RAF Stornoway

RAF Stornoway
RAF Stornoway
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides in Scotland
	An aerial view of the airfield at Stornoway
	RAF Stornoway Location in Outer Hebrides RAF Stornoway RAF Stornoway (the United Kingdom)
Coordinates	58°13′07″N 006°19′53″W / 58.21861°N 6.33139°W
Type	Royal Air Force flying station
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	Royal Air Force
Condition	Closed
Site history
Built	1940
In use	1 April 1941 – 1945; 1982 – 31 March 1998
Fate	Transferred to civilian use and became Stornoway Airport
Battles/wars	European theatre of World War II; Cold War
Airfield information
Identifiers	IATA: SYY, ICAO: EGPO, WMO: 03026
Elevation	8 metres (26 ft) AMSL
Runways
18/36	2,315 metres (7,595 ft) Asphalt
06/24	1,000 metres (3,281 ft) Asphalt

Royal Air Force Stornoway or more simply RAF Stornoway^[2] is a former Royal Air Force station near the burgh of Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, in the Western Isles of Scotland. No. 112 Signals Unit Stornoway was also part of the RAF's activity on the airfield.

History

Beginnings

The station was created in the Second World War on the site of a former golf course. It was home to various RAF Coastal Command squadrons patrolling the North Atlantic for U-boats. In late 1940, a detachment of Avro Anson aircraft arrived from No. 612 (County of Aberdeen) Squadron RAF, Royal Auxiliary Air Force. The Ansons operated from the site of RAF Stornoway while it was still under construction. By November 1940, the aircraft from 612 Squadron had been posted to RAF Wick and were gradually replaced by Ansons from No. 48 Squadron RAF, based at RAF Hooton Park.

In March 1940, 827 Naval Air Squadron operated Fairey Albacore aircraft from Stornoway in conjunction with the Ansons of 48 Squadron on maritime patrols across the Atlantic. This continued until the station was completed at which point they moved away. RAF Stornoway was officially constituted on 1 April 1941 as part of No. 15 (Reconnaissance) Group RAF,^[3] and then No. 18 (Reconnaissance) Group, both of RAF Coastal Command but was finally closed down at the end of the Second World War when it reverted to Stornoway Airport. No. 66 Air-Sea Rescue (ASR) Marine Craft Unit was also based out of Stornoway Harbour during 1943 and 1944.^[4]

Post War

In 1952 biological agents were brought in to the airport for the controversial Operation Cauldron.^[5] They were testing the dangerous agents on caged monkeys and guinea pigs who were situated on a navy pontoon nearby at the Braighe.^[6] The tests were carried out by scientists from the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment (CBDE) from Porton Down.^{[citation needed]} When a trawler inadvertently passed through one of the clouds of plague bacteria, the ship and crew were temporarily put under covert surveillance during their return from Iceland to Blackpool and onshore. CBDE was later amalgamated and now forms part of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. Porton Down has encountered controversy for human experimentation using chemical warfare right up until 1990.^[7]

The Cold War

During the height of the Cold War years Stornoway Airport was home to 112 S.U., an RAF Signals Unit^[8] that was established in 1960 as an Electronic countermeasures (ECM) measurement and evaluation unit by RAF Bomber Command Headquarters (HQBC), High Wycombe. The unit measured the signal strength, frequency bandwidths and aerial performance of the operational Handley Page Victor and Avro Vulcan V bombers as they flew a course towards, over or away from the unit varying from straight-lines to polar patterns.^[9] Results were passed back to Operations Research Branch, (HQBC), BCDU at RAF Finningley and each aircraft's base for the Electronics Engineers and Technicians to review for performance improvement of each piece of equipment that was measured.^[8] The combined success of 112 S.U., BCDU at RAF Finningly and each of the aircraft's bases along with the Operations Research Branch at (HQBC) and technical support from RRE Malvern (later to become RSRE Malvern) was demonstrated by the V-force during the Operation Skyshield exercises ^[10] and readiness through the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early sixties ^[11] and subsequent exercises^[12] up to the time that the unit was closed in 1983.

In the early 1980s, part of the Airport was upgraded in a £40 million upgrade and extension of the main runway and taxiways along with new hangars, to accept Panavia Tornado aircraft.^[13] By 1 April 1982 this work was completed, the buildings commissioned and RAF Stornoway was established once again in order to become a Forward Operations Base. After sixteen years in this role and also the end of the Cold War, the station was finally closed^[14] on 31 March 1998 and reverted to Stornoway Airport.

After this some of the buildings were sold off, one becoming a Christian school, and others including the Nissen hut accommodation blocks were demolished. The runway remains in use as part of Stornoway Airport, and other parts of the site are used as a ground for holding stunt shows and vehicle exhibitions.

