Royal Air Force Full Sutton or RAF Full Sutton is a former

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 ...

station located south east of Stamford Bridge,

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

and north west of

Pocklington Pocklington is a market town and civil parish situated at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded its population as 8,337. It is east of York and northwest of Hull. The town's sk ...

, East Riding of Yorkshire,

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 ...

. The base did not open until May 1944, and so was the last airfield built for

Bomber Command Bomber Command is an organisational military unit, generally subordinate to the air force of a country. The best known were in Britain and the United States. A Bomber Command is generally used for strategic bombing (although at times, e.g. during t ...

History

The airfield opened in 1944 under No. 4 Group, as part of

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...

, with

No. 77 Squadron RAF No. 77 Squadron RAF was a squadron of the Royal Air Force which was active in various incarnations between 1916 and 1963. History No. 77 Squadron was formed on 1 October 1916 at Edinburgh, and was equipped with B.E.2 and B.E.12 aircraft. The squ ...

arriving at RAF Full Sutton on 15 May 1944 with the

Handley Page Halifax The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester. The Halifax has its or ...

Mks III and VI. The base was the last operational airfield constructed for Bomber Command in the Second World War. The base was laid out in the standard design of a heavy bomber station, having three runways in an 'A' shape. The longest was long, the second was , and the shortest was . The runways, which crossed in an almost perfect triangular pattern, were laid down with different lengths to a standard heavy bomber base design. The non-standard runway distance has been put down to the land boundaries of the base. To the south-wst side of the airfield, was a railway line connecting York to Beverley. No. 77 Sqn switched to the

Douglas Dakota The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF 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 and remained in ...

aircraft in July 1945, then the squadron moved to

RAF Broadwell Royal Air Force Broadwell or more simply RAF Broadwell is a former Royal Air Force station located 2 miles north of Broadwell and 3 miles southeast of Burford, Oxfordshire, and within 2 miles of RAF Brize Norton. It opened on 15 November 19 ...

on at the end of August 1945. RAF Full Sutton was switched to

RAF Transport Command RAF Transport Command was a Royal Air Force command that controlled all transport aircraft of the RAF. It was established on 25 March 1943 by the renaming of the RAF Ferry Command, and was subsequently renamed RAF Air Support Command in 1967. ...

being used by a flight of No. 231 Squadron RAF between 1 December 1945 and 15 January 1946 operating the

Avro Lancastrian The Avro 691 Lancastrian was a Canadian and British passenger and mail transport aircraft of the 1940s and 1950s developed from the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber. The Lancaster was named after Lancaster, Lancashire; a Lancastrian is an inhabit ...

C.2 before being disbanded. In the 1950s it was part of

RAF Flying Training Command Flying Training Command was an organization of the Royal Air Force; it controlled flight training units. The command's headquarters were at Shinfield Park, Reading in Berkshire. History Flying Training Command was formed from the elements of ...

, as No. 103 Flying Refresher School RAF and then as No. 207 Advanced Flying School RAF. Both of these schools held training on Meteor aircraft as a response to the Korean War. One of the aircraft, ''WF831'', crashed onto the railway line in 1952 just as a goods train was passing. The airfield was then placed on care and maintenance until 1959 when

No. 102 Squadron RAF No. 102 Squadron was a Royal Air Force night bomber squadron in the First World War and a heavy bomber squadron in the Second World War. After the war it flew briefly as a transport squadron before being reformed a light bomber unit with the Secon ...

arrived and the airfield was re-modelled as a

PGM-17 Thor The PGM-17A Thor was the first operational ballistic missile of the United States Air Force (USAF). Named after the Norse god of thunder, it was deployed in the United Kingdom between 1959 and September 1963 as an intermediate-range ballistic m ...

missile site, operating until 27 April 1963. The area is now used as the civilian Full Sutton Airfield, being home to the Full Sutton Flying Centre, and another part of the site houses HMP Full Sutton, which opened in April 1988.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

Airfield Information Exchange
{{DEFAULTSORT:Full Sutton Royal Air Force stations in Yorkshire Buildings and structures in the East Riding of Yorkshire Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom