RAF Merryfield
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Royal Air Force Merryfield or more simply RAF Merryfield (also known as Isle Abbotts) 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 ...
station in the village of
Ilton Ilton is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated south-east of Taunton, and north of Ilminster. The village has a population of 854. The parish includes the Hamlet (place), hamlets of Ilford and Cad Green with its 16th-cent ...
near Ilminster in southwest
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 ...
, England. The airfield is located approximately north of
Chard Chard (; '' Beta vulgaris'' subsp. ''vulgaris'', Cicla Group and Flavescens Group) is a green leafy vegetable. In the cultivars of the Flavescens Group, or Swiss chard, the leaf stalks are large and often prepared separately from the leaf b ...
, about southwest of
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. It is now RNAS Merryfield and serves as a satellite to the larger
RNAS Yeovilton Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, commonly referred to as WAFU central, (HMS ''Heron'') is an airbase of the Royal Navy, sited a few miles north of Yeovil, in the English county of Somerset. It is one of two active Fleet Air Arm bases, the ...
; it is used mainly as a training facility for helicopter pilots.


History


Site

The airfield was built on or near the historic estate of Merryfield (''alias'' Merrifield, Murefeld, Merefeld, Muryfield, Merifield, Wadham's Castle, etc.), the former fortified
manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...
of which was situated about 1 mile west-north-west of the parish church of Ilton, and immediately south of the present airfield, and of which only a moated site remains, in the middle of farmland. The estate was the seat, from mediaeval times until 1609, of the Wadham family which founded
Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street and Parks Road ...
in 1610, and whose monuments survive at the Church of St Mary, Ilminster. Today a large
grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...
19th century mansion called Merryfield House is situated immediately south of St Peter's Church, Ilton.


Airfield

Opened in 1944, the airfield was used by both the
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 ...
and
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 ...
. During the Second World War it was used primarily as a transport airfield. After the war it was provided to the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
.


Overview

Merryfield airfield was to be built to the Class A airfield standard for bomber use, with a set of three converging concrete runways for takeoffs and landings, optimally placed at 60-degree angles to each other in a triangular pattern. John Laing & Son Ltd was the main contractor. Work commenced late in 1942 and on 11 November the airfield was listed as one of 16 to be made available for the USAAF to meet the number of troop carrier groups projected for the UK. Work proceeded slowly as there was a problem with the drainage of waterways crossing the site. In September 1943, the official name was changed from Isle Abbotts to Merryfield, such changes being usually connected with contractual alterations or where another airfield had a similar-sounding name which might cause confusion. In this case, however the change is puzzling as the same contractors were involved and Isle Abbotts appears singularly distinctive. The airfield's main runway was 6,000 ft and aligned 10–28, the secondaries 4,200 ft at 17–35 and 3,660 ft at 04–22. All 50 hardstands were loop types in concrete with bituminous surfaces connecting to an enclosing perimeter track, of a standard width of 50 feet.


USAAF use

After the formal opening by the RAF on 9 February 1944, US engineers arrived to lay pierced steel planking at the main runway ends for glider marshalling while the necessary facilities for accommodating paratroops in the hangars arrived. Merryfield was known as USAAF Station AAF-464 for security reasons by the USAAF during the war, and by which it was referred to instead of location. Its USAAF Station Code was "MF".


441st Troop Carrier Group

The 441st Troop Carrier Group moved in from RAF Langar on 25 April, with over 70
Douglas C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II. During the war the C-47 was used for tro ...
s dispersed on the airfield. The group's squadrons and fuselage codes were: * 99th Troop Carrier Squadron (3J) * 100th Troop Carrier Squadron (8C) * 301st Troop Carrier Squadron (Z4) * 302d Troop Carrier Squadron (2L) The 441st was a group of Ninth Air Force's 50th Troop Carrier Wing, IX Troop Carrier Command. D-Day During May 1944 1500 American troops of the 101st Airborne Division arrived in preparation for D-Day. These were part of the 24,000 airborne troops destined for Normandy. On the fateful day the airfield contributed fifty-seven C-47's, some towing gliders, to the 1900 aircraft flying across the channel from 22 airfields; creating an air armada 300 miles long. The operation kept the airfield busy, being used to fly reinforcements and support to France. On 10 July 1944 the airfield started to be used as 61st Field Hospital, staffed by 813rd Air Evacuation Squadron; the C-47's being used as air ambulances. Soon afterwards word was received that the 50th Troop Carrier Wing would move to France, the 441st being one of the first two groups, with headquarters leaving Merryfield on 6 September for its Advanced Landing Ground (ALG), Villeneuve-Vertus Airfield (ALG A-63).


