RAF Hutton Cranswick

Royal Air Force Hutton Cranswick or more simply RAF Hutton Cranswick is a former Royal Air Force station located to the south of Driffield and immediately south west of the village of Hutton Cranswick in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, opened in 1942 and closed in 1946.

History

RAF Hutton Cranswick opened in January 1942 as a fighter airfield within No. 12 Group RAF. Unusually for the time its three runways were concrete "from new", many airfields (particularly fighter airfields) were initially built with grass runways which were later upgraded to concrete.^[1]

Many squadrons rotated through the airfield including 610, 19, 308 (City of Kraków), 316 (City of Warsaw), 195, 306 (City of Torun), 302 (City of Poznan), 315 (City of Deblin), 234, 168 and No. 170 Squadron RAF. From December 1943 the Anti Aircraft Co-operation 291 Squadron was formed at the airfield for target towing and similar uses.^[1]

Whilst in use by 291 other fighter squadrons continued to rotate through including 401, 403, 412, 441, 442, 443 (all flying Supermarine Spitfires) and 439 using Hawker Typhoons. The final unit to operate from Hutton Cranswick was No. 124 Squadron RAF using Spitfire IXs.^[1]

Hutton Cranswick was used by No. 16 Armament Practice Camp RAF for about a year until it finally closed in mid 1946.^[1]

Units

A number of other units also used the airfield:^[2]

No. 2 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit RAF
No. 2 Tactical Exercise Unit RAF
No. 4 Aircraft Delivery Flight RAF
No. 6 Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit RAF
No. 8 Fighter Command Servicing Unit RAF
No. 13 Fighter Command Servicing Unit RAF
No. 123 Airfield
885 Naval Air Squadron
No. 1489 (Fighter) Gunnery Flight RAF
No. 1495 (Target Towing) Flight RAF
No. 1613 (Anti-Aircraft Co-operation) Flight RAF
No. 1629 (Anti-Aircraft Co-operation) Flight RAF
No. 1634 (Anti-Aircraft Co-operation) Flight RAF
No. 2731 Squadron RAF Regiment
No. 2739 Squadron RAF Regiment
No. 2805 Squadron RAF Regiment

Current use

The site is now used for farming and light industrial work.^[2]

References

1 2 3 4 Patrick Otter, Yorkshire Airfields of WWII (pp48-50)
1 2 "Hutton Cranswick". Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust. Retrieved 8 February 2016.

Coordinates: 53°56′57″N 0°27′43″W / 53.94906°N 0.46185°W / 53.94906; -0.46185

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