RAF Portreath

50.2710, -5.2635 — view on OpenStreetMap ↗

About

RAF Portreath opened on the north Cornwall coast in 1941 as a Fighter Command station and quickly took on a second role as a staging post for aircraft being ferried out to North Africa and the Middle East; it later served Coastal Command. After the war the site became the Nancekuke chemical-defence establishment, where nerve agents were produced and tested. It reopened as an RAF radar station in 1980 and continues today as a Remote Radar Head watching the south-western approaches.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Portreath — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust and RAF Portreath — 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

A Handley Page Halifax A.V Series 1 (Special) glider tug (EB139, "NN"), of No. 295 Squadron RAF based at Holmesley South, getting airborne from Portreath, Cornwall (UK), towing Airspeed Horsa glider LG723 to Tunisia, during "Operation Beggar": the transit of Halifax/Horsa glider combinations from the United Kingdom to North Africa by units of No. 38 Wing RAF, in preparation for the invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky).
ⓘ licence & creditNo. 295 Squadron RAF / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Halifax_and_Horsa_take_off_from_Cornwall_for_North_Africa_1943.jpgView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditDavid Medcalf / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gullyn_Rock_seen_down_the_gully_above_the_beach_-_geograph.org.uk_-_7718814.jpgView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditPhilip Halling / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Defences_around_Portreath_Airfield_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2005836.jpgView source & full licence →
ⓘ licence & creditPhilip Halling / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buildings_on_Portreath_Airfield_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1838990.jpgView source & full licence →
Above Sally's Bottom. To the left, a steep cliff and to the right the fence guarding the airfield. The coast path runs along the narrow strip of land in between. The old buildings beside the fence look like they date from World War II when the airfield was first built as RAF Portreath.
ⓘ licence & creditTony Atkin / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Above_Sally%27s_Bottom_-_geograph.org.uk_-_187185.jpgView source & full licence →

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