(Image: Ossington_2008. RAF Snaith’s surviving J Type hangar)
For a brief period during the 1930s and ’40s, the air of tranquility enveloping the northern English county of Yorkshire was shattered by the rumble of piston-engined heavy bombers. During that time more than 50 large airfields and operations centres existed across Yorkshire’s North, East and West Ridings, from the permanent expansion scheme stations of the 1930s to the so-called austerity airfields, satellite bases and sub-stations hastily built to accommodate the vast numbers of allied aircraft produced to counter Nazi Germany during World War Two.
Many of Yorkshire’s airfields were home to the Halifax, Wellington and Whitley squadrons of No. 4 Group RAF, headquartered at RAF Linton-on-Ouse and later Heslington Hall. Though a handful of former 4 Group stations remain in military use today, many more lie abandoned, slowly returning to the farmland from which they were requisitioned 75 years ago.
(Image: Jason, cc-nc-4.0. The 158 Squadron memorial at RAF Lissett)
It’s easy to pass them by without ever noticing their presence. Some are betrayed by the unmistakable forms of cavernous wartime hangars, decaying control towers and derelict Nissen huts. Others have seen their buildings demolished or dismantled long ago, their potholed runways and dispersal pans now hidden in the fields.
Though a small number continue to host light aircraft and have seen their historic buildings repurposed, the majority of this expansive wartime infrastructure lies in ruins, slowly disappearing with time.
This article examines 13 former No. 4 Group airfields in East and North Yorkshire, seemingly unremarkable today yet steeped in history and heroism, lonely memorials to the 55,573 men of RAF Bomber Command who lost their lives between 1939 and 1945 at an average age of 22.
RAF Breighton
(Image: Google Earth)
Today, RAF Breighton is home to a small grass strip and a collection of light pleasure aircraft. But viewed from above, the ghostly outlines of abandoned runways and extensive dispersal pans are plain to see. Opened in 1942, Breighton was originally on the charge of No. 1 Group, which still controls the UK’s fast jet force – including Tornado and Typhoon – today. But by July 1944 it was home of the Handley Page Halifax Mk.III heavy bombers of No. 4 Group’s 78 Squadron. With the Cold War came a stint as a Thor nuclear missile base before the facility finally closed in 1964.
(Image: Google Earth)
Google Earth shows the remnants of an expansive airfield, its abandoned runways clearly visible between a neglected perimeter taxiway flanked by more than a dozen surviving hard standings. Much of the concrete surface is now used for storage and a variety of prefabricated industrial buildings have taken over the confluence of the three runways.
(Image: F/O G. Woodbine. A Breighton-based 78 Sqn Halifax Mk.II, s/n LW235)
The south-west corner of the site now serves at Breighton Airfield, home to a variety of light civilian craft, where a small airstrip has been developed from the remains of the southern taxiway. Even today, with the majority of the abandoned bomber airfield lying amid farmland to the north, the narrow, potholed lane leading to the site betrays its wartime origins. What does survive has held various warbird events over the years. The restored Hurricane night fighter ‘G-HURR’ (below) was seen at Breighton a year before it tragically crashed in 2007.
(Image: Mark Butcher. Hawker Hurricane ‘G-HURR’ in 2006)
Across a farmer’s field, within the boundaries of the original perimeter track, a surviving wartime T2 hangar stands neglected beside a small copse of trees.
(Images: Google Earth/Street View)
Once a maintenance site for the airfield’s compliment of front line bombers, the hangar (above) now houses agricultural equipment, a lonely relic of Breighton’s wartime past.
(Image: Chris McLoughlin – @ChrisMcLoughlin)
Above, Breighton’s unusual ‘gate guardian’ stands alongside the western perimeter fence. Wearing Russian markings, the Aero L-29 Delfín jet trainer was widely used by Warsaw Pact countries during the Cold War.