Units

Squadron	Aircraft	From	To	To	Notes
48	Avro Anson I Bristol Beaufort I Lockheed Hudson V/III	16 July 1940	3 August 1941	RAF Stornoway	As a detachment from RAF Hooton Park.^[15]
48	Avro Anson I Bristol Beaufort I Lockheed Hudson V/III	3 August 1941	20 October 1941	RAF Skitten	Detachments at RAF Aldergrove and RAF Limavady.^[15]
58	Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V/VII	30 August 1942	2 December 1942	RAF Holmsley South	^[16]
58	Handley Page Halifax II/III	1 September 1944	25 May 1945	Disbanded	^[16]
206					^[17]
224	Lockheed Hudson III/V	19 February 1942	16 April 1942	RAF Tiree	As a detachment from RAF Limavady.^[18]
500	Lockheed Hudson V	22 March 1942	30 August 1942	RAF St Eval	^[19]
502	Handley Page Halifax II/III	14 September 1944	25 May 1945	Disbanded	^[20]
518	Handley Page Halifax V	6 July 1943	25 September 1943	RAF Tiree	^[20]
612	Avro Anson I	June 1939	November 1940	RAF Wick	As a detachment from RAF Dyce.^[21]
825 Naval Air Squadron					^[17]
842 Naval Air Squadron					^[17]
1840 Naval Air Squadron					^[17]

The following units were also here at some point:^[17]

No. 303 Ferry Training Unit RAF (December 1942 - March 1943)^[22]
Detachment of No. 1693 (General Reconnaissance) Flight RAF (August 1944 - ?)^[23]

RAF Stornoway in fiction

RAF Stornoway is featured in the Tom Clancy novel, Red Storm Rising, as a base for RAF operations over the North Atlantic and against Soviet-held Iceland. Later the displaced carrier air wing from USS Nimitz is based there after the carrier sustains battle damage. Also mentioned in passing in Katherine Kurtz's Death of an Adept.

References

Citations

^ Falconer 2012, p. 182.
^ Jefford 2001, p. 166.
^ Barrass, M. B. (2011). "A History of RAF Organisation : Groups 10–19". rafweb.org. Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
^ Roskill, Stephen Wentworth. The War at Sea, 1939–1945, Volume 1, pp. 332–333. H. M. Stationery Office, 1954.
^ Wheelis, Mark; Lajos Rózsa; Malcolm Dando (2006). Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons since 1945. Harvard University Press. pp. 56–7. ISBN 0-674-01699-8.
^ Fenton, Ben (20 September 2005). "Trawler steamed into germ warfare site and no one said a word". Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 30 June 2012. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
^ Evans, Rob (2000). Gassed. ISBN 978-1842320716.
^ ^a ^b "112 Signals Unit Stornoway / RAF Stornoway. With appendices".
^ Document AIR 29/4736 1974–1980, The National Archives, Kew.
^ Document AIR 14/4317 Monitoring of RED SHRIMP performance before Exercise SKYSHIELD II, The National Archives, Kew.
^ White, p 47.
^ Hennessy, p.201
^ Horseman, Martin, ed. (March 1982). "New Air Base at Stornoway". Armed Forces. Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 47. ISSN 0142-4696.
^ "RAF to withdraw from Stornoway next month".
^ ^a ^b Jefford 1988, p. 41.
^ ^a ^b Jefford 1988, p. 43.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Stornoway". Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
^ Jefford 1988, p. 73.
^ Jefford 1988, p. 94.
^ ^a ^b Jefford 1988, p. 95.
^ Jefford 1988, p. 100.
^ Sturtivant, Hamlin & Halley 1997, p. 116.
^ Sturtivant, Hamlin & Halley 1997, p. 145.

Bibliography

Brookes, Andrew (2009). Vulcan Units of the Cold War. UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-297-4.
Brookes, Andrew (2011). Victor Units of the Cold War. UK: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84908-339-3.
Falconer, J (2012). RAF Airfields of World War 2. UK: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85780-349-5.
Hennessy, Peter (2010). The Secret State, Preparing for the worst 1945-2010. UK: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-141-04469-9.
Jefford, C.G. RAF Squadrons, a Comprehensive Record of the Movement and Equipment of all RAF Squadrons and their Antecedents since 1912. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK: Airlife Publishing, 1988. ISBN 1-84037-141-2.
Jefford, C.G. (2001). RAF Squadrons, a Comprehensive Record of the Movement and Equipment of all RAF Squadrons and their Antecedents since 1912. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK: Airlife Publishing. ISBN 1-84037-141-2.
Sturtivant, R; Hamlin, J; Halley, J (1997). Royal Air Force flying training and support units. UK: Air-Britain (Historians). ISBN 0-85130-252-1.
White, Roland. (2007). Vulcan 607, The epic story of the most remarkable air attack since WWII. UK: Corgi Books. ISBN 978-0-552-15229-7.