Netheravon Airfield is a
Ministry of Defence
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A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
grass strip airfield on
Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...
, in
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. Established in 1913 by the
Royal Flying Corps
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
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, it became RAF Netheravon from 1918 until 1963, then AAC Netheravon (
Army Air Corps Army Air Corps may refer to the following army aviation corps:
* Army Air Corps (United Kingdom), the army aviation element of the British Army
* Philippine Army Air Corps (1935–1941)
* United States Army Air Corps (1926–1942), or its p ...
) until 2012. Buildings from 1913 and 1914 survive on part of the site. The site forms part of the Tidworth, Netheravon and Bulford (TidNBul) Garrison.
Location
The airfield lies on Salisbury Plain, mostly in
Fittleton
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Fittleton cum Haxton is a civil parish in Wiltshire, England, north of Salisbury. The parish contains the adjacent settlements of Fittleton and Haxton, which lie on the east bank of the River Avon opposite the village and parish of ...
parish, extending south into
Figheldean
Figheldean is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Avon (Hampshire), River Avon, north of Amesbury in Wiltshire, England.
Figheldean parish extends east of the village towards Tidworth as far as Devil's Ditch an ...
. It is close to
Netheravon
Netheravon is a village and civil parish on the River Avon and A345 road, about north of the town of Amesbury in Wiltshire, South West England. It is within Salisbury Plain.
The village is on the right (west) bank of the Avon, opposite Fit ...
village and about north of the town of
Amesbury
Amesbury () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It is known for the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge which is within the parish. The town is claimed to be the oldest occupied settlement in Great Britain, having been first settle ...
.
Its buildings are on two sites. Technical buildings, including as the control tower and hangars, are immediately southwest of the runways. About further southwest, towards Netheravon, is Airfield Camp (also known as Lower Camp) which has offices, a training school (the Airmen's Institute), an Officers' Mess and barracks.
The Ministry of Defence land which surrounds the site is part of the
Salisbury Plain Training Area
Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...
.
Royal Flying Corps, 1912–1918
Much farmland in the area was bought by the
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...
around 1898 for military training.
Along with nearby
Upavon
Upavon is a rural village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England. As its name suggests, it is on the upper portion of the River Avon which runs from north to south through the village. It is on the north edge of Salisbury Plain ...
and
Larkhill
Larkhill is a garrison town in the civil parish of Durrington, Wiltshire, England. It lies about west of the centre of Durrington village and north of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. It is about north of Salisbury.
The settlement ...
, the airfield was part of the formative phase of military flying. The
Royal Flying Corps
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
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was established in April 1912; in May its
Central Flying School
The Central Flying School (CFS) is the Royal Air Force's primary institution for the training of military flying instructors. Established in 1912 at the Upavon Aerodrome, it is the longest existing flying training school. The school was based at R ...
was formed at Upavon, and its Military Wing was formed from the
Air Battalion
The Air Battalion Royal Engineers (ABRE) was the first flying unit of the British Armed Forces to make use of heavier-than-air craft. Founded in 1911, the battalion in 1912 became part of the Royal Flying Corps, which in turn evolved into the R ...
, which flew aircraft at Larkhill.
The Netheravon site near Choulston Farm was selected towards the end of 1912, and at first was called Choulston Camp.
The airfield used a road which extended from Netheravon across farmland, to serve two 19th-century groups of farm buildings.
Until the site was ready, service personnel were housed in tents or at the former cavalry school at Netheravon House, south of Netheravon village.
Standardised designs and prefabricated methods helped construction to proceed quickly, and
No. 3 Squadron moved here in June 1913, followed soon after by
No. 4 Squadron RFC.
In June 1914, under the leadership of Lt Col (later Air Vice Marshal)
F H Sykes, the airfield was the site of a gathering of RFC men and machines. Known as the Netheravon Concentration Camp, the exercise was designed to test mobilisation and improve the RFC's public reputation, as well as providing training. ''Flight'' magazine reported "upwards of 700 officers and men" and published photographs showing lines of tents for the visiting squadrons.
In August, following the declaration of war, 3 and 4 squadrons left for France to support the
British Expeditionary Force. They were replaced by
No. 1 Squadron which had a training role. Netheravon became a forming-up point for new squadrons; an example is
No. 11 Squadron, formed here in February 1915 and deployed to France in July. It was also the home of No. 8 Training Depot Station which trained aircrew, groundcrew, specialist signallers and fitters.
Royal Air Force, 1918–1963
After the war, now a station of the newly formed
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
, Netheravon was used for disbandment of squadrons. A range of hangars was built in 1918 to house
Handley Page O/400
The Handley Page Type O was a biplane bomber used by Britain during the First World War. When built, the Type O was the largest aircraft that had been built in the UK and one of the largest in the world. There were two main variants, the Handl ...
bombers, but plans to develop Netheravon as a bomber base were soon shelved.
From 1919 until 1931 it was the home of
No. 1 Flying Training School
The No. 1 Flying Training School (1 FTS) is the oldest military pilot training school in the world, currently used to deliver rotary training to aircrew of the British armed forces.
History
First formation (1919 – 1928)
On 23 December 1919 ...
; between 1924 and 1928, trainees included crews for the newly created
Fleet Air Arm
The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...
.
Training resumed in 1935 under
No. 6 Flying Training School RAF, which left for Little Rissington in 1938 and was replaced by a new incarnation of No. 1 FTS, renamed to No. 1 Service Flying Training School in 1939.
