RAF Hutton Cranswick was a World War II fighter airfield, situated to the south of Driffield and immediately south west of the village of Hutton Cranswick in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, opened in 1942 and closed in 1946.
History[]
RAF Hutton Cranswick opened in January 1942 as a fighter airfield within 12 Group. Unusually for the time its three runways were concrete "from new", many airfields (particularly fighter airfields) were initially built with grass runways which were later upgraded to concrete.[1]
Many squadrons rotated through the airfield including 610, 19, 308 (City of Kraków), 316 (City of Warsaw), 195, 306 (City of Torun), 302 (City of Poznan), 315 (City of Deblin), 234, 168 and 170. From December 1943 the Anti Aircraft Co-operation 291 squadron was formed at the airfield for target towing and similar uses.[1]
Whilst in use by 291 other fighter squadrons continued to rotate through including 401, 403, 412, 441, 442, 443 (all flying Spitfires) and 439 using Typhoons. The final unit to operate from Hutton Cranswick was 124 Squadron using Spitfire IXs.[1]
Hutton Cranswick was used by No 16 Armament Practice Camp for about a year until it finally closed in mid 1946.[1]
References[]
Coordinates: 53°56′57″N 0°27′43″W / 53.94906°N 0.46185°W
The original article can be found at RAF Hutton Cranswick and the edit history here.