Post-War Yorkshire Airfields

Post-War Yorkshire Airfields
Author: Barry Abraham
Publisher: Tempus Pub Limited
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2002-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780752423906

This is a pictorial history of the county's airfields. Military bases like Leconfield, Leeming, and Linton-on-Ouse are all covered, along with civil airfields such as Bagby, Breighton, and Beverley. Forgotten airfields like Carnaby, Catfoss, and Cottam are remembered too.

Bomber Command Airfields of Yorkshire

Bomber Command Airfields of Yorkshire
Author: Peter Jacobs
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2017-05-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473870054

As part of the Aviation Heritage Trail series, the accomplished military author and former RAF Officer Peter Jacobs takes us to the county of Yorkshire and to its many bomber airfields of the Second World War.From the opening day of hostilities, RAF Bomber Command took the offensive to Nazi Germany and played a leading role in the liberation of Europe. Yorkshires airfields played a key part throughout, initially as home to the Whitley squadrons of No 4 Group and then to the four-engine Halifax heavy bombers; indeed, Bomber Commands first night operation of the war was flown from one of the countys many bomber airfields. Then, as the bombing offensive gathered pace, Yorkshire welcomed the new all-Canadian No 6 (RCAF) Group, after which all of Bomber Commands major efforts during the hardest years of 1943/44 against the Ruhr, Hamburg and Berlin involved the Yorkshire-based squadrons.Most of Yorkshires wartime bomber airfields have long gone, but many have managed to retain the flying link with their wartime past. For example, the former RAF airfields of Finningley and Middleton St George, and the factory airfield of Yeadon, are now the sites of international airports, while Breighton, Burn, Full Sutton, Pocklington and Rufforth are still used for light aircraft flying or gliding and Elvington is home to the magnificent Yorkshire Air Museum.From airfields such as these came countless acts of personal courage and self-sacrifice, with two men being awarded the Victoria Cross, Britains highest award for gallantry. Stories of both men are included, as are tales of other personalities who brought these airfields to life. The stories of thirty-three airfields are told in total, with a brief history of each accompanied by details of how to find them and what remains of them today. Whatever your interest, be it aviation history or more local, the county of Yorkshire has rightly taken its place in the history of Bomber Command.

Yorkshire Airfields in the Second World War

Yorkshire Airfields in the Second World War
Author: Patrick Otter
Publisher: Countryside Books (GB)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1998
Genre: Air bases, British
ISBN: 9781853065422

A full account of the part played by Yorkshire's airfields during the Second World War. The history of each airfield is described with the squadrons and aircraft based at them and the main operations flown. The effects of the war on the daily lives of civilians, and the constant dangers from raids and night bombing are also detailed. Fully illustrated.

RAF and USAAF Airfields in the UK During the Second World War

RAF and USAAF Airfields in the UK During the Second World War
Author: Geoff Mills
Publisher: Fonthill Media
Total Pages: 1069
Release: 2022-03-31
Genre: History
ISBN:

Shortly after the end of the Second World War, the United Kingdom was described as one vast aircraft carrier anchored off the coast of Europe. During a seven year period 500 airfields were constructed to serve the needs first of the RAF and later the USAAF as they carried the war to German-occupied Europe. The airfields that were constructed took many different forms from training airfields and Advanced Landing Grounds to grass fighter airstrips and vast complexes used to accommodate heavy bombers. This book charts the history of each Second World War airfield in and around the UK providing a unique insight in to the construction, operational life and post-war history of each airfield. Alongside detailing the history of each airfield, this work comprehensively records the details of each unit that operated from airfields around the UK. The information provided in this meticulously researched book is supported by a wealth of 690 photographs providing an illustration into the life of each wartime station.

