Dishforth
DISHFORTH: Military aerodrome (also known as RIPON)
Note: These three pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
Clearly nothing much has changed.
Military users: Pre 1940: RAF Bomber Command 4 Group
10 Sqdn (Handley Page Heyfords later Armstrong-Whitworth Whitleys)*
WW2: RAF Bomber Command 4 Group later 7 Group
10 Sqdn (Whitleys later Handley Page Halifaxs)
51, 77 & 78 Sqdns (Whitleys)
4 Group 425 & 426 (RCAF) Sqdns (Vickers Wellingtons)
1664 HCU (Handley Page Halifaxs)
Post 1945: RAF Transport Command 24 OCU
1949: 241 OCU (Handley Page Hastings)
Army 9 Regiment AAC
656, 657 & 664 Sqdns (Westland Gazelles & Westland Lynx)
672 & 673 Sqdns (Lynx)
3 FLT (Westland Gazelles)
2000: Operated by MoD by Royal Air Force and Army
Gliding: With aero-tows it seems (?), gliding certainly listed in 1975 and in 1990
1981: Cleveland Gliding Club (RAFGSA)
Also in 1981: Hambletons Gliding Club
Location: East of A1 trunk road, 4nm E of Ripon
Period of operation: 1936 to present day?
Note: This map is reproduced with the kind permission of Pooleys Flight Equipment Ltd. Copyright Robert Pooley 2014.
Runways: WW2: 04/22 1280x46 hard 10/28 1280x46 hard
16/34 1823x46 hard
1990/2000: 16/34 1858x46 hard 10/28 1362x46 hard
NOTES: In March 1937 No.10 squadron took delivery of the first Armstrong Whitworth Whitley bombers superseding their Handley Page Heyford biplane bombers. Prior to this the squadron, when based at UPPER HEYFORD and BOSCOMBE DOWN had also flown H.P. Hinaidis and Hyderbads, plus Vickers Virginias. Indeed, some claim that 10 Sqdn was the first to convert to the Whitley.
There is a strong temptation today, which I have certainly felt, to dimiss the mainstay British bombers, the Hampden, Wellington and Whitley as being utterly ineffectual. But this is yet another myth - they actually compared rather well with the German bombers of the time. Anybody who suffered in the Blitz would have been very upset if you told them, at the time, that the Luftwaffe bombers were actually rather ineffectual.
It is of course notoriously difficult to compare different types, especially when they were built in many variants but here below is a basic table regarding early variants of each type. I’ll bet this will get the experts squabbling but only a very broad point is being made.
RAF Types 1st flight Max. speed Range Bomb load
Armstrong-Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley 17.03.36 230mph 1,430mls 7,000lbs
Handley Page HP.52 Hampden 21.06.36 265mph 1,095mls 4,000lbs
Vickers Wellington 15.06.36 235mph 2,550mls 4500lbs
Luftwaffe Types
Dornier Do.17 23.11.34 245mph 1,000mls 2200lbs
Heinkel He.111 24.02.35 273mph 1,429mls 4400lbs
Junkers Ju.88 21.12.36 317mph 1,429mls 2000lbs
On both sides these medium bombers shared similar shortcomings, their defensive armament was hardly worth carrying. A situation that carried on throughout bomber types during WW2. Even a turret with four .303 machine guns was no equal for a cannon equipped fighter.
Quite why some tabulaters of aircraft performance invariably only quote “Max Speed’ for most aircraft types escapes me. In most cases the cruise speed giving maximum range is far more important and indeed many, quite rightly, quote both.
A GENERAL OVERVIEW
For this I can highly recommend reading 'Bomber Command' by Max Hastings. I have not found a better account, and this book was first published in 1979, at a time when he could interview many people with first hand experience of WW2. What emerges from his account is how hopeless Bomber Command was in every respect, despite it being regarded as the 'premier' Command prior to WW2. At least by those who served in it.
"Before 1939 crews simply did not fly in bad weather. Cross-country flying exercises over England taught them nothing about the difficulties of navigating at night for long distances over blacked-out countries, for the grew accustomed to following railway lines and city lights. In the last two years before the war, 478 Bomber Command crews force-landed on exercises in England, having lost their way."
This seems to defy belief at the degree of utter incompetence. Who were these idiots? Where did they come from? And what kind of utterly inept training was in force. Having flown in Europe and other countries, as a private pilot I can testify that England is a delight to fly around, with major navigational features left, right and centre everywhere. Those navigators did not have hardly any of the problems of controlled and restricted airspace we have today, which creates most of our problems.
A TYPICAL RAF BOMBER BASE
During WW2 there were hard-standings for 36 heavy bombers, a typical arrangement for an airfield with one squadron being based with three flights of twelve aircraft.
THE BUTT REPORT
Almost from the beginning of WW2 photo-reconnaissance pictures were showing that most bombing raids were failing to hit the target, despite highly enthusiastic reports from the aircrews that they had indeed hit their target. I shall quote from Spies in the Sky, an excellent book by Taylor Downing about photo-reconnaissance, especially during WW2, after Winston Churchill had ordered an investigation. "....., David Butt from the War Cabinet secretariat analysed more than six hundred aerial photographs taken in June and July 1941. Most were night photographs taken from th bombers during raids. The Butt Report contained a full analysis of what these photographs recorded......" The news was not good for RAF Bomber Command.
"Its main conclusion was that only about one in three bombers who claimed to have attacked a target succeeded in dropping their bombs within five miles of it. On a full moon this improved to about two in three, a disappointing success rate in itself. But the report found that on nights when there was no moonlight, only one aircraft in fifteen managed to drop its bombs within five miles of the target." It must of course be borne in mind that the Luftwaffe weren't performing much better at night, except that instead they were mostly aiming for entire cities, which are difficult not to hit.
PERSONAL MEMORIES
I well remember seeing RAF Jet Provost trainers regularly using this aerodrome but when was that?
DISHFORTH was never a principal Cold War base of course, but having driven past it for so many years, mainly on weekdays, I was delighted to discover that in 1977 several light aircraft were based here - having never seen any sign of any of them! The first is the Luton Minor G-ATCJ, (was that airworthy?), plus the Scheibe SF-25B Falke of the RAF Gliding & Soaring Association. On the other hand the privately owned DHC.1 Chipmunks G-BAVH and G-BCSA were based here along with another Chipmunk G-BCCX belonging to the RAFGSA - possibly employed performing aero-tow duties for gliders?
Robert Thompson
This comment was written on: 2019-02-06 17:07:06Thank you so much for creating this excellent information page. My farther supplied the newspapers for RAF Dishforth both station staff and the married quarters,from 1954 until the early 80's....and I used to help him. During that time alongside the HP Hastings I remember the twin engine Valletta being stationed there too. During the 50's they used to have an annual Air Display and these aircraft would race each other
We'd love to hear from you, so please scroll down to leave a comment!
Leave a comment ...
Copyright (c) UK Airfield Guide
