Royal Air Force Snaith or RAF Snaith 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 which was located south west of

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse, Yorkshire, River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's Historic counties of England, historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom censu ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and close to the village of Pollington. The airfield opened 1941 before closing in 1946.

Based units

The airfield opened in July 1941, and was called RAF Snaith, rather than RAF Pollington (the village that it was nearest to), so as to avoid confusion with RAF Pocklington. A large number of different squadrons used the airfield firstly

No. 150 Squadron RAF No. 150 Squadron RAF was an aircraft squadron of the Royal Air Force during World War I and World War II.Gunston (1978) In the early 1960s it was briefly reformed as a Strategic Missile squadron operating the PGM-17 Thor, Thor IRBM. World War I ...

flew

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington (nicknamed the Wimpy) is a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson, a key feature of t ...

s between July 1941 and October 1942 before moving to

RAF Kirmington Royal Air Force Kirmington or more simply RAF Kirmington is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located north east of Brigg, Lincolnshire and south west of Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England. History Second World War It took its name ...

, then being replaced by No. 51 Squadron RAF from October 1942 until May 1945 using the

Handley Page Halifax The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester. The Halifax has its or ...

. During this period the airfield also had another squadron join as a flight from No.51 Sqn RAF turned its aircraft and crew over to make another squadron which was No. 578 Squadron RAF which flew from the airfield temporarily between January 1944 until February 1944 before moving to the empty RAF Burn. A number of units also used the airfield such as No 6266 Servicing Echelon between 27 April 1944 and 6 May 1944 repairing the various aircraft and No. 17 Air Crew Holding Unit between 20 June 1945 and 27 May 1946. During this time a small Beam Approach Flight using

Airspeed Oxford The Airspeed AS.10 Oxford is a twin-engine monoplane aircraft developed and manufactured by Airspeed Ltd, Airspeed. It saw widespread use for training Commonwealth of Nations, British Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombin ...

s used the airfield for a short period learning beam approach landings.

Units and aircraft

Current use

During the construction of the

M62 motorway The M62 is a west–east Pennines, trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting Liverpool and Kingston upon Hull, Hull via Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield; of the route Concurrency (road), is shared with the M60 motorway, ...

the airfield was cut in half with the motorway going east to west through the top third of the airfield. However a number of technical buildings are still in place including the sergeants mess. The former WAAF buildings, located on Long Lane, Pollington, are the home of RAF Snaith Museu

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

BBC History - Nearly a Somebody
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snaith Royal Air Force stations in Yorkshire Military units and formations established in 1941 Snaith http://www.rafsnaithmuseum.co.uk/