RAF Burn
Not far from RAF Breighton, amid farmland just south of Selby, lies RAF Burn, a North Yorkshire heavy bomber base which opened in 1942 and, like so many World War Two airfields, remained in use for just four years. During its short operational life Burn was home to the Vickers Wellingtons of No. 431 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, which later relocated to the No. 6 Group RCAF’s base at Tholthorpe near Easingwold.
(Image: Google Earth. Hidden in the farmland, Burn’s bomber runways remain intact)
By 1944 Burn operated the Halifax bombers of 578 Squadron until the unit’s disbandment in April 1945, three months before military flying operations ceased at Burn forever.
The event for which the old airfield is perhaps best known came on the night of March 30, 1944, when 22-year-old Pilot Officer Cyril Joe Barton was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for valour and extreme courage, after nursing his crippled bomber from the heart of the Third Reich to a forced landing in northern England.
(Image: Google Street View. More hard standings can still be seen across Common Lane)
Barton’s crew took off in Handley Page Halifax LK797 to attack the German city of Nuremberg. But 70 miles from the target LK797 came under sustained fire from two Luftwaffe night fighters, damaging the aircraft severely and taking out its machine guns and intercom. Despite confusion which led to the navigator, bombardier and wireless operator bailing out, Barton pressed on with the attack, releasing the bombs himself and turning for home as one of the spluttering starboard engines burst into flames.
(Images: T Macdonald, cc-sa-3.0; RAF. P/O Cyril Joe Barton VC, died March 31, 1944, aged 22)
In a courageous feat of airmanship, Barton nursed his crippled Halifax back across occupied Europe and the North Sea. Reaching the English coast with just one engine running, too low to bail out and with fuel pouring from ruptured tanks, Barton decided to attempt a crash landing near the mining village of Ryhope, Tyne and Wear. But at the last second he spotted a row of cottages and heroically banked the heavy bomber away from them. LK797’s four remaining crew members survived the impact, but Barton died from his injuries soon after, along with local man George Heads who had been struck by flying debris. Sixty years later, in 2004, a memorial service was held for Barton in Ryhope. Among those who paid tribute to the young pilot was his navigator, Len Lambert.
(Image: Google Street View. From ground level the old airfield could easily slip by unnoticed)
Cyril Joe Barton’s story is but one among numerous tales of heroism and tragedy that underscore the service of Bomber Command crews based throughout the UK. In 2012, after years of delay, an official memorial to Commonwealth bomber crews was finally unveiled near London’s Hyde Park Corner. But Britain’s lonely airfields, neglected and returning to farmland, will always serve as poignant monuments to their courage and sacrifice.
(Image: Paul Glazzard, cc-sa-4.0. RAF Burn’s memorial garden dedicated to 578 Squadron)
Today, though many of its temporary buildings have been dismantled, RAF Burn’s storied runways remain virtually intact. Around the abandoned airfield’s perimeter are the ghostly outlines of hand standings where the heavy bombers, including Halifax LK797, once stood quietly awaiting their orders. Since closing in 1946 the airfield has reverted to agriculture, though the resident Burn Gliding Club maintains its flying tradition.
RAF Driffield
(Images: Harry Blades. RAF Driffield today)
With the exception of its three concrete runways, long since torn up for road-building materials, RAF Driffield remains an unusually well preserved example of a wartime Bomber Command station. Nestled 11 miles north of Beverley, the East Yorkshire airfield was originally called RAF Eastburn when it opened as a Royal Flying Corps aerodrome in 1918.
(Images: 49 Sqn RAF; JThomas, cc-sa-4.0. Expansion period hangar layout)
But during the 1930s as the UK initiated its airfield expansion programme in a bid to counter the looming threat of Nazi Germany, Driffield was completely rebuilt. Five large hangars were constructed along with dozens of brick-built support facilities, from operations buildings and accommodation blocks, messes, and recreation halls to bunkers and munitions stores.
(Image: Harry Blades)
Despite its ongoing military role today, many of Driffield’s historic wartime buildings lie in ruins, their windows smashed, internal fittings looted and graffiti liberally daubed across their walls.
(Image: Harry Blades. Driffield’s derelict wartime buildings)
When war broke out the airfield was home to Nos. 77 and 102 squadrons, equipped with twin-engined Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bombers. The second night of hostilities saw Driffield’s aircraft take to the skies, tasked with a daring flight down the Ruhr Valley to drop propaganda leaflets on the civilian population below. Later, on the night of March 19, 1940, Whitleys from Driffield and nearby RAF Dishforth conducted the first deliberate bombing raid on German soil. Yorkshire’s key role in World War Two had commenced.
(Image: Daventry, B. J., public domain. Whitleys preparing for a sortie, Driffield)
By 1941 RAF Driffield had re-equipped with Wellington bombers and hosted a number of Commonwealth squadrons including those of the Canadian and Australian air forces. Following the construction of three concrete runways to ‘Class-A‘ standard in 1944, No. 466 Squadron RAAF returned to the Bomber Command station with its compliment of four-engined Handley Page Halifax heavy bombers, which immediately launched raids against targets in Normandy in support of the Allied invasion of Europe.
(Image: Hull Daily Mail/Phillip Rhodes via controltowers.co.uk)
The end of the war ushered in a more peaceful period at Driffield. The former Bomber Command airfield became a training base for the RAF’s new breed of fast jets – the Gloster Meteor and de Havilland Vampire. But with Western-Soviet relations becoming increasingly icy as the Cold War unfolded, Thor nuclear missiles began appearing at Driffield, alongside a sizable contingent of American personnel to oversee their US-controlled warheads.
(Image: via Forgotten Airfields)
Thankfully the missiles were never launched in anger and, by the 1960s, RAF Driffield was in use as a flight test facility for Royal Navy Blackburn Buccaneers before transitioning to army control under the name Alamein Barracks. The site remains in use for military driver training, though the abandoned runways have long since been removed.
(Image: Google Earth)
Four of the original five cavernous bomber hangars survive alongside other wartime structures. Perhaps not surprisingly, there’s been a call for RAF Driffield’s conservation as an example of living history if and when the military finally vacate the wartime site.
RAF East Moor
Occupying the flat land between York and Easingwold, the former RAF East Moor is a typical example of Britain’s abandoned wartime airfields. Lost amid farmland and best seen from the air, the remains of three concrete runways nevertheless remain extant, its main runway running north to south from the village of Sutton-on-the-Forest to Carr Lane.
(Image: Google Maps)
Like many austerity airfields built to accommodate the large numbers of heavy bombers rolling off allied production lines, the war was well underway when RAF East Moor opened in 1942. Initially the home of No. 4 Group’s 158 Squadron RAF, it became a Royal Canadian Air Force station when 158’s contingent of Halifax Mk.IIs moved to Driffield and then to RAF Lissett in 1943.
(Image: judgeimages. Halifax ‘Block Buzzter’ of 432 Squadron)
From November 1942 East Moor was home to 429 Squadron RCAF, equipped with the Vickers Wellington. Then, the following September, another Canadian squadron (432) arrived at the North Yorkshire base, initially operating Avro Lancasters until re-equipping with various marks of Halifax over the next few years.
(Image: judgeimages. Halifax LW615, written off following a landing accident at East Moor)
RAF East Moor remained in Canadian Air Force use with the arrival of 415 Squadron in July 1944. The unit operated Halifax Mk.IIIs and later inherited a handful of Mk.VII machines when 432 disbanded at the station in May 1945. By November that year East Moor had been handed back to the RAF and served as a training base until closing in 1946.
(Image: Atlantikwall. East Moor’s perimeter track then and now)
Today, the drone of heavy bombers has long since evaporated and the abandoned airfield is again a peaceful place. The perimeter track and runway remains are clearly visible from above, though only four hard standings survive, most of them obscured by trees, and much of the runway surface has been demolished. (The above image by Richard Drew, showing a heavy bomber superimposed onto the abandoned taxiway, gives an impression of what East Moor’s perimeter would have been like all those years ago.)
