RAF Syerston

United Kingdom / England / Southwell /
 RAF - Royal Air Force, training center
RAF Syerston (IATA: N/A, ICAO: EGXY) is a Royal Air Force station near Newark, Nottinghamshire. It was used as a bomber base during World War II.Syerston became under care and maintenance from 1971 until it reopened in January 1975 for gliding operations.

Syerston is currently a satellite airfield of RAF Cranwell and home to the RAF Central Gliding School, part of 1 Elementary Flying Training School, and the Central Flying School (Gliding Examiners). Syerston is also used for part of Initial Officer Training completed by the Officer and Aircrew Cadet Training Unit.

Also based at Syerston are 643 and 644 Volunteer Gliding Squadrons, making it a busy station with flying operations seven days a week.

www.raf.mod.uk/organisation/stations.cfm?selectStation=...
www.centralglidingschool.org.uk/

WWII History

Syerston was built as part of the bomber expansion in the late thirties, but did not open until December 1940. The first aircraft were Vickers Wellingtons crewed by Polish flyers. In July 1941 they were replaced by members of the Royal Canadian Air Force flying Handley-Page Hampdens. In 1942 several squadrons of Avro Lancaster aircraft arrived. In 1943 Bill Reid won a Victoria Cross on a mission flown from Syerston.

In November 1943 the operational squadrons departed, and the station was used for bomber crew training. From November to July 1944 there was also a Bombing and Gunnery Defence Training Flight in attendance with several Wellingtons, Spitfires, Hurricanes, plus a few Martinet tug aircraft, all employed in brushing up the skills of air gunners on air to air exercises. Syerston was taken over by Flying Training Command on the 1 February 1948. The flying training school was disbanded in 1970, and the station lay
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Syerston
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   53°1'23"N   -0°54'45"E

Comments

  • It is not a good idea to copy whole loads of chunks from the Wikipedia link, instead I have cut short of this article. :-)
This article was last modified 7 years ago