Royal Air Force Driffield or RAF Driffield 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 in the

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 ...

, in England. It lies about south-west of

Driffield Driffield, also known as Great Driffield, is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield. By road, it is north-east of Leeds ...

and north-west of

Beverley Beverley is a market town, market and minster (church), minster town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre ...

. It is now operated by the

Defence Infrastructure Organisation Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) is an operating arm of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in the United Kingdom, which is responsible for the built and rural estate. Its Chief Executive is Graham Dalton. History The DIO was formed in 2011 i ...

, as the Driffield Training Area.

History

The site was first opened in 1918 by the Royal Air Force under the name of RAF Eastburn, and closed in 1920. In 1935 a new airfield was built, initially training bomber crews. In 1977 the site was turned over to the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

for use as a

driving school ''Driving School'' is a docusoap that was broadcast on BBC1 in the summer of 1997, which followed a group of learner drivers around Bristol and South Wales. The series was made on a reduced budget but shown in primetime, it created one of the ...

, and was renamed Alamein Barracks, a satellite to Normandy Barracks of the

Defence School of Transport The Defence School of Transport (DST) Leconfield is located at Normandy Barracks, Leconfield near Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire in England. It is a tri-service organisation which forms part of the Defence College of Logistics Policing and ...

Leconfield Leconfield is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, about north-west of Beverley town centre on the A164 road. The civil parish consists of Leconfield, the village of Arram and the hamlet of Scorborough. The 2011 ...

. The station was the initial posting of

Leonard Cheshire Geoffrey Leonard Cheshire, Baron Cheshire, (7 September 1917 – 31 July 1992) was a highly decorated Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot and group captain during the Second World War, and a philanthropist. Among the honours Cheshire received as ...

VC, who was at that time a member of 102 Squadron. On 15 August 1940 there was a German air raid on the airfield. Casualties included the first fatality in the

Women's Royal Air Force The Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) was the women's branch of the Royal Air Force. It existed in two separate incarnations: the Women's Royal Air Force from 1918 to 1920 and the Women's Royal Air Force from 1949 to 1994. On 1 February 1949, the ...

. On 1 August 1959, the station was armed with

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 ...

ballistic missiles, which were subsequently decommissioned by April 1963.

Units

The following units were here at some point:

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links

UK Airfields - DriffieldDerelict Places – RAF Driffield – May 2011Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust – RAF Driffield (Eastburn)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Driffield Military units and formations established in 1918 Buildings and structures in the East Riding of Yorkshire Royal Air Force stations in Yorkshire World War I airfields 1918 establishments in the United Kingdom Royal Air Force stations of World War II in the United Kingdom Driffield World War I sites in England