(Image: Google Street View)
Farm buildings occupy the former technical site and most of the temporary RAF structures have been dismantled. But take a drive through the old main entrance (off Carr Lane to the west) via Google Street View, and you’ll notice a line of dilapidated wartime huts amid a cluster of modern prefab buildings.
RAF Full Sutton
Situated in the East Riding two miles from Stamford Bridge, RAF Full Sutton was a late addition to Yorkshire’s Bomber Command airfields. Opened in 1944, Full Sutton operated the Halifax Mk.III and VI of No. 4 Group’s 77 Squadron. The following year, in July 1945, the airfield was passed to the charge of RAF Transport Command as its bomber role came to an end.
(Image: Google Earth)
Unlike many wartime austerity airfields which reverted to agriculture as soon as hostilities ceased, Full Sutton remained in military use into the Cold War as a Thor missile base. It eventually closed in 1963.
(Image: IWM. Crashed Halifax Mk.III in staged photo of WAAF nurses attending to ‘injured’ crew)
Of all the airfields on this list, RAF Full Sutton is one of the least complete. The main technical site has been extensively redeveloped as a farm and industrial estate around the original wartime perimeter track. A separate complex to the north houses Full Sutton Prison and civilian light aircraft use a grass strip on the site of one of the original wartime runways.
(Image: Google Earth. Full Sutton airfield old and new)
The main asphalt runway, meanwhile, extends from north to south and, along with the western perimeter track, is one of the last surviving relics of its Bomber Command heyday. The abandoned control tower was demolished in 2003.
RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor
(Image: Ian Withnall. Typical wartime building alongside a repurposed hangar)
Unlike RAF Full Sutton, the abandoned runways and perimeter track of RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor are long gone, but the technical site, with its surviving hangars and other wartime buildings, remains more intact. Today, a memorial to its Bomber Command squadrons stands near the abandoned airfield’s main entrance – now an industrial estate where newer buildings stand amid their surviving wartime counterparts.
(Image: RAF, public domain. Halifax DK148 ‘Johnnie the Wolf’ returns from Essen – just!)
Construction of RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor began in 1940 and was completed the following year. The airfield was built to Bomber Command’s Class-A standard – three concrete runways surrounded by 36 hard standings, dispersed across the base in a bid to protect valuable aircraft from enemy attack. To the north-east, the main technical site comprised three hangars, beyond which were administration and operations blocks, and accommodation for some 2,000 personnel. Bomb stores were housed well away to the north-west of the runways.
(Image: F/O W. Bellamy, public domain. A 1663 HCU Halifax lands at Holme, October 1943)
Originally a 1 Group station, the base passed to No. 4 Group Bomber Command in June 1943. The Halifax Mk.III and VIs of 76 Squadron remained at Holme until 4 Group transitioned to RAF Transport Command at the end of World War Two. The close of hostilities saw the deserted bomber base placed on ‘care and maintenance’ status until the escalating Cold War brought the US Air Force, who lengthened the runways before moving on in 1957.
(Image: Alan Wilson, cc-sa-4.0. An early Blackburn Buccaneer S1 of the Fleet Air Arm)
The enhanced infrastructure proved useful later when RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor was leased to Blackburn Aircraft Ltd the following year as a test site. Because the runway at nearby Brough Aerodrome, Blackburn’s main factory, wasn’t long enough for the new breed of fast jets under development including the successful Buccaneer, the old wartime airfield remained in use for the next 25 years.
(Image: Ian D. Richardson via YouTube. Former Sergeants Mess, demolished around 2004)
It was finally abandoned in 1983 by British Aerospace which, by that time, had swallowed up most of the UK’s historic aviation companies.
(Image: Ossington_2008. Surviving hangars at Holme-on-Spalding Moor)
The area once occupied by RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor’s long runways has now returned to its pre-war use as farmland. The old T2 and J type hangars (above), meanwhile, live on amid a few other wartime buildings.
RAF Lissett
Located six miles south-west of the faded seaside town of Bridlington in East Yorkshire, the melancholy shadow of the RAF Lissett cuts a strange form on the landscape. Field boundaries which re-emerged after the war betray the locations of Lissett’s demolished runways, while the attenuated outlines of hard standings are fed from the surviving perimeter track on the abandoned airfield’s western side.
(Image: Google Earth)
Lissett was originally designed as a satellite station for nearby RAF Catfoss, built to the Class-A specification of three runways and 36 hard standings dispersed across the airfield. The base became home to the Handley Page Halifax bombers of No. 158 Squadron, formerly of Driffield, when it opened in Febuary 1943.
(Image: Google Street View)
Several weeks later the heavy bombers of RAF Lissett flew their first operational sortie from the base, when 10 aircraft took off to bomb the German city of Stuttgart. Only nine returned. Somewhat unusually, and with the exception of a few visiting units, 158 remained Lissett’s only active squadron for the duration of the conflict. (Several miles to the north lay the massive emergency runway of RAF Carnaby, one of just three such facilities in the UK.)
(Image: Google Street View)
The end of the war saw Lissett relegated to care and maintenance status, but the airfield had been completely abandoned by late 1945. The drive for renewable energy in recent years has seen a dozen or so wind turbines erected on land previously occupied by Lissett’s concrete runways. A local farmer has also taken over the technical site, which once boasted two large maintenance hangars.
(Images: Google Street View)
Open Google Street View and take a drive around the abandoned base, entering from Main Street in Lissett village to the east. From the tree-lined road onto the former airfield, flanked by crumbling, overgrown wartime buildings on each side, Street View continues to the old perimeter taxiway, far narrower than it once was, where the unmistakable sound of heavy bombers waiting for the active runway was once deafening.
(Images: Rich Cooper 2012)
Abandoned blast shelters can also be found hidden amid long grass around the former airfield, their brick-built entrance ways leading to hardened, roofless chambers dug into the earth in an effort to protect personnel during air raids.
(Image: IWM. Lissett-based Sergeant D. Cameron and crew survive a falling bomb over Cologne)
Above, pilot Sergeant D. Cameron and two of his crew pose with their damaged Halifax Mk.II, serial number HR837. Coded NP-F, the aircraft was hit by a falling bomb dropped by another allied plane during a raid on Cologne on the night of 28-19 June, 1943. Incredibly, none of the crew was injured in the incident and Sergeant Cameron managed to nurse the damaged bomber home. HR837 was repaired and flew 11 more operational missions before the ‘clapped-out’ Halifax was handed down to training squadron 1656 Heavy Conversion Unit.
(Image: IWM. Halifax LV907 ‘Friday the 13th’ at Lissett after its 100th mission)
Another famous Lissett Halifax, meanwhile, was LV907 ominously named Friday the 13th. The aircraft is pictured above standing quietly on a Lissett dispersal following its 100th operational sortie, a night raid on the German city of Gelsenkirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia. LV907 went on to complete 128 missions before being struck off charge and scrapped. The aircraft is commemorated today by Britain’s only restored Halifax at the Yorkshire Air Museum (see below).
(Image: Peter Wannop, cc-sa-4.0)
The memorial that stands on the edge of the former RAF Lissett today is among the most poignant of its kind. The memorial sculpture to No. 158 Squadron depicts seven airmen in full flight gear, a haunting tribute to the 851 young men who lost their lives on operations from the now-abandoned bomber base.
RAF Melbourne
Located near Seaton Ross in East Yorkshire, RAF Melbourne was first opened in 1940 as a relief landing ground for RAF Leeming (an airfield which is currently somewhat notorious in aviation circles as the place where retired Tornado GR4 bombers are being RTP’d).
(Image: Noel J. Ryan. RAF Melbourne’s restored control tower)
Melbourne’s initial contingent of No. 10 Squadron Whitleys used a grass landing strip until the airfield was closed for redevelopment – reopened with three concrete runways, three hangars and the usual assortment of Class-A dispersal pans.