The Rough Guide to Yorkshire

The Rough Guide to Yorkshire
Author: Jos Simon
Publisher: Rough Guides UK
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2015-04-01
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 024121632X

The Rough Guide to Yorkshire was the first comprehensive guidebook to England's largest county. Detailed coverage of the ruggedly beautiful Dales and Moors, the magnificent North Sea coast and historic York rubs shoulders with penetrating insights into the multi-cultural cities of Leeds and Sheffield, the resurgent port of Hull, and the many industrial conurbations, market towns and rural villages in between. Take your pick of great stately homes to visit, of cathedrals and churches and monastic ruins, of steam railways and seaside resorts, of world-class historical and industrial museums, of hotels and places where you can consume good Yorkshire food and ale. Full-colour sections cover Yorkshire's varied landscape and world-famous writers and artists. Whether you're on holiday, on business, visiting family and friends or just passing through - even if you've lived in Yorkshire all your life - The Rough Guide to Yorkshire will ensure that you don't miss a thing. Make the most of your time on EarthTM with The Rough Guide to Yorkshire.

Hawker's Secret Cold War Airfield

Hawker's Secret Cold War Airfield
Author: Christopher Budgen
Publisher: Air World
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2020-11-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526771780

In 1948, Hawker Aircraft, faced with new jet projects that could not use their existing airfield at Langley, began the process of searching for alternative accommodation for their flight-testing requirements. It would, however, take three hard years before Dunsfold Aerodrome would be made available by a reluctant Air Ministry and the company was able to launch its first jet aircraft design – the Sea Hawk – into series production for the Royal Navy, closely followed by the superlative Hunter. Hawker Aircraft would go on to produce nearly 2,000 Hunters before other projects came to the fore. As Hunter production continued in the late 1950s, the company looked to its successor – the Mach 2 capable air superiority fighter designated P.1121, though this would stall before flight in the wake of serious national financial shortfalls. With the loss of its premier project, the company came upon a radical new engine proposal and schemed an aircraft around it capable of vertical take-off and landing. While many decried the proposal, claiming it would never amount to anything, the Harrier would go on to prove the nay-sayers wrong as it came into its own during the Falklands War. Following the Harrier, Hawker Siddeley stepped into the competitive trainer aircraft market with the Hawk for the RAF. After completion of the RAF requirement, Hawk was sold into air arms across the world, including the US Navy, an incredible achievement for a UK design. British Aerospace then brought forth the Harrier GR.5, the UK version of the US AV-8B, a completely upgraded and improved Harrier. One might expect that this prolific output was the result of some massive industrial plant in the Midlands rather than an isolated aerodrome tucked in the rural hinterland of south Surrey. Surrounded for most of its existence by secrecy, due to the nature of its work, Dunsfold has largely escaped the notice of the general public. This work shines a light on the remarkable work carried out there.

Shadows in the Sky

Shadows in the Sky
Author: Neil Arnold
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2012-02-29
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0752483374

Although the saying, 'Pigs might fly...' may bring a smile to one's lips, even stranger things have been reported as appearing in Britain's skies over the centuries. Eye-witnesses have testified that various terrifying and bizarre forms have appeared in the skies, from ghostly planes, phantom airships and UFOs, to reports of sky serpents, celestial dragons, flying jellyfish, rains of fish (or blood, or metal, or frogs...) – even reports of a griffin seen over London! It also considers reports of haunted aircraft hangars and airfields. Shadows in the Sky compiles hundreds of accounts from the spine-chilling to the downright bizarre, that'll keep your eyes fixed looking upwards!

Cold War Jet Combat

Cold War Jet Combat
Author: Martin W. Bowman
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2016-01-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1473874629

Recounted here are nine of the earliest wars involving jet aircraft. From the Korean War and beyond, it comprises a wealth of gripping insight. Many of the jet-to-jet dogfights that spanned these jet-powered wars are enlivened to thrilling effect, including those engaged in during the two Indo-Pak Wars of 1965 and 1971. Operation Musketeer (1956), mounted when RAF and French Air Force bombers and fighter-bombers attacked airfields and other targets in Egypt (after President Nasser had nationalised the Suez Canal), is also covered in this gripping narrative. The Falklands Campaign is also covered, as is the Vietnam War. In another chapter, QRA operations around the British Isles are put under the microscope as RAF Phantoms, Lightnings, Tornadoes and Typhoon Eurofighters on Quick Reaction Alert are described, patrolling international air space and maintaining a constant vigil as Soviet Bears continued to test NATO defences. All in all, this is a compelling, well-researched and highly informative study of a particularly dynamic era in aviation history.