In the 1939-45 war, Netheravon saw short stays by various squadrons, while training activities continued. In 1941 training of Fleet Air Arm aircrew
relocated to the United States.
Squadrons based at Netheravon included
297 (from December 1941),
296
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Year 296 ( CCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Diocletian and Constantius (or, less frequent ...
(January 1942) and
295 (August 1942). In 1944 the airfield was used to prepare gliders for their role in the
invasion of Normandy
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...
.
After the war, the site was used for various purposes, including
RAF Police
The Royal Air Force Police (RAFP) is the service police branch of the Royal Air Force, headed by the provost marshal of the Royal Air Force. Its headquarters are at RAF Honington and it deploys throughout the world to support RAF and UK defence ...
training. Additional married quarters were built at Airfield Camp in the 1950s, and c. 1952 a Roman Catholic church was opened there.
Army Air Corps, 1964–2012
The site was transferred to the
Army Air Corps Army Air Corps may refer to the following army aviation corps:
* Army Air Corps (United Kingdom), the army aviation element of the British Army
* Philippine Army Air Corps (1935–1941)
* United States Army Air Corps (1926–1942), or its p ...
in 1963 and became AAC Netheravon.
No. 651 Squadron moved here in 1964 and had responsibility for Army aviation in the UK (other than at
Middle Wallop
Middle Wallop is a village in the civil parish of Nether Wallop in Hampshire, England, on the A343 road. At the 2011 Census the population was included in the civil parish of Over Wallop. The village has a public house, The George Inn, and a ...
) and the Middle East.
7 Army Aviation Regiment was formed 1969 at Netheravon and in 1971 the regiment was renamed to 7 Regiment Army Aviation Corps. In 1995, 7 Regiment re-roled as a volunteer
Territorial Army regiment. 7 Regiment moved to Middle Wallop in 2009.
For some years until 2011, when it moved to
Staff College, Camberley
Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army and the presidency armies of British India (later merged to form the Indian Army). It had its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, founded in 1799, which i ...
, the headquarters of the
Brigade of Gurkhas
The Brigade of Gurkhas is the collective name which refers to all the units in the British Army that are composed of Nepalese Gurkha soldiers. The brigade draws its heritage from Gurkha units that originally served in the British Indian Army ...
was housed at Airfield Camp.
Today
The airfield is used by the Joint Services Parachute Centre, part of the Army's "Adventurous Training" programme for serving and injured personnel, and is home to the Army Parachute Association, a charity which supports sports parachuting for serving and retired personnel.
Listed buildings
The Officers' Mess and quarters at Airfield Camp, completed in 1914, are
Grade II* listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. The Mess is partly two-storey, while the linked accommodation block and the nine detached four-room chalets are single-storey. Construction is softwood framing with asbestos-cement panels, their joints covered with painted wood strips, under a tiled roof. Historic England describe the group of buildings as "of outstanding historical interest, and of striking architectural form, comprising some of the earliest extant buildings erected for the RFC".
Six further buildings from the same phase, and a range of five linked hangars from 1918,
are Grade II listed. At the site near the airfield, the 1914 Main Depot Offices, in the same style as the Camp buildings, are also Grade II.
Units
The following units have been based at Netheravon.
First World War
Inter-war years
Second World War
Post-war
*
No. 187 Squadron RAF
*
VISTRE Flight
Army Air Corps
Others
The following units were based at Netheravon at some point:
*
800 Naval Air Squadron
()
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*
801 Naval Air Squadron
801 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm squadron of the Royal Navy formed in 1933 which fought in World War II, the Korean War and the Falklands War.
Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force
The squadron was formed on 3 April 1933 as part ...
*
802 Naval Air Squadron
*
803 Naval Air Squadron
803 Naval Air Squadron was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm squadron.
History
Interwar
803 NAS was formed on 3 April 1933 by promoting No 409 (Fleet Fighter) Flight to the status of a squadron, with nine Ospreys. In the same month it embarked on fo ...
*
822 Naval Air Squadron
822 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm aircraft squadron before and during World War II.
History Pre-war
822 squadron was formed on 3 April 1933 from a merger of No's 442 and 449 (Fleet Spotter Reconnaissance) Flights at Netheravon and posted ...
* No. 1 Heavy Glider Maintenance Unit RAF
*
No. 2 Flight AAC
*
No. 235 Maintenance Unit RAF
* No. 1333 Transport Support Training Unit RAF
* No. 1677 (Target Towing) Flight RAF
*
No. 2779 Squadron RAF Regiment
This is a list of units of the Royal Air Force Regiment. The RAF Regiment is the ground fighting force of the Royal Air Force and is charged mainly with protecting military airfields, among other duties.
First formed in 1942 to protect the airfi ...
*
No. 2786 Squadron RAF Regiment
This is a list of units of the Royal Air Force Regiment. The RAF Regiment is the ground fighting force of the Royal Air Force and is charged mainly with protecting military airfields, among other duties.
First formed in 1942 to protect the airfi ...
*
No. 2952 Squadron RAF Regiment
* Heavy Glider Maintenance Unit RAF
* Joint Services Parachuting Centre
* Royal Artillery Aero Club
* Southern Command (AGA) Gliding Club
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
*
{{Army Air Corps
Military history of Wiltshire
Military parachuting in the United Kingdom
Royal Flying Corps airfields