RAF Driffield

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Royal Air Force Driffield or RAF Driffield is a former Royal Air Force station in the East Riding of Yorkshire, in England. It lies about south-west of Driffield and north-west of Beverley. It is now operated by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, as the Driffield Training Area.

History

, 1940]] The site was first opened in 1918 by the Royal Air Force under the name of RAF Eastburn, and closed in 1920. In 1935 a new airfield was built, initially training bomber crews. In 1977 the site was turned over to the British Army for use as a driving school, and was renamed Alamein Barracks, a satellite to Normandy Barracks of the Defence School of Transport at Leconfield. The station was the initial posting of Leonard Cheshire VC, who was at that time a member of 102 (Ceylon) Squadron. On 15 August 1940 there was a German air raid on the airfield. Casualties included the first fatality in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). On 4 June 1941 RAF Driffield was attacked by German aircraft which resulted in one Wellington, of No. 405 Squadron RCAF, being destroyed and another damaged. On 1 August 1959, the station was armed with PGM-17 Thor ballistic missiles, which were subsequently decommissioned by April 1963.

Units

The following units were here at some point:

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

UK Airfields – Driffield Derelict Places – RAF Driffield – May 2011 Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust – RAF Driffield (Eastburn) Control Towers – RAF Driffield airfield

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1365020882 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.