Royal Air Force Acaster Malbis or more simply RAF Acaster Malbis 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 of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

city centre and east of

Tadcaster Tadcaster is a market town and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, England, east of the Great North Road, north-east of Leeds, and south-west of York. Its historical importance from Roman times onward was largely as the ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, England. It was developed from a small grass airfield at the beginning of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and its main use was as a training base for

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 ...

before being used by

RAF Maintenance Command RAF Maintenance Command was the Royal Air Force command which was responsible for controlling maintenance for all the United Kingdom-based units from formation on 1 April 1938 until being renamed RAF Support Command on 31 August 1973. History ...

from 1944 until 1957.

Station history

The airfield was originally opened as a satellite of

RAF Church Fenton Royal Air Force Church Fenton or RAF Church Fenton was a former Royal Air Force (RAF) station located south east of Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England and north west of Selby, North Yorkshire, near the village of Church Fenton. The station wa ...

before

No. 601 Squadron RAF Number 601 (County of London) Squadron is a squadron of the RAF Reserves, based in London. The squadron took part in the Battle of Britain, during which the first Americans to fly in World War II were members of the squadron. Reactivated in 2017 ...

arrived from

RAF Duxford Duxford Aerodrome is located south of Cambridge, within the civil parish of Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England and nearly west of the village. The airfield is owned by the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and is the site of the Imperial War Muse ...

with Bell Airacobras staying between January and April 1942 before being re-equipped with

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...

VB's and moving to

RAF Digby Royal Air Force Digby otherwise known as RAF Digby is a Royal Air Force station located near Scopwick and south east of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, Lincoln, in Lincolnshire, England. The station is home to the tri-service Joint Service Signals Organi ...

. Acaster Malbis was then used by No. 21 Group Flying Training Command as a relief landing ground for

Airspeed Oxford The Airspeed AS.10 Oxford is a twin-engine monoplane aircraft developed and manufactured by Airspeed. It saw widespread use for training British Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombing and gunnery roles throughout the Seco ...

s of

No. 15 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit RAF The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a Typography, typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal number, ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For exampl ...

((P)AFU) from

RAF Leconfield Royal Air Force Leconfield or more simply RAF Leconfield is a former Royal Air Force station located in Leconfield (near Beverley), East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The site is now used by the MoD Defence School of Transport Leconfield or D ...

, with these leaving in January 1943. Then surprising during 1943 the airfield was re-built to the specifications of a heavy bomber station with hard runways and spectacle dispersals being built under the control of

No. 4 Group RAF No. 4 Group was a Royal Air Force group, originally formed in the First World War, and reformed in the wake of the Second World War, mostly part of RAF Bomber Command, but ending its days in RAF Transport Command. History Formation in the Firs ...

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 ...

, however the station did not receive any aircraft before being transferred to No. 7 (Training) Group Bomber Command. During 1944 the airfield was used by

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 ...

es of 1652 and 1663 Heavy Conversion Unit. Also in 1944 the airfield was used by

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 ...

s of 1341 Special Duties Flight on radio and signal counter-measures work. No operational flying units were based at the airfield but No. 4 Group Aircrew School (later No. 4 Aircrew School RAF) did arrive in the winter of 1944 but they moved out in October 1945 before the airfield was closed to flying during February 1946. The airfield played host to three different maintenance units of

with the first being No. 91 Maintenance Unit RAF (MU) which arrived during 1944 before leaving on 15 December 1947 which was replaced by a sub-site of the same unit until 31 March 1948. During this No. 80 MU moved in on 21 January 1947 using Acaster Malbis until 12 December 1947. The last maintenance unit was a sub site of No. 93 MU which arrived on 1 April 1957 and left on 1 August 1957.

Current use

The site was decommissioned in 1963 and sold off but by the mid-1970s it was used by light aircraft transporting businessmen and jockeys for horse-racing season lasting until the mid-1980s. The airfield today still has bits of the old runways and perimeter tracks with hangars and dispersals easy to spot. The site also has two small industrial estates with the first being called "Brockett Industrial Estate" and the second "Waterline Industrial Estate" due to the close distance to the River Ouse. Disused airfield perimeter track - geograph

Disused airfield perimeter track - geograph

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links