RAF Snitterfield 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 west of

Snitterfield Snitterfield is a village and civil parish in the Stratford on Avon district of Warwickshire, England, less than to the north of the A46 road, from Stratford upon Avon, from Warwick and from Coventry. The population of the civil parish at ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

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 ...

, north of

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...

and south-east of

Henley-in-Arden Henley-in-Arden (also known as simply Henley) is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England. The town takes its last name from the former Forest of Arden. Henley is known for its variety of historic ...

, Warwickshire. Snitterfield was operational 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 ...

, the airfield was a

class A airfield Class A airfields were World War II (WW2) military installations constructed to specifications laid down by the United Kingdom, British Air Ministry Directorate General of Works (AMDGW). Intended for use by heavy bombers and Military transport ...

and had around 30 aircraft dispersals. The airfield was finished around June 1942 and cost around £1,147,000 and opened in 1943 then closed in 1946.

Posted units

No. 18 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit RAF ((P)AFU) was the first unit to operate from the airfield starting on 7 May 1943 at

RAF Church Lawford Royal Air Force Church Lawford or more simply RAF Church Lawford is a former Royal Air Force station located south of Church Lawford, Warwickshire, England, south-west of Rugby, Warwickshire. The airfield opened in April 1941 and was used by ...

and using Snitterfield as a satellite airfield to disperse the aircraft as Church Lawford was very busy. On 3 April 1945 the unit moved permanently to RAF Snitterfield 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 and

Miles Magister The Miles M.14 Magister is a two-seat monoplane basic trainer aircraft designed and built by the United Kingdom, British aircraft manufacturer Miles Aircraft. It was affectionately known as the ''Maggie''. It was authorised to perform aerobatic ...

s. The airfield was also home to two Belgian training schools firstly the Initial Training School dealing with reception and training elements from 1 January 1944 until 13 December 1944 and secondly the Technical Training School from January 1944 until October 1946. From May 1945 to 1946, Snitterfield was used as a Relief Landing Ground by No. 20 Service Flying Training School from

. The airfield was also host to other units including: * No. 1533 Beam Approach Training Flight which joined in 1944 flying the

left 3 April 1945. * No. 21 Flying Training School flying the

North American Harvard The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is an American single-engined advanced trainer aircraft, which was used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), United States Air Force (USAF), United States Navy, Royal Air Force, Ro ...

joined the airfield on 3 April 1945 until 18 September 1946.

Accidents and incidents

During life as a RAF training base accidents were not far away with a number of airmen killed during training and within the surrounding area.

Motor sports usage

In 1948, RAF Snitterfield was one of two disused airfields given special consideration as to the suitability of hosting a British Grand Prix. In the end, RAF Silverstone was chosen as the venue.

Current use

The north-east section of the airfield is currently the Stratford Oaks Golf club and the south-east section is home to Stratford-Upon-Avon Gliding Club. However, before these were built there was a Wireless Transmission station. At the southern end of the airfield is now

Stratford Armouries Stratford Armouries is a small museum attached to the Stratford-upon-Avon Lodge Retreat, a hotel offering cabin-based accommodation located near to the village of Snitterfield, approx 4 miles from Straford-upon-Avon town centre. It consists of ...

which is a military museum that was built in 2007.

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Flickr set of RAF Snitterfield documents
!-- Open license; feel free to upload to Commons-->
BBC History
* https://www.stratfordgliding.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Snitterfield Defunct airports in England Royal Air Force stations in Warwickshire Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom