RAF Cosford

RAF Cosford
Near Cosford, Shropshire in England
EGWC Shown within Shropshire
Coordinates	52°38′42″N 002°15′20″W / 52.64500°N 2.25556°W / 52.64500; -2.25556Coordinates: 52°38′42″N 002°15′20″W / 52.64500°N 2.25556°W / 52.64500; -2.25556
Type	Royal Air Force station
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	Royal Air Force
Open to the public	Access to RAF Museum only
Website	www.raf.mod.uk/rafcosford/ RAF Museum – Cosford
Site history
Built	1938 (1938)
In use	1938–present
Airfield information
Identifiers	ICAO: EGWC
Elevation	83 metres (272 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 06/24 1,186 metres (3,891 ft) Asphalt

Royal Air Force Cosford or RAF Cosford (formerly DCAE Cosford) (ICAO: EGWC) is a Royal Air Force station in Cosford, Shropshire, just to the northwest of Wolverhampton and next to Albrighton.

RAF Cosford opened in 1938 as a joint aircraft maintenance, storage and technical training unit. It was originally intended to be opened as RAF Donington (the parish in which it is located) but to avoid confusion with the nearby army camp at Donnington it was named after Cosford Grange House which was located at the south western edge of the airfield. It has remained mainly a training unit to this day. The Fulton Mess barrack block was constructed just before the Second World War as the largest single building barrack block in the UK. It is now used for technical training.

No 2 School of Technical Training was formed in 1938 and during the Second World War it trained 70,000 airmen in engine, airframe and armament trades. No 2 School of Technical Training was subsumed into the No 1 School of Technical Training when it moved to Cosford from RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire.

During the Second World War, No 12 Ferry Pool of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was formed at Cosford, which involved delivering Spitfires from the base and returning with bombers or fighters for No 9 Maintenance Unit. These ferrying flights were often crewed by women pilots and Amy Johnson came to Cosford on more than one occasion.

The airfield was originally a grassed strip. After a particularly bad winter in 1940/1941 when the effect of landing heavy aircraft such as Wellingtons and Ansons turned the strip into a mudbath, a paved runway was constructed that was 1,146 yards (1,048 m) long and 46 yards (42 m) wide.

A substantial Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service hospital was established at RAF Cosford, the most westerly such RAF hospital in the UK. Constructed of wooden spurred hutting the hospital was the main centre for repatriated Prisoners of War with over 13,000 processed by 1948. Many of those from the Far East had to remain for long term treatment. The hospital was also open to the general public as well as servicemen and women, but it was closed on 31 December 1977 and demolished in 1980. For the three summers between 1978 and 1980 the empty hospital formed the venue for annual training camps for the Royal Observer Corps, with wards and theatres converted into barrack accommodation and training rooms.