Royal Air Force Bircotes or more simply RAF Bircotes 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) an ...

satellite airfield located within

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metropolitan county, metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of City of Doncaster, Doncaster and City of Sh ...

, England. Although it was named after the town of

Bircotes Bircotes is an area in the civil parish of Harworth Bircotes (with Harworth) in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England on the border with South Yorkshire. The population of the civil parish was 7,948. The local school in the area is ...

which is in

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

History

RAF Bircotes was located next the No. 1 Group RAF, RAF Bomber Command HQ at RAF Bawtry, Bawtry Hall, Bawtry,

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 airfield consisted of a grass strip with a connecting perimeter track with T2, B1 and Bessonneau hangars plus other miscellaneous buildings. The Airfield opened in late 1941 and was used by the

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 ...

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 ...

s, and Avro Manchesters from

No. 25 Operational Training Unit 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, ...

(OTU) at nearby

RAF Finningley Royal Air Force Finningley or RAF Finningley was a Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station at Finningley, in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The station straddled the historic county boundaries of both ...

. A variety of training units occupied the airfield including two operational Training units: * Satellite for No. 18 OTU (March 1943 - November 1944) * Satellite for No. 28 OTU (June - July 1944) * Satellite for No. 82 OTU (August - October 1943) * Satellite for No. 16 (Polish) Service Flying Training School RAF (February - August 1943) * Sub site for No. 35 Maintenance Unit RAF (November 1944 - 1945) The No. 1 Group Communication Flight RAF from RAF Bawtry were also present at Bircotes from April 1941. The unit had moved from RAF Hucknall and at Bircotes the unit was using

Miles Master The Miles M.9 Master was a British two-seat monoplane advanced trainer designed and built by aviation company Miles Aircraft Ltd. It was inducted in large numbers into both the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Fleet Air Arm (FAA) during the Second W ...

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 ...

Miles Martinet The Miles M.25 Martinet was a target tug aircraft of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Fleet Air Arm (FAA) that was in service during the Second World War. It was the first British aircraft to be designed specifically for target towing. Work o ...

s, Curtiss Tomahawks and

Westland Lysander The Westland Lysander is a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft that was used immediately before and during the Second World War. After becoming obsolete in the army co-operation role, the aircraft's ...

s. Towards the end 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 opposi ...

and afterwards a number of different units used the airfield such as No. 250 Maintenance Unit RAF (MU) which formed at the airfield while under the control of

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 ...

and No. 61 MU which absorbed No. 250 MU and used Bircotes as a sub site between 1944 and 1948.

Current use

The airfield is currently farmland after being decommissioned on 13 July 1948 with little of the perimeter track left.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * *

External links

Roy Calvert service record details

An aerial view showing evidence of the layout of the former Airfield. The existing buildings are shown in the bottom left hand corner. Bawtry and Bawtry Hall are shown towards the east.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bircotes Royal Air Force stations in Yorkshire Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom Aviation in Doncaster Military history of South Yorkshire