * No. 219 Squadron RAF (1942–1943) – Bristol Beaufighter IF * No. 406 Squadron RCAF (1942) – Bristol Beaufighter IIF * No. 410 Squadron RCAF (1942) – Bristol Beaufighter IIF * No. 604 Squadron RAF (1943) – Bristol Beaufighter IF

Postwar use

The Aerodrome closed in 1945 and most of the concreted areas have been extensively quarried away for sand and gravel extraction. Most of what was the airfield is now under a lake or a quarry. There are a few military pre-fab buildings remaining in the area – they were dismantled after the war and moved to local farms to be used as agricultural buildings. The site does still have some remnants from the era, such as accommodation huts and brick-built pillboxes. Some of the newer roads in Scorton have been named after Second World War Aircraft (Beaufighter Close, Typhoon Close and Spitfire Court).

References

Bibliography

* * * Freeman, Roger A. (1994) UK Airfields of the Ninth: Then and Now 1994. After the Battle * Freeman, Roger A. (1996) The Ninth Air Force in Colour: UK and the Continent-World War Two. After the Battle * * * Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. . * *
USAAS-USAAC-USAAF-USAF Aircraft Serial Numbers—1908 to present

External links