(Image: Google Earth)
With its new infrastructure up and running, 10 Squadron, like many Yorkshire-based units, re-equipped with the Handley Page Halifax and soon launched raids deep into the heart of Nazi Germany.
(Image: IWM, public domain; above: 10 Squadron Halifax Mk.II at RAF Melbourne)
One of Melbourne’s most notable features was FIDO (Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation), which allowed returning aircraft to land safely in poor weather, aided by two rows of burning fuel down either side of the main runway. Of the hundreds of airfields hastily constructed across the UK during World War Two, less than 20 were equipped with FIDO, making RAF Melbourne a popular diversion for crews caught in bad weather.
(Image: IWM, public domain; 10 Sqn Halifax lands at Melbourne after bombing Turin, Italy)
But by May 1945, like several other 4 Group bomber stations, Melbourne passed to RAF Transport Command and closed permanently the following year. Much of the land returned to agriculture though the abandoned bomber runways, perimeter taxiway and a small number of hard standings remain relatively intact. The main east-west runway is in good enough condition to accommodate the farmer’s light aircraft and is home to York Raceway during summer months.
(Image: Noel J. Ryan)
Though their runways and hard standings were built to the same Class-A specification as permanent military bases, austerity airfields generally featured temporary buildings that were easy to assemble and later remove. Melbourne was no exception, and the base’s closure brought the dismantling of many of its wartime structures as the site slowly reverted to farmland.
(Image: Noel J. Ryan)
Among the few buildings that do survive are a B1 hangar and restored control tower, while the former airfield’s main gate is now the location of a poignant memorial to the crews of No. 10 Squadron, which lost 128 Halifax and their crews while operating from RAF Melbourne.
RAF Pocklington
Just five miles north-east of Melbourne by the York Road, between Market Weighton and Barmby Moor, lies the remnants of RAF Pocklington, another shortlived Bomber Command airfield in use from 1941 to 1946. Primarily a Wellington and Halifax base during its operational years, the facility began life as a grass airfield before being upgraded to cope with the demands of four-engine heavy bombers.
(Image: via Airfield Information Exchange)
The concrete runway layout at RAF Pocklington was relatively unique at the time of its construction, in that four runways were actually constructed as opposed to the usual three. The reason for this was that the original east-west runway was too close to the village of Barmby Moor and, for safety reasons, was abandoned in favour of a fourth runway at a slightly altered angle.
(Images: Google Street View)
No evidence of the original third runway exists today, though one of the secondary runways survives relatively intact, along with about half of the fourth strip. Three hangars were built on the main technical site to the south-west of the airfield, supplemented by two additional aircraft sheds across the A1079 York Road. Several survive today for farming and storage purposes, one of them a cavernous shell with its doors and windows removed.
(Image: RAF. ‘Bombing up’ a 405 Sqn Halifax at Pocklington, August 1942)
In 1941 No. 405 Squadron RCAF took up residency at the base, losing 20 Wellingtons on 84 bombing raids over an 11 month period. In April the following year the Canadian squadron converted onto Halifax and flew an additional 20 missions before moving to RAF Topcliffe. In turn, Topcliffe’s 102 Squadron RAF relocated to Pocklington and remained there until the end of the war.
(Image: IWM. A 102 Sqn crew deplane after a successful raid on Frankfurt, October 1943)
The day before World War Two officially came to a close in Europe, RAF Pocklington was transferred to Transport Command operating American-built B-24 Liberators, which were in turn were transferred to RAF Bassingbourn in Cambridgeshire.
(Image: Google Earth)
Pocklington’s surviving runways are now used by the Wolds Gliding Club, which also hosts reunions for former members of No. 102 Squadron. Various wartime buildings survive amid the modern industrial estate that has grown up around the abandoned technical site, while the routes through the base – including Wellington Road and Halifax Way – pay tribute the bomber crews stationed there 70 years ago.
(Image: Rich Cooper 2012)
As is the case with the vast majority of abandoned wartime airfields, the undergrowth around the site abounds with hidden history, in this case one of RAF Pocklington’s last surviving pillboxes.
RAF Rufforth
Another abandoned austerity airfield with runways that remain relatively intact, RAF Rufforth’s history extends beyond its wartime use as a heavy bomber base. After closing in 1954, the North Yorkshire airfield became a two-mile-long motor racing track known as Rufforth Circuit, which itself was abandoned in 1978. The site is now split between the York Gliding Centre on the west side of the field and an arable farm to the east.
(Image: Paul Field. Rufforth’s wartime control tower still stands)
During its wartime heyday, RAF Rufforth was home to the Halifax Mk.IIs of No. 158 Squadron from November 1942 until the unit moved to RAF Lissett in February 1943. Following construction of the airfield by John Laing & Son Ltd, Rufforth boasted three concrete runways, a B1 and two T2 hangars, and 36 hard standings for heavy bombers, some of which survive today to the southeast of the former base. Accommodation was provided for almost 1,800 personnel.
(Image: Google Earth)
Following the departure of 158 Squadron, RAF Rufforth became home to No. 1663 Heavy Conversion Unit (HCU) from 1943 to 1945. It was here, on the HCU, that would-be bomber pilots who had undergone basic training would learn to fly and operate the aircraft types they would take into combat.
(Image: RichTea, cc-sa-4.0)
At just three or four years old at the most (very young by today’s standards), these aircraft were often well-worn, battle-hardened veterans with multiple combat missions to their credit, relegated from front line service due to airframe fatigue or the advent of improved versions. This made training sorties hazardous in and of themselves, as ground crews worked hard to keep tired bombers serviceable for student pilots. (Below: Rufforth-based Halifax EB151, coded “OO-R”, of 1663 HCU is seen on a training flight over RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor.)
(Image: IWM, public domain)
A total of 18 aircraft were lost from RAF Rufforth – a relatively small number by comparison to many operational stations. Among them was Halifax DK192, flown by 22-year-old Flt Sgt Stanley Bright, which crashed on February 7, 1944 at Garrowby Hill in the Yorkshire Wolds. All seven aircrew and a passing track driver, Arthur Wood Kirkby, perished in the accident. A memorial to the men now stands in a layby near the crash site.
RAF Snaith
Situated just to the east of Great Heck, the remains of RAF Snaith have been bisected by the M62 motorway from Hull to Leeds and Manchester. But the ghostly ruins of the abandoned East Yorkshire airfield’s runways are still visible on Google Earth.
(Image: Ossington_2008. The neglected technical site of RAF Snaith)
Open for just five years from 1941 until 1946, RAF Snaith was home to a variety of aircraft during its short operational tenure, including the Vickers Wellingtons of No. 150 Squadron and 51 Squadron Halifax bombers. No. 578 Squadron RAF temporarily operated from Snaith in early 1944. Later that year No 6266 Servicing Echelon repaired damaged aircraft at the base and in 1945 Airspeed Oxfords used its concrete runways to practice beam approach landings.
(Images: Google Earth/Maps. RAF Snaith’s abandoned northern runway)
Despite its close proximity to the M62, the former technical site was never repurposed as an industrial estate to the same extent as other abandoned Yorkshire airfields. And, as such, a number of historic wartime buildings have survived demolition and appear much as they did 70 years ago – quiet and neglected reminders of more than 2,400 personnel once stationed there.
(Image: Michael Rothwell. J Type hangar and other rundown wartime buildings)
The former sergeants mess reportedly survives and all three hangars still stand, including one large J Type and two smaller T2 structures, the latter having been refurbished in recent times.
(Image: Michael Rothwell. Former Green Goddess fire engines stored at Snaith, 2012)
The abandoned airfield is also home to a number of withdrawn military Bedford RLHZ Self Propelled Pump fire engines, better known as Green Goddesses, parked on the grass alongside a host of other vintage vehicles.
RAF Topcliffe
With its five hangars and extensive complex of wartime buildings, RAF Topcliffe was a relatively late expansion scheme airfield (opened in 1940) and one of the few on this list of former 4 Group bomber bases. It’s also still in RAF use as a relief landing ground for the Tucano trainers of the Central Flying School based at nearby Linton-on-Ouse. As such, Topcliffe – now known as Alanbrooke Barracks – isn’t abandoned though the air force component of the base has no permanent personnel.
(Image: Google Earth)
When it opened, RAF Topcliffe was home to the Whitley bombers of 77 and 102 Squadrons, and later the Wellingtons and Halifaxes of 419 and 424 Squadrons (RCAF). Construction began in 1939 and featured a decoy site at Raskelf. But by early January 1943 the former 4 Group facility had been transferred to the charge of No. 6 Group RCAF.
(Image: IWM. 102 Sqn Whitley, T4162 ‘DY-S,’ “’Ceylon’, later shot down over Cologne)
Topcliffe served out the remainder of the war as a training base with several sub-stations at Wombleton, Dalton and Dishforth. The former two are now disused and, confusingly, RAF Dalton was built closer to Topcliffe village than RAF Topcliffe itself thanks to the Royal Air Force’s policy of naming its airfields after the nearest railway station. Because Dalton was built later, Topcliffe’s name had already been taken.
(Image: Bill Lovelock, cc-sa-4.0. RAF Topcliffe’s traditional military cemetery)
The former bomber base remained in use after the war and passed to the British Army in 1974. But elementary flying and gliding squadrons have persisted at Topcliffe over the years and, with few external updates to the wartime facilities, the base is an excellent representation of a Bomber Command expansion scheme airfield.
(Image: Google Earth)
Beyond the large hangars are traditional H-blocks (barracks), brick-built operations facilities, station headquarters, mess buildings, housing and more. RAF Topcliffe’s three concrete runways also remain intact, two of them still in use, and the familiar network of hard standings define the airfield’s eastern perimeter.
Honourable Mention – RAF Elvington (Yorkshire Air Museum)
The former Bomber Command airfield at Elvington in North Yorkshire, which was on the charge of 4 Group for several years during World War Two, deserves mention for a variety of reasons. During this time RAF Elvington, along with RAF Melbourne and RAF Pocklington were collectively known as No. 42 Base (due to the military practice of grouping a main station with several sub-bases). Resident unit No. 77 Squadron lost 88 Halifaxes with some 500 aircrew killed, missing or captured while operating from the airfield.
(Image: David Dixon, cc-sa-4.0. RAF Elvington’s Memorial Garden)
From 1944, when 77 Squadron relocated to RAF Full Sutton, Elvington became the home of Nos. 346 Guyenne and 347 Tunisie Squadrons, making it the only UK airfield used by the surviving bomber contingent of the Free French Forces. Almost half its aircrew were killed on operations from Elvington and a memorial to the Free French squadrons stands in the North Yorkshire village to this day.
(Image: Acombmate2114, cc-sa-3.0)
RAF Elvington remained in use after the war and was significantly upgraded by the US Air Force. Its main runway was lengthened to 3,000 metres to accommodate the heavy jet-age bombers of the Strategic Air Command. Rumour has it that said runway, which is technically long enough, was one of several emergency landing facilities for the Space Shuttle in Europe, though this claim is likely an urban legend.
(Image: Chris Robertshaw, cc-4.0)
More recent times have brought motor sport to Elvington’s massive runway, where several UK records have been broken over the years. But what is arguably the most important memorial to the personnel of No. 4 Group Bomber Command, and many other units also, can be found at Elvington’s Yorkshire Air Museum in the form of a fully restored Handley Page Halifax (above).
(Image: Paul Field. The wartime control tower)
Of the 6,176 Halifax bombers built during the Second World War, Elvington’s Halifax is one of only two (restored) surviving examples of the heavy bomber workhorse left in the world, the other in Canada. (Another Yorkshire Halifax,