RAF Dallachy

RAF Dallachy lay east of Elgin in Moray, north-east Scotland, near the villages of Upper and Nether Dallachy on the southern shore of the Moray Firth. The airfield came into use in 1943, initially serving a training role: it began as a relief landing ground and hosted No. 14 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit, whose Airspeed Oxfords flew from the field during 1943.

From the autumn of 1944 the station took on a far more aggressive purpose under RAF Coastal Command’s No. 18 Group. It became home to the Dallachy Strike Wing, a multinational anti-shipping force whose squadrons drew on the air arms of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, among them Nos. 144, 404 (RCAF), 455 (RAAF) and 489 (RNZAF). Flying Bristol Beaufighters, with Mosquitoes also in use, the wing attacked German shipping along the heavily defended Norwegian coast.

These operations carried a heavy price. On 9 February 1945, a strike against German vessels sheltering in the Førde Fjord met fierce flak and fighter opposition; nine Beaufighters and an escorting Mustang were lost, and the day became remembered as “Black Friday”, the costliest single sortie suffered by any Coastal Command strike wing.

Flying ceased in 1945 and the airfield passed to military training use before closing. A memorial at Bogmoor commemorates the aircrew who flew from Dallachy, while the site itself has since reverted to farmland and industrial uses, with the derelict control tower and traces of the runways still visible.