Royal Air Force Station Wombleton or RAF Wombleton is a former Royal Air Force station located east of

Helmsley Helmsley is a market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, the town is located at the point where Ryedale leaves the moorland and joins the flat Vale of ...

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 ...

and north east of

Easingwold Easingwold is a market town, electoral ward and civil parish in the Hambleton District in North Yorkshire, England. Historically, part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it had a population of 4,233 at the 2001 census, increasing to 4,627 at t ...

, North 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 ...

Station history

Wombleton opened in 1943 as a sub-station of

RAF Topcliffe Royal Air Force Topcliffe or RAF Topcliffe is a Royal Air Force station in North Yorkshire, England. It was established as a RAF Bomber Command station in 1940. The British Army took over a large part of the site in 1974 and the airfield beca ...

. It was part of RAF Bomber Command's No. 6 Group RCAF, and along with the main station at Topcliffe and the station at

Dishforth Dishforth is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. Dishforth translates from Old English as dic-ford; a ford by a dike or ditch. The population of the parish taken at the 2001 census as 719 and had ...

, was designated part of No 61 (Training) Base. In November 1944, No 61 Base was transferred to No 7 (Training) Group and it was renumbered No 76 Training Base. No 1666 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU) was the first unit to move to Wombleton. Aircrew who were originally trained on twin-engined aircraft such as

Wellingtons The Wellington boot was originally a type of leather boot adapted from Hessian (boot), Hessian boots, a style of military riding boot. They were worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The "Wellington" boot became ...

or Whitleys received conversion training on heavy four-engined bombers such as the Halifax or Lancaster. No 1666 HCU remained at Wombleton until the end of the war. The

RAF 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 ...

took over the station and stayed for several years with the RAF Regiment using the site as a battle school.

Units and aircraft

Current use

Wombleton airport is now used for recreational flying.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * Delve, Ken. ''The Source Book of the RAF''. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK: Airlife Publishing, 1994. . * *

External links

Airfields in Yorkshire - Wombleton

Former RAF Wombleton on Wikimapia

* ttps://britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw001008 Image of RAF Wombleton in 1946 {{authority control Wombleton Buildings and structures in North Yorkshire

Womble ''The Wombles'' are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures created by Elisabeth Beresford and originally appearing in a series of children's novels from 1968. They live in burrows, where they aim to help the environment by collecting and recyc ...

Military history of North Yorkshire