RAF Hutton Cranswick
About
RAF Hutton Cranswick, south of Driffield in the East Riding of Yorkshire, opened late in 1941 as a Fighter Command station in No. 12 Group and — unusually for the time — was given concrete runways from the outset. Over the following years a long succession of fighter squadrons rotated through it, among them British, Polish, Czech, Canadian and Australian units flying Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Typhoons, while other units handled target-towing, air-sea rescue and tactical reconnaissance. Its work was chiefly the air defence of north-east England and the working-up of squadrons before they moved to busier sectors. The station closed in 1946; the land has returned to farming and light industry, the control tower is now a private house, and the battle headquarters bunker still stands in a field.
Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Hutton Cranswick — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust and RAF Hutton Cranswick — Wikipedia. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.
Photographs
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Peter Church / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Landing_Strip_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1044408.jpgView source & full licence →ⓘ licence & credit
Ian S / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Former_RAF_Hutton_Cranswick_(geograph_5948425).jpgView source & full licence →ⓘ licence & credit
Ian S / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Former_RAF_Hutton_Cranswick_(geograph_5948415).jpgView source & full licence →ⓘ licence & credit
Ian S / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Former_RAF_Hutton_Cranswick_(geograph_5948200).jpgView source & full licence →ⓘ licence & credit
Ian S / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Former_RAF_Hutton_Cranswick_(geograph_5948197).jpgView source & full licence →No people are cross-referenced to this airfield yet. Links appear as squadron postings, crews and service records are added.