RAF Dalton

RAF Dalton was a Bomber Command airfield near the village of Dalton in North Yorkshire, opened late in 1941 as a satellite of the nearby parent station at Topcliffe. Its first operational occupant was No. 102 Squadron, which flew the twin-engined Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and later the four-engined Handley Page Halifax from the field while it sat under No. 4 Group.

From 1943 the station passed to No. 6 Group, the Royal Canadian Air Force formation within Bomber Command, and became home to a succession of RCAF Wellington squadrons, among them Nos. 420, 424 and 428. As the bomber war moved towards heavy four-engined types, Dalton’s role shifted increasingly to training: heavy conversion units such as Nos. 1652 and 1666 HCU prepared crews on Halifaxes, and specialist gunnery and defence-training flights operated lighter aircraft including the Miles Martinet, Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. From late 1944 it served under No. 7 (Training) Group.

The airfield was wound down after the war, with flying ending in the mid-1940s and the site retained briefly on care and maintenance before disposal. Much of the former aerodrome has since been given over to farmland and industry; a large steelwork engineering facility now occupies part of the ground, where in 2011 the spire of London’s Shard skyscraper was test-assembled.