West Raynham
WEST RAYNHAM: Military aerodrome, RAF initially later used by Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm
(1948 Books of HMS HORNBILL, later to books of HMS PEREGRINE) Later private airfield?
Note: Both these pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
What a great example of how quickly things can change. In 2015 everything about the airfield can be clearly seen - by 2018 most of the airfield covered in solar panels.
Military users: Inter-war years: RAF Bomber Command
18 & 101 Sqdns (Bristol Blenheims)
WW2: RAF Bomber Command 2 Group
18, 90, 101, 107, 114 & 139 Sqdns (Bristol Blenheims)
76 Sqdn (Handley Page Hampdens)
89, 98 & 180 Sqdns (North American B-25 Mitchells)
342 Sqdn (Douglas A-20 Bostons)
RAF Bomber Command 3 Group
101 Sqdn (Vickers Wellingtons)
100 (Special Duties) Group
141 & 239 Sqdns (Bristol Beaufighters, later de Havilland Mosquitos)
Special Duty Radar Development Unit (Beaufighters, Mosquitos?, Handley Page Halifaxs & Short Stirlings)
Post WW2: 1948 Naval Air Fighting Development Unit
787 NAS (Naval Air Sqadron)
Note: Before moving here 787 Squadron were at TANGMERE (SUSSEX) and were known for having a highly mixed fleet of aircraft. See 'Comments' for TANGMERE. Did this situation continue once 787 Sqdn moved here?
ROYAL AIR FORCE
DH Vampires and Gloster Meteors were also around in the early post-WW2 era
100 Sqdn (English Electric Canberras)
Central Fighter Establishment’s, Air Fighting Development Squadron (AFDS)
38 Group 1963: 1 & 54 Sqdns (Hawker Hunters)
1965: The Tripartite Kestrel Evaluation Squadron
Location: WSW of West Raynham, 5nm SW of Fakenham
Period of operation: 1939 to 1985 certainly? (But perhaps not continuously? Listed as about to reopen in 1972 for Canberra target facilities units) Some say closed for good in 1994
Runways: WW2: Originally grass NE/SW
1943: 04/22 1829x46 hard 10/28 1280x46 hard
NOTES: The work of Bomber Command 2 Group is very much unappreciated today, especially in the early years of WW2. Low level bombing raids using the Bristol Blenheim (often on shipping) were usually tantamount to suicidal missions and the losses were enormous. To quote from Martin W Bowman in his excellent book The Reich Intruders: "...between 12 March and 14 July (My note: 1941) that year 2 Group lost sixty-eight Blenheims and their crews. There were only twelve crews on a squadron and eight squadrons in the Group so it represented a very heavy loss rate. Losses to the Blenheim detachments in Malta during 1941-2 were almost 100 per cent."
SIX HUNTERS LOST IN ONE DAY
This event is apparently listed in The Guiness Book of Records. On the 8th February 1956 eight Hawker Hunters were tasked with carrying out combat training sorties at 45,000 feet. As the weather quickly deteriorated they were diverted to RAF MARHAM, but there was insufficent time to arrange spaced radar approaches. Of the eight only two landed safely. Four pilots ejected when they ran out of fuel and two crash-landed away from the airfield and sadly one of these pilots was killed.
It has to be asked of course - who exactly was in charge of this exercise? Clearly no back-up had been planned if, as it so often does in winter, a sudden deterioration of the weather occurs. It seems hard to believe that such a reckless and wasteful shambles could occur, but in those days pilots and aircraft were still regarded as being dispensible. A follow on no doubt of the mind-set developed during the Second World War?
THE AFDS
The work of the AFDS (Air Fighting Development Squadron) was of critical importance as it was they who often discovered serious faults in aircraft that had been declared fit for operational service even by the test pilots at BOSCOMBE DOWN for example. As Robert Jackson points out in his excellent book Britain’s Greatest Aircraft a couple of major defecencies were found by AFDS pilots with the early Hawker Hunters. (See also BOSCOMBE DOWN, WILTSHIRE)
Mr Jackson also states: “One problem with the Hunter F.1 that was never overcome was its lack of endurance, and this shortcoming was demonstrated when four F.1s from the Central Fighter Establishment at West Raynham took part in a series of annual air exercises. It was the first time the Hunter had been able to fly under simulated war conditions against fast, high-flying targets such as the English Electric Canberra, Boeing B-47 and North American B-45, and although it carried out successful interceptions on all of them, its restricted fuel resulted in none of the interceptions being made more than eighty miles from base.”
