RM Condor is a large

Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...

base located near

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland, Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, some east-northeast of ...

in East

Angus, Scotland Angus (; ) is one of the 32 Local government in Scotland, local government council areas of Scotland, and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City (council area), Dundee City and Per ...

. The base also houses 7 (Sphinx) Battery Royal Artillery, part of 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery.

History

The base was first constructed as a

naval air station A Naval Air Station (NAS) is a military air base, and consists of a permanent land-based operations locations for the military aviation division of the relevant branch of a navy (Naval aviation). These bases are typically populated by squadron ...

for 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 ...

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, RN fighting arms. it is a primarily helicopter force, though also operating the Lockhee ...

in 1938, when it was known as Royal Naval Air Station Arbroath (RNAS Arbroath; or HMS ''Condor''). It was opened on 19 June 1940. From the outset it was a training base, primarily involved in the

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

naval aviator Naval aviation / Aeronaval is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. It often involves '' navalised aircraft'', specifically designed for naval use. Seaborne aviation encompas ...

s. A purpose-built 'aircraft carrier' sized landing area was constructed on the airfield and it, along with another similar facility at nearby East Haven, Angus, HMS ''Peewit'' was used to train aircrew in deck landing operations. In October, 1940, the base was attacked by ''

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

Heinkel He 111 The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and medium bomber designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development, it was described as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Due to restrictions placed on Germany a ...

bombers, operating from Norway, which resulted in minor damage (then valued at £6,000) being sustained to some Squadron buildings. Throughout the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

years the base was additionally used as a rest area. Operational Squadrons from Royal Navy

fleet Fleet may refer to: Vehicles * Fishing fleet *Naval fleet * Fleet vehicles, a pool of motor vehicles * Fleet Aircraft, the aircraft manufacturing company Places Canada * Fleet, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet England * The Fleet Lagoon, at Chesil Be ...

and escort

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 ...

s would take it in turn to spend rest periods whilst their ships were undergoing maintenance at Scottish Naval ship repair facilities. Flying stopped in 1954 and the base became the home of the Royal Navy Aircraft Engineering Training School which had transferred from HMS ''Daedalus'' at Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire. It continued in this role until 1 April 1971 when the base became the home to 45 Commando

, a part of

3 Commando Brigade United Kingdom Commando Force (UKCF), previously called 3 Commando Brigade (3 Cdo Bde), is the UK's special operations-capable commando formation of the Royal Marines. It is composed of Royal Marine Commandos and commando qualified personnel f ...

. The base was thereafter known as RM Condor or Condor Barracks and remains an operational base to this day. ''A Better Defence Estate'', published in November 2016, indicated that the Ministry of Defence would dispose of the airfield section of RM Condor by 2024. In 2019, this decision was dropped, and the site will remain in use.

Units

The following units have been based here: * M Flight 3 CDO BDE Air Sqn RM

Based units

Units based at RM Condor. * 45 Commando,

* Royal Marines Police, 30 Commando Information Exploitation Group *7 (Sphinx) Battery. 29 Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery * 2 (City of Dundee and Highland) Squadron, 32 Signals Regiment ( Army Reserve) *

Volunteer Cadet Corps The Volunteer Cadet Corps (VCC) is a national youth organisation managed by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy and sponsored by the UK's Ministry of Defence. The VCC comprises: * Headquarters VCC. Based at in Portsmouth. * VCC Training Centre. ...

Cadets

The establishment is also home to the Royal Marines Cadets of Arbroath Division Royal Marines

Built heritage

The redundant airfield

control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled a ...

is a category C

listed building 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, Hi ...

. The three storey building is one of two surviving examples of this particular type of control tower, which features an ambulance and crash tender garage. The tower, which was listed in May 2006, is noted by

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) () is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the merger of government agency Historic Sc ...

as being important in terms of naval and Second World War history, as well as for its local significance. The Captain's House, formerly known as 'Woodlands', dates from the early 19th century. The two-storey and basement

Regency In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

was listed as category B in June 1971.

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Condor

Condor Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua language, Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. One species, the And ...

Royal Navy bases in Scotland