RAF Wick

58.4589, -3.0931 — view on OpenStreetMap ↗
Photograph of RAF Wick
ⓘ licence & creditAlan Reid / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terminal,_Wick_John_OGroats_Airport_(geograph_5532275).jpg

About

RAF Wick opened in Caithness, at the far north-east of Scotland, in 1939 and was a busy Coastal Command and fighter station guarding the northern seas. Its squadrons flew Lockheed Hudsons, Bristol Beauforts and Beaufighters on anti-shipping and reconnaissance work — it was from Wick that a photographic-reconnaissance Spitfire set off in May 1941 in the search that helped locate the battleship Bismarck. The RAF left after the war, and the field serves the far north today as Wick Airport.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including RAF Wick — Wikipedia and Wick — Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.

Photographs

Royal Air Force Coastal Command, 1939-1945. A sergeant bomb-aimer and photographer on board a Lockheed Hudson Mark I of No. 269 Squadron RAF at Wick, Caithness, demonstrates the use of a hand-held Type F.24 aerial camera from a port side window.
ⓘ licence & creditDaventry B J (Mr), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lockheed_Hudson_-_Royal_Air_Force_Coastal_Command,_1939-1945._CH58.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Coastal Command Hudson III T9465, 'Spirit of Lockheed-Vega Employees', was famous as a 'presentation' aircraft, purchased for the RAF from funds raised by workers at the Lockheed-Vega Corporation, at Burbank in California. This image show the aircraft being prepared for a sortie at Wick in May 1941, not long after being delivered to No 269 Squadron. A clutch of 250lb bombs are being hauled into the bomb bay.
ⓘ licence & creditHQ Coastal Command, Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lockheed_Hudson_-_Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Coastal_Command_CH2648.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Fighter Command, 1939-1945. Fighter pilots of No. 111 Squadron RAF relax with a pet dog outside outside their caravan at a dispersal at Wick, Caithness, alongside a Hawker Hurricane Mark I of the Squadron.
ⓘ licence & creditDaventry B J (Mr), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Ferriss,_1940_(Cropped_from_CH106).jpgView source & full licence →
Flight Lieutenant Caesar Hull of No. 43 Squadron RAF at Wick, Caithness, at the time he had shot down three enemy aircraft. Hull became the commanding officer of the Squadron in September 1940 and was killed in action on 7 September having shot down at least 10 enemy aircraft. {{extracted from|Royal Air Force Fighter Command, 1939-1945. CH89.jpg
ⓘ licence & creditDaventry B J (Mr), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caesar_Hull_1940.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Coastal Command Torpedo-armed Beaufort IIAs of No 42 Squadron at Wick, April 1942.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Woodbine G (Mr) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bristol_Beaufort_-_Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Coastal_Command_CH17806.jpgView source & full licence →

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