RAF Transport Command/RAF Training Unit/Royal Navy use

Merryfield was retained by the USAAF IX TCC for another two months while C-47s regularly ferried supplies and personnel before being handed over to the RAF at the end of October, thus ending the Ninth Air Force's association with the station. The C-47 in its British guise, the Dakota, still held sway at Merryfield but in much smaller numbers than when the 441st TCG was in residence. No. 238 Squadron of RAF Transport Command re-formed there with the type during the winter of 1944–45 and, when it departed overseas, No. 187 was also re-formed at Merryfield to fly Dakotas. No. 53 Squadron with Consolidated Liberator replaced No. 187 in September, and it too was replaced by the Short Stirlings of No. 242 Squadron in December. No. 242 later converted to
Avro York The Avro York was a British transport aircraft developed by Avro during the World War II, Second World War. The design was derived from the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, several sections of the York and Lancaster being identical. Due to the impo ...
s but the long distance flights to the Middle and Far East locations on which most of these transport units had been engaged gradually subsided and the Yorks departed in May 1946. The airfield closed that October. Until the outbreak of the
Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
and a resurgence of air power, civilian caretakers looked after the otherwise deserted airfield. Late in 1951, Merryfield was re-opened as an advanced pilot training establishment ( No. 208 Advanced Flying School RAF (208 AFS)) with
de Havilland Vampire The de Havilland DH100 Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the Royal Air Force, RAF, after the Gloster Meteo ...
and
Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneere ...
jets. This unit was one of the first to be equipped, in early 1953, with Vampire T.11s. Some additional concrete was laid in front of the main technical site and other building work conducted before the station was again run down towards the end of 1954. During the following two years, a detachment from No. 231 Operational Conversion Unit, with
English Electric Canberra The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation, jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havilla ...
s, was often present. It was also used by
Westland Aircraft Westland Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer located in Yeovil, Somerset. Formed as a separate company by separation from Petters Limited just before the start of the Second World War, Westland had been building aircraft since 1915. Du ...
for flight tests of the Westland Wyvern. Then came the Royal Navy with de Havilland Sea Venoms but they withdrew early in 1958 and by 1961 it appeared the airfield had finally been abandoned. Over the next few years, the airfield deteriorated and the hangars and some other buildings were sold off. A road that was closed when the airfield was built was re-opened making use of part of the main runway. In the early 1960s Ilminster Round Table organised an air display at Merryfield which featured a fly-past by an
Avro Vulcan The Avro Vulcan (later Hawker Siddeley Vulcan from July 1963) was a jet-powered, tailless, delta-wing, high-altitude, strategic bomber, which was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1956 until 1984. Aircraft manufacturer A.V. Roe ...
and a display by the then RAF display team, The Black Arrows, in
Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet propulsion, jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly dev ...
s.


Current use

In 1971, part of the airfield was again taken over by the Royal Navy for use in assault helicopter training and exercises that would not conflict with fixed-wing traffic on the Navy's other stations. Merryfield was soon subject to naval tradition by being labelled RNAS Merryfield (HMS Heron II) . In the event, the Navy's occupation proved to be the most enduring of the airfield's half century of existence, for it was still being used by its helicopters. In the 1980s, the site was considered as a storage area for
nuclear waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...
, but this idea was rejected owing to local geology. In more recent years the MoD has let out this airfield for the use of the
scouts Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...
for camping events. Local cycling clubs also hold races on the perimeter road circuit and runways, including Regional Championships. It is the principal site of the Royal Navy Model Aircraft Association. Today, there is security on the gate as it is still an operational airfield and a restricted area.


See also

* List of former Royal Air Force stations *
82nd Airborne Division The 82nd Airborne Division is an Airborne forces, airborne infantry division (military), division of the United States Army specializing in Paratrooper, parachute assault operations into hostile areasSof, Eric"82nd Airborne Division" ''Spec Ops ...
*
101st Airborne Division The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division (military), division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault military operation, operations. The 101st is designed to plan, coordinat ...


References


External links

* * Freeman, Roger A. (1994) UK Airfields of the Ninth: Then and Now. After the Battle * Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. .
RNAS Merryfield information

Photographs of RAF Merryfield from the Geograph British Isles project

Aerial Photo of RAF Merryfield from Multimap.Com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merryfield Royal Air Force stations in Somerset Airfields of the IX Troop Carrier Command in the United Kingdom