Royal Air Force Zeals, or more simply RAF Zeals, 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 Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

in Wiltshire, sited to the north of the village of

Zeals Zeals is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in southwest Wiltshire, England. The village is about west of Mere, Wiltshire, Mere, next to the A303 road towards Wincanton, and adjoins the villages of Bourton, Dorset and Penselw ...

, next to the village of Stourton and the Stourhead estate.

History

The station was in operation from 1942 to 1946, and was successively occupied by the

, 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 ...

and 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 ...

. From opening until August 1943 the site was used by the RAF as an airfield for

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

and

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 ...

fighters. Units: *

No. 66 Squadron RAF No. 66 Squadron was a Royal Flying Corps and eventually Royal Air Force aircraft squadron. History World War I The squadron was first formed at RAF Filton, Bristol, on 30 June 1916 as a training squadron equipped with Royal Aircraft Factor ...

between 24 August and 23 December 1942 with the Spitfire VB & VC * No. 118 Squadron RAF between 24 August and 23 December 1942 with the Spitfire VB * No. 132 (City of Bombay) Squadron RAF between 28 February and 5 April 1943 with the Spitfire VB * No. 174 (Mauritius) Squadron RAF between 12 March and 5 April 1943 with the Hurricane IIB * No. 184 Squadron RAF between 12 March and 5 April 1943 with the Hurricane IID * No. 263 (Fellowship of the Bellows) Squadron RAF between 19 June and 12 July 1943 with the Westland Whirlwind I * No. 421 Squadron RCAF between 1 and 14 November 1942 with the Spitfire VB In August 1943 it was transferred to the United States Army Air Force with the intention of using the airfield for maintenance of

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 ...

transport aircraft. However, the damp conditions prevented the operation of heavy aircraft, so

Republic P-47 Thunderbolt The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. It was a successful high-altitude fighter, and it also served as the foremost American fighter-bombe ...

fighters were flown from Zeals instead. From March 1944, it returned to the RAF who used it as a fighter airfield for

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 " ...

fighters against German bombers. Units: * No. 286 Squadron RAF initially between 26 May and 31 May 1942 then between 28 July and 28 September 1944 with the Hurricane IIc and Miles Martinet * No. 149 (Long Range Fighter) Wing RAF between 29 June and 28 July 1944 ** No. 410 Squadron RCAF between 18 June and 28 July 1944 with the Mosquito XIII ** No. 488 Squadron RNZAF between 12 May and 29 July 1944 with the Mosquito XIII * No. 604 (County of Middlesex) Squadron RAuxAF between 25 and 28 July 1944 with the Mosquito XIII Following

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 RAF used the airfield for

military glider Military gliders (an offshoot of common gliders) have been used by the militaries of various countries for carrying troops ( glider infantry) and heavy equipment to a combat zone, mainly during the Second World War. These engineless aircraft wer ...

training in preparation for action against Japan. In April 1945 the station was taken over by the Royal Navy (as HMS ''Hummingbird'' or RNAS Zeals) who used the airfield for

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

training. Units: *

771 Naval Air Squadron 771 Naval Air Squadron (771 NAS) of the Fleet Air Arm was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It was formed on 24 May 1939 at , Lee-on-Solent as a Fleet Requirements Unit with 14 Fairey Swordfish ...

as a Fleet Requirements Unit between 25 July and 12 September 1945 with the Wildcat IV * 704 Naval Air Squadron as a Naval Operational Training Unit between 11 April and 4 September 1945 with the Mosquito FB.6 * 759 Naval Air Squadron as a Advanced Flying School between 19 September 1945 and 7 January 1946 with the Corsair III * 760 Naval Air Squadron as a Corsair Familiarization Unit between 10 April and 12 September 1945 with the Corsair III * 790 Naval Air Squadron between 1 April and 30 August 1945 with the Firefly I and Oxford I The airfield was closed down from January 1946 and in June it was returned to farmland. The control tower, now a private house, remains on Bells Lane in Zeals.

Dakota crash – 19 February 1945

A Douglas Dakota III crashed on 19 February 1945, killing more than twenty people. The aircraft had taken off from Zeals airfield to return to

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

after two weeks of glider training and flew into some cloud-covered beech trees on a knoll. The site of the crash is marked by a memorial which was erected by the Wiltshire Historical Military Society.

Units

References

Citations

Bibliography

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