Royal Air Force Roborough or more simply RAF Roborough was a Royal Air Force station in Roborough located north of Plymouth, Devon which used Plymouth City Airport as their base.
History
RAF Roborough began when the
Air Ministry started to use Plymouth City Airport for exercises between the RAF,
Royal Navy and the
British Army. The Royal Navy started to use the airport in the late 1930s and was renamed
RNAS Roborough however on 1 May 1942 the site was taken over by the
Air Ministry for Royal Air Force use primarily for RAF Coastal Command.
RNAS Roborough
The Admiralty used the airfield for various duties also the airfield played an important role during the Battle of Britain coming under partial control of the No. 10 Group RAF headquarters at
RAF Box and had RAF Middle Wallop as their sector station. The first squadron to use the airfield was No. 247 Squadron RAF between 1 August 1940 and 10 February 1941 flying the Gloster Gladiator II before moving to RAF St Eval on 10 February 1941 however after seven days the squadron moved back to Roborough flying the
Hawker Hurricane I before moving out for the last time on 10 May 1941 when the squadron went to
RAF Portreath.
-
Air Sea Rescue Flight RAF, Roborough (1941)
RAF Roborough
In 1942 the site was taken over by the Royal Air Force for Coastal Command Duties with No. 691 Squadron RAF forming at the airfield on 1 December 1943 flying Hurricane I's, Boulton Paul Defiant I's,
Airspeed Oxford I's and
Fairey Barracuda II's before leaving on 21 February 1945 moving to
RAF Harrowbeer.
Units
The following squadrons were here at some point:
The following units were also here at some point:
Later use
In the 1950s the Royal Air Force left and the site became Plymouth City Airport, which in turn was shut down for good in 2011.
See also
-
List of air stations of the Royal Navy
-
List of former Royal Air Force stations
-
RAF Fighter Command Order of Battle 1940
Citations
Bibliography
External links
