Royal Air Force Collyweston or more simply RAF Collyweston is a former Royal Air Force satellite station located south-west of Stamford, Lincolnshire and north east of Corby, Northamptonshire, England.
The airfield was a satellite station of RAF Wittering, and used by the No. 1426 Flight (Enemy Aircraft) Flight RAF during the Second World War.
History
Founded in 1917 as No. 5 Training Depot Station, the station was renamed RAF Collyweston following formation of the Royal Air Force, via merger of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) on 1 April 1918. The airfield was absorbed as a satellite station of
RAF Wittering in 1939. A unit at Collyweston during the war was No. 1426 (Captured Enemy Aircraft) Flight, they flew and assessed enemy aircraft that crashed or forced landed.
In 1941, the runways of Wittering and Collyweston were joined to make one long grass runway.
Units
The following units were based at Collyweston at some point:
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No. 23 Squadron RAF (1940)
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No. 133 Squadron RAF (1941)
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No. 152 Squadron RAF (1941–42 & 1942)
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No. 266 Squadron RAF (1940 & 1941)
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Detachment from No. 288 Squadron RAF (1943 & 1944 & 1945)
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No. 349 Squadron RAF (1943)
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No. 658 Squadron RAF (1944)
Current status
Most of the former RAF Collyweston site has been returned to agricultural uses. No infrastructure remains of the former airfield, the exception being its remote 30 acre weapon storage area (WSA, or bomb dump), which is now used by a private company for secure logistics storage.
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