Royal Air Force Honeybourne or RAF Honeybourne was a

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) an ...

station located south of Honeybourne,

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

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 ...

and east of Evesham, Worcestershire, England The station was operational from 1940 or 1941 to 1946 or 15 November 1947.

Station history

RAF Honeybourne had five

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

s there was one J Type and 4 T2's. The airfield used a mixture of temporary and permanent accommodation and on 1 December 1944 there were 1973 males and 382 females located at the airfield. No. 24 Operational Training Unit RAF was formed on 15 March 1942 at Honeybourne as part of No. 7 Group RAF Bomber Command to train night bomber crews using the

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was a British medium bomber aircraft of the 1930s. It was one of three twin-engined, front line medium bomber types that were in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) at the outbreak of the Second World ...

. It carried out three operational sorties during 1942. Converted to the

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson; a key feature of the aircraft is its ...

in April 1944 to train Royal Canadian Air Force crews, disbanded in July 1945.Sturtivant 2007, pp. 198–206 It is also reported that the OTU may have flown leaflet dropping sorties. A number of units based from

RAF Ferry Command RAF Ferry Command was the secretive Royal Air Force command formed on 20 July 1941 to ferry urgently needed aircraft from their place of manufacture in the United States and Canada, to the front line operational units in Britain, Europe, North Af ...

were based including the Ferry Training Unit RAF using

Lockheed Hudson The Lockheed Hudson is a light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built by the American Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. It was initially put into service by the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and p ...

s and

Bristol Beaufort The Bristol Beaufort (manufacturer designation Type 152) is a British twin-engined torpedo bomber designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and developed from experience gained designing and building the earlier Blenheim light bomber. At le ...

s were based at the airfield between November 1941 and March 1942, and

No. 1425 (Communication) Flight RAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, t ...

using

Consolidated Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models de ...

s between November 1941 and April 1942. The airfield was protected by No. 2828 Squadron RAF Regiment

Postwar

The airfield was also temporarily home to No. 21 Operational Training Unit flying Wellingtons from

RAF Enstone Enstone is a village and civil parish in England, about east of Chipping Norton and north-west of Oxford city. The civil parish, one of Oxfordshire's largest, consists of the villages of Church Enstone and Neat Enstone, with the hamlets of Cha ...

from August 1945 for two months because the runways at their home base were being repaired. From October 1945 until 1946 107 Sub Storage Unit from No. 8 Maintenance Unit used the airfield for storing Wellingtons and

General Aircraft Hamilcar The General Aircraft Limited GAL. 49 Hamilcar or Hamilcar Mark I was a large British military glider produced during the Second World War, which was designed to carry heavy cargo, such as the Tetrarch or M22 Locust light tank. When the Britis ...

gliders. The role of the airfield after the war changed with the reduction of flying movements and with a slight change in what the units did on the airfield when No. 107 Sub Storage Unit from 1947 began to collect no longer needed Wellingtons which were then scrapped and taken to Weston Subedge goods yard (which was near to the south-western corner) where the railway would take them to the necessary destination.

Accidents and incidents

7 August 1940

Handley Page Hampden The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden is a British twin-engine medium bomber that was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was part of the trio of large twin-engine bombers procured for the RAF, joining the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and Vickers ...

P2086 of 4 Ferry Pilots Pool stalled attempting to force land after an engine failure. 24 December 1941

Bristol Blenheim The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company (Bristol) which was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War, with examples still being used as trainers until ...

L8663 of Ferry Training Unit stalled on approach. 10 March 1942

V8995 of the Ferry Training Unit spun into ground. 20 July 1943

Avro Anson The Avro Anson is a British twin-engined, multi-role aircraft built by the aircraft manufacturer Avro. Large numbers of the type served in a variety of roles for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCA ...

DJ242 of 24 OTU undershot landing. 14 May 1944

N1436 of 24 OTU stalled on overshoot. 6 January 1945

HE633 of 24 OTU crashed on takeoff when an engine failed. 28 April 1947 Wellington JA349 was hit by Wellington LR130 while parked.

Current use

In July 1948 the site was closed and much has reverted to farmland with runways being removed in 1968. During 1949 and into 1950 parts of the site were used for temporary housing for local families while new Council housing developments were being built in the area - people moving into the new houses when completed. Since then, the airside area has evolved into the Honeybourne Airfield Trading Estate.

References

External links

BBC History- Life in the Womens Auxiliary Air Force

Map which clearly shows the airport outline
{{DEFAULTSORT:Honeybourne Royal Air Force stations in Worcestershire Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom Wychavon Military units and formations established in 1941 1941 establishments in England