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Royal Navy Air Station Rattray, (RNAS Rattray; or HMS ''Merganser'') and also known as Crimond Airfield, Crimond Aerodrome or Rattray Aerodrome was a Royal Naval Air Station near
Crimond Crimond is a village in Aberdeenshire, in the northeast of Scotland, located northwest of the port of Peterhead and just over from the coast. Geography The main A90 road runs through Crimond and is lined by Crimond Church with a villag ...
,
Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...
.


History

The station started to be built from March 1943, with
774 Naval Air Squadron 774 Naval Air Squadron (774 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which last disbanded in August 1945. 774 Naval Air Squadron formed at HMS ''Kestrel'', RNAS Worthy Down, in November 1939 ...
moving in from July 1943 for
Telegraphist A telegraphist (British English), telegrapher (American English), or telegraph operator is a person who uses a telegraph key to send and receive Morse code messages in a telegraphy system. These messages, also called telegrams, can be transmitte ...
Air Gunners training but the site was not commissioned until 3 October 1944. The base then switched to training Torpedo Bombing Reconnaissance crews. The following units were here at some point: *
708 Naval Air Squadron 708 Naval Air Squadron (708 NAS)was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which disbanded during February 1946. It formed during October 1944 at HMS ''Daedalus'', RNAS Lee-on-Solent, as the Firebrand ...
: *
714 Naval Air Squadron 714 Naval Air Squadron (714 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). The unit was initially established as 714 (Catapult) Flight in July 1936. By 1939, it had evolved from a flight into a squa ...
(May 1944-unknown) *
717 Naval Air Squadron 717 Naval Air Squadron (717 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which last disbanded in March 1946. It formed as a Torpedo Bomber Reconnaissance Training Squadron, at HMS ''Owl'', RNAS Fea ...
(November 1944-unknown) * 753 Naval Air Squadron * 766 Naval Air Squadron *
769 Naval Air Squadron 769 Naval Air Squadron (769 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It last disbanded and merged with 717 Naval Air Squadron after the Second World War. 769 Naval Air Squadron Formed at HMS '' ...
*
774 Naval Air Squadron 774 Naval Air Squadron (774 NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) which last disbanded in August 1945. 774 Naval Air Squadron formed at HMS ''Kestrel'', RNAS Worthy Down, in November 1939 ...
(July 1943-August 1945) *
815 Naval Air Squadron 815 Naval Air Squadron is a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm squadron flying the AgustaWestland Wildcat HMA.2 helicopter and is the Navy's front line Wildcat Naval Air Squadron. The squadron is based at RNAS Yeovilton (HMS Heron) in Somerset. The squa ...
*
817 Naval Air Squadron 817 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN) during the Second World War. In 1941, the squadron operated Fairey Albacore aircraft in the Anti-Submarine Warfare role in Icelandic ...
*
818 Naval Air Squadron 818 Naval Air Squadron was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm carrier-based squadron formed in August 1939. It served on a number of the Navy's aircraft carriers during the Second World War, serving in most of the theatres of the war, before decommiss ...
*
821 Naval Air Squadron 821 Naval Air Squadron (821 NAS), sometimes referred to as 821 Squadron, was a Fleet Air Arm (FAA) naval air squadron of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy (RN). It was a carrier based squadron formed on 3 April 1933 with the transferral and am ...
*
825 Naval Air Squadron 825 Naval Air Squadron is a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Naval Air Squadron which was re-commissioned on 10 October 2014 and currently flies the AgustaWestland Wildcat HMA2. It was a carrier-based squadron that was formed on 8 October 1934 from th ...
The base was closed in 1946, being moved into a state of care & maintenance. It was also used as a Royal Naval Wireless Station until 2004.


Current use

The site is home to a
high frequency High frequency (HF) is the ITU designation for the band of radio waves with frequency between 3 and 30 megahertz (MHz). It is also known as the decameter band or decameter wave as its wavelengths range from one to ten decameters (ten to one ...
transmitter station forming part of the Defence High Frequency Communications Service. The station is operated by
Babcock International Group Babcock International Group plc is a British aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering services company based in London, England. It specialises in managing complex assets and infrastructure. Although the company has civil contracts, its main b ...
on behalf of the
Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...
.


See also

*
List of air stations of the Royal Navy This is a list of naval air stations of the Royal Navy. Naval air stations are shore establishments of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), the branch of the Royal Navy (RN) responsible for the operation of naval aircraft. Historically, RNAS referred to ...
*
24 February Events Pre-1600 * 484 – King Huneric of the Vandals replaces Nicene Christianity, Nicene bishops with Arianism, Arian ones, and banishes some to Corsica. *1303 – The English are defeated at the Battle of Roslin, in the First War of ...
– Royal Navy submarine is lost with all 37 crew on sea trials in the
Sound of Bute The Sound of Bute is a broad sound, separating the islands of Arran and Bute, on the west coast of Scotland. The sound leads up from the lower Firth of Clyde and passes the island of Inchmarnock. Then splits into the Kyles of Bute, Loch Fyne ...
; she would not be located until 1994. *
27 March Events Pre-1600 *1309 – Pope Clement V imposes excommunication and interdiction on Venice, and a general prohibition of all commercial intercourse with Venice, which had seized Ferrara, a papal fiefdom. *1329 – Pope John XXII issu ...
–
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 ...
escort carrier The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (U.S. hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slower type of aircraf ...
is destroyed by an accidental explosion in the
Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde, is the estuary of the River Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland. The Firth has some of the deepest coastal waters of the British Isles. The Firth is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre, Kintyre Peninsula. The ...
, killing 379 of the crew of 528. * 30 May – Royal Navy submarine is lost with all hands on a training exercise in the Firth of Clyde. *
30 November Events Pre-1600 * 978 – Franco-German war of 978–980: Holy Roman Emperor Otto II lifts the siege of Paris and withdraws. 1601–1900 *1707 – Queen Anne's War: The second Siege of Pensacola comes to end with the failure of t ...
– is launched at
John Brown & Company John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a Scottish Naval architecture, marine engineering and shipbuilding firm. It built many notable and world-famous ships including , , , , , and ''Queen Elizabeth 2 (ship), Queen Elizabeth 2''. At its heig ...
's shipyard at
Clydebank Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...
by the Princess Elizabeth. 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 ...
's largest, fastest and last
battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...
, she was laid down in October 1941 and will be in commission from 1946-60.


References


Citations


Bibliography

*


External links


WWII base information
{{Royal Naval Air Stations Transport in Aberdeenshire Rattray Buildings and structures in Buchan 1943 establishments in Scotland