So, with this lesson learnt, can you guess where the RAF top brass decided to form the first Hunter F.1 operational squadron in July 1954? It would obviously have to be near or even on a significant target (or city etc) – as you might quite easily conclude? But no, it was RAF LEUCHARS in Scotland! This equally obviously means that the RAF top brass had concluded that, in the event of an all-out nuclear war, (considered very much a possibility at that time), the ever obliging Soviet air force would route their bombers nigh on overhead LEUCHARS before turning to attack RAF and USAF bomber bases mostly in South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and East Anglia, or even London. It would therefore appear that nobody in the RAF top brass could be bothered to go to the local Esso filling station and buy one of the excellent road maps available to discover where LEUCHARS actually was?
ON A MORE SERIOUS NOTE
On a more serious note, could it have been that the USAF top brass, faced with their main ally making decisions such as this, decided to move their bomber bases away from the eastern parts of England and put them much further westwards? I certainly would have done and my grounding in military tactics probably came out of a box of breakfast cereals. Others, far more knowledgable, explain that for the Americans it made far more sense to put the RAF in the 'front-line' as our 'V' bombers could far out-perform the USAF types.
THE HAWKER HUNTER
Hawker did of course address this obvious deficiency and the later Hunter F.4 and F.5 was far superior and the type became a classic earning many export sales around the world. Aesthetically it was a lovely design and for youngsters of my generation the displays given by the No.111 Squadron display team, the ‘Black Arrows’ were sensational. But, the association of WEST RAYNHAM with the Hawker Hunter didn’t end here. As Robert Jackson reports the ground attack Hunter FGA.9s of No.1 and 54 Squadrons of 38 Group arrived here in August 1963: “Throughout the 1960s, the West Raynham Wing continued to provide tactical support for No.38 Group, taking part in frequent overseas deployments to Scandinavia and the Middle East. In July 1969, No.1 Squadron moved to Wittering to begin conversion to the V/STOL Harrier; No.54 Squadron disbanded on 1 September that year, its remaining Hunters and pilots becoming the United Kingdom echelon of No.4 Squadron, which was also earmarked for conversion to the Harrier.”
For younger readers of this 'Guide' I suppose it might be worth pointing out that the Harrier was a development of the last major Hawker design destined for front-line combat use. A tradition of providing such aircraft dating back to WW1 and the Sopwith aircraft.
THE KESTREL
But, consider this: Whilst the above was going on with Hunters, in 1965 the Kestrel, the forerunner of the Harrier, was being evaluated here. To quote once again from Robert Jackson: “The Tripartite Kestrel Evaluation Squadron was formed at RAF West Raynham with pilots and ground crew from the RAF, the US Air Force, the US Navy, the US Army and the Luftwaffe. During 1965, some 650 flying hours of testing were conducted in England, to evaluate the practical merits of jet V/STOL, developing operational concepts where the aircraft was used in the field and away from conventional air bases. These trials were a considerable success.”
So much so that: “In 1966, after the evaluation programme, six Kestrels were shipped to the United States, where they were used for US tri-service and individual service trials on land and at sea under the designation XV-6A. These made a particular impression upon the US Marine Corps, who became seriously interested in the XV-6A as a land and ship-based tactical aircraft. At Langley, NASA used the XV-6A for flight research into the early 1970s.”
A CONTENTIOUS ISSUE?
Can anybody explain why, for at least the last three decades, more Harriers weren't built - let alone developed? It would appear that as wars have developed in so many parts of the world, the type is arguably even more useful than it was during the 'Cold War'.
A PRIVATE STRIP
In the 1980s a private strip was recorded as being operated in/near West Raynham situated roughly Inm NW of the A1065. However no mention I have found is of it being on the RAF aerodrome site which apparently closed in 1985. So - was it another location nearby?
Mike Clark
This comment was written on: 2018-06-28 10:37:45Don't forgat 85 Sqn also operated the Canberra at WR in the mid-70's. There was some Sqn rivalry between 85 v 100 – in 1975 the future was only 1 target facilities sqn 85 or 100… - 85 “stole” an aircraft from 100sqn hangar and hid it round the side of their hangar; unfortunately, it was serviceable and was slated to fly a mission that day… much senior officer grumbling - 100 retaliated well – WR was going through a hangar refurb at that time and 100 ground crew painted a huge (huge) Skull & Crossbones on the 100 sqn hangar door. It could be seen for many miles especially by 85 sqn crews while on approach to land - 85 then painted their sqn badge on the Javelin gate-guard – again much grumbling. However, to be fair, they had been a Javelin equipped squadron back in the day. - 85 were disbanded (to reform as a Bloodhound II missile sqn) and 100 became the sole target facilities Sqn (also absorbing 7 Sqn, the Target-towing Canberra sqn based at St Mawgan, in 1982)
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