RAF Sutton Bridge

RAF Sutton Bridge
IATA: none ICAO: none
Summary
Airport type	Royal Air Force station
Owner	Air Ministry
Operator	Royal Air Force
Location	Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire, England
Built	1926 (1926)
In use	1926-1958 (1958)
Elevation AMSL	10 ft / 3 m
Coordinates	52°45′35.65″N 0°11′41.55″E / 52.7599028°N 0.1948750°E / 52.7599028; 0.1948750Coordinates: 52°45′35.65″N 0°11′41.55″E / 52.7599028°N 0.1948750°E / 52.7599028; 0.1948750
Map
RAF Sutton Bridge Location in Lincolnshire
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 08/26 3,450 1,052 PSP (Pierced steel planking) - Marsden Matting 13/31 2,400 732 Sommerfeld Tracking NE/SW 4,200 1,280 Grass
Established: 1 September 1926 Closed: 1958

Royal Air Force Sutton Bridge or more simply RAF Sutton Bridge is a former Royal Air Force station found next to the village of Sutton Bridge in the south-east of Lincolnshire. The airfield was to the south of the current A17, and east of the River Nene, next to Walpole in Norfolk.

On 1 September 1926 the Air Ministry established R.A.F. Practice Camp Sutton Bridge on 289 acres of acquired agricultural land next to Sutton Bridge village from Guy's Hospital Agricultural Estates. It was the responsibility of the first camp commandant, Flight Lieutenant A. Mackenzie, to establish the base camp and its flying ground, to set up, operate and maintain ground and towed targets for practice machine gun firing and bomb dropping by the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm biplane squadrons. Its principal gunnery range was to be located along the coastal marshland on The Wash in close vicinity to the small village of Gedney Drove End (see Holbeach Marsh Range). Although an RAF aircraft gunnery practice camp from 1926, from 1 January 1932 it was officially renamed to No. 3 Armament Training Camp Sutton Bridge, subsequently No. 3 Armament Training Station Sutton Bridge, and later simply RAF Sutton Bridge.

In October 1939 No. 266 Squadron RAF reformed at RAF Sutton Bridge as a fighter squadron and from January 1940 operated the Supermarine Spitfire, becoming the RAF’s second Spitfire fighter Squadron after RAF Duxford’s No. 19 Squadron RAF.

In March 1940 No. 6 Operational Training Unit (OTU) was formed and arrived at RAF Sutton Bridge for training fighter pilots, commanded by Squadron Leader Philip Campbell Pinkham, with a complement of Hawker Hurricane, Miles Mentor and North American Harvard aircraft, including one Gloster Gladiator, its first pilot pool came from No. 11 Group RAF transferring to No. 12 Group RAF of Fighter Command. No. 6 OTU RAF was re-numbered in November 1940 to No. 56 OTU RAF and remained at RAF Sutton Bridge until relocating in March 1942 to RAF Tealing.