RAF Catfoss
RAF Catfoss
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||||||
| Airport type | Military | ||||||||||||||||||
| Owner | Ministry of Defence | ||||||||||||||||||
| Operator | Royal Air Force | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Brandesburton | ||||||||||||||||||
| Built | 1930 | ||||||||||||||||||
| In use | 1932–1945 1958–1963 |
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| Elevation AMSL | 36 ft / 11 m | ||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 53°55′15″N 000°16′30″W / 53.92083°N 0.27500°WCoordinates: 53°55′15″N 000°16′30″W / 53.92083°N 0.27500°W | ||||||||||||||||||
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 RAF Catfoss
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RAF Catfoss was a Royal Air Force station during the Second World War. It was located 4.0 miles (6.4 km) west of Hornsea, Yorkshire, England and 8.0 miles (12.9 km) north east of Leconfield, Yorkshire, with the nearest village being Brandesburton.
The airfield was opened in 1932 for an Armament Training Camp. A small number of fighters were posted there at the start of the Second World War, before the airfield was rebuilt as a bomber station. It closed in November 1945. The site was re-opened in 1959 as the site for the PGM-17 Thor ballistic missile. It closed again in 1963.
Catfoss was originally used as a grass airfield in the 1930s. On 1 January 1932, No. 1 Armament Training Camp was formed there, with a wide variety of aircraft that used the nearby gunnery ranges to teach air-to-air and air-to-ground gunnery, and bombing. In 1935 a number of Handley Page Heyford heavy bombers were based at Catfoss with 97 Squadron. The armament camp continued to be busy into the late 1930s, being renamed No. 1 Armament Training Station. With the approach of war, it was decided that the east coast was too vulnerable to attack for training and the unit moved out during 1939.
A detachment of Supermarine Spitfires of No. 616 Squadron RAF from RAF Leconfield arrived for air defence in 1940. The airfield was expanded and re-opened in August that year. From July to October, No. 16 Operational Training Unit RAF (OTU) used the station and nearby ranges for night-bomber training. The airfield was then transferred to Coastal Command and No. 2 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit RAF was formed on 1 October 1940 to train crews on the command's twin-engined fighter and strike aircraft. The airfield became very busy with different aircraft types and training courses and three concrete runways were built at the end of 1942.
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