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

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

station which operated during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, located near

Milfield Milfield is a village in Northumberland, England about northwest of Wooler. The A697 road passes through the village. History Milfield is the likely location of the Northumbrian royal settlement of Maelmin, given "mael" is a Brythonic word ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a ceremonial counties of England, county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Ab ...

, England.

History

The airfield opened on 26 January 1942, hosting No. 59 Operational Training Unit RAF, a fighter training unit, later joined by the Specialised Low Attack Instructors School RAF. The OTU trained ground-attack pilots for the

Hawker Typhoon The Hawker Typhoon is a British single-seat fighter-bomber, produced by Hawker Aircraft. It was intended to be a medium-high altitude interceptor, as a replacement for the Hawker Hurricane, but several design problems were encountered an ...

. In January 1944, both units were disbanded and merged to become the Fighter Leaders School RAF. That specialised in training officers in commanding ground attack units, with a focus on the skills which would be needed to lead close support operations from front-line airfields in Europe. No. 56 Operational Training Unit RAF operated from Milfield from January 1945 onwards, training replacement

Hawker Tempest The Hawker Tempest is a British fighter aircraft that was primarily used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Second World War. The Tempest, originally known as the ''Typhoon II'', was an improved derivative of the Hawker Typhoon, intended to a ...

pilots for

Second Tactical Air Force The RAF Second Tactical Air Force (2TAF) was one of three tactical air forces within the Royal Air Force (RAF) during and after the Second World War. It was made up of squadrons and personnel from the RAF, other British Commonwealth air forces ...

in Europe. That continued to operate until 14 February 1946, when it was disbanded and RAF Milfield closed. The following units were based at RAF Milfield at some point: * No. 77 Squadron RAF *

No. 183 Squadron RAF No. 183 (Gold Coast) Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force Squadron that was a fighter-bomber unit in World War II. History Formation The squadron formed on 2 March 1942 at RAF Church Fenton and then equipped with rocket armed Typhoons. It was s ...

* No. 184 Squadron RAF * Day Fighter Development Wing RAF

Post war use

After the RAF had departed, some of the outlying buildings at the site were converted into housing. The central airfield continued in use by the Borders Gliding Club until the mid-1970s, and was briefly used by

Air Anglia Air Anglia was a wholly privately owned, independentindependent from government-owned corporations British regional airline formed at Norwich Airport in 1970. Created as a result of a merger of three smaller operators, the new entity became an ...

for regional flights in 1977-78. The Borders Gliding Club moved back to Milfield in 1992 by which time the remaining part of the airfield had been levelled and grassed over. The site now contains a food-processing facility and sawmill, as well as a former sand and gravel quarry operated by

Tarmac Limited Tarmac is a British building materials company headquartered in Solihull, England. The company was formed as Lafarge Tarmac in March 2013, by the merger of Anglo American's Tarmac UK and Lafarge's operations in the United Kingdom. In July 20 ...

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Milfield Royal Air Force stations in Northumberland Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom