Royal Air Force Coltishall more commonly known as RAF Coltishall is a former Royal Air Force station located north-north-east of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk, East Anglia, which operated from 1939 to 2006.Official Commemorative Magazine: Royal Air Force Coltishall, 65th Anniversary, 'Aggressive in Defence' 1940-2005
It was a fighter airfield in the Second World War and afterwards, a station for night fighters, then ground attack aircraft until closure.
After longstanding speculation, the future of the station was sealed once the Ministry of Defence announced that the Eurofighter Typhoon, a rolling replacement aircraft, displacing the ageing SEPECAT Jaguar, would not be located there. The last of the Jaguar squadrons left on 1 April 2006, and the station finally closed, one month early and £10 million under budget, on .
The station motto was Aggressive in Defence. The station badge was a stone tower surmounted by a mailed fist grasping three bind-bolts (blunt arrows), which symbolised a position of strength in defence of the homeland, indicative of the aggressive spirit which Coltishall fighter aircraft were prepared to shoot down the enemy.
History Second World War Work on RAF Coltishall was started in . The airfield, then known as Scottow Aerodrome, was initially built as a bomber station, on land near Scottow Hall. Following the established tradition, the station would have been named after the nearest railway station, which would have made it RAF Buxton, but to avoid possible confusion with the town of Buxton in Derbyshire, it was named after the local village of Coltishall instead. The airfield was completed and entered service in as a fighter base. The first aircraft movement at Coltishall was a Bristol Blenheim IV L7835 flown by Sergeant RG Bales and Sergeant Barnes.
During the Second World War, Coltishall operated the Hawker Hurricane. A notable Coltishall fighter pilot was Douglas Bader, appointed as leader of No. 242 Squadron, a mainly Canadian Hurricane squadron. They had suffered significant losses in the recent Battle of France, and he was credited with restoring their morale.
Coltishall later became home to night fighters. At the same time, the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm operated aircraft from RAF Coltishall over the North Sea. From 10 February to 7 April 1945, it was the airfield for No. 124 Squadron, at that time a fighter-bomber squadron flying Supermarine Spitfire IX.HF's, whilst the squadron was bombing V-2 launch sites in the Netherlands. At the end of the war, Coltishall was briefly given over to Polish squadrons until they returned home.
Cold War
In the 1950s, RAF Coltishall was a designated a 'V-bomber dispersal airfield', which V bombers tasked with delivery of the British nuclear deterrent; the Avro Vulcan, Handley Page Victor, and Vickers Valiant, could use in the event of their home station being damaged by enemy action.
Postwar, the station was home to a variety of units and aircraft, including de Havilland Mosquitos, Gloster Javelins and, from 1963, the Historic Aircraft Flight (now known as the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight or BBMF). RAF Coltishall became home to the RAF's first English Electric Lightning F.1s when No. 74 (Fighter) Squadron began to receive the jet in June 1960, after arriving the year before. No. 74 (F) Squadron relocated to RAF Leuchars in Scotland on 2 March 1964. No. 226 Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) arrived at the base on 12 April 1964, tasked with training new pilots how to fly the Lightning. The last Lightnings left Coltishall in September 1974 when No. 266 OCU departed.
The Lightnings were replaced by the Anglo-French SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1, with the first Jaguar unit, No. 54 (F) Squadron, arriving at Coltishall on 8 August 1974. They were soon joined by No. 6 Squadron who arrived at the base in November 1974, making the station exclusively home to the Jaguar in terms of fixed wing aircraft.
No. 41 (Designate) Squadron formed at RAF Coltishall on 1 October 1976, and worked up as a Jaguar unit until officially standing up on 1 April 1977, when the No. 41 Squadron operating the McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR.2 at RAF Coningsby disbanded the previous day.
In 1991, elements of all three based Jaguar units; Nos. 6, 41 and 54 Squadrons, along with associated support personnel deployed to Muharraq Airfield, Bahrain, in preparation for Operation Granby due to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.
Coltishall played host to several United States Air Force Coronet deployments during the Cold War: Coronet Heron – 12 to 23 June 1978 saw the deployment of 12 McDonnell Douglas RF-4C Phantom IIs from the 62nd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron. Coronet Joust – 23 June to 7 July 1983 saw the deployment of 12 RF-4C Phantom IIs from the 106th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (Alabama Air National Guard). Coronet Mobile – 13 to 26 September 1986 saw the deployment of 11 RF-4C Phantom IIs from the 106th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (Alabama Air National Guard).
1991 to closure The Jaguars deployed again, this time to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, to participate in Operation Warden which set up a no-fly zone over Iraq. Between 1993 and 1995, the Jaguars deployed to Gioia del Colle Air Base, Italy, as part of Operation Deny Flight to enforce a no-fly zone over the Balkans. In 1997, No. 54 Squadron deployed to Italy once more in support of Operation Deliberate Guard. No. 6 Squadron deployed once again to Incirlik in 1998 as part of Operation Resinate.
On 21 July 2000, No. 16 (Reserve) Squadron, the Jaguar OCU, arrived at RAF Coltishall from RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland. In December 2000, five Jaguars from No. 41 (F) Squadron deployed to Luleå Airport, Sweden, to train alongside Saab 37 Viggens of the Norrbotten Wing.
Coltishall was also home to the yellow search and rescue (SAR) helicopters of No. 202 Squadron tasked with conducting air-sea rescue operations (Westland Sea King), and latterly No. 22 Squadron (Westland Wessex), but under subsequent reorganisation, the SAR operations were moved to RAF Wattisham, in Suffolk where they remained until 15 July 2015, following the privatisation (and thus disbandment) of the entire UK military search and rescue operations.
Coltishall eventually became the last surviving operational RAF fighter airfield involved in the Battle of Britain (other than RAF Northolt), and a visible remnant in the form of a Second World War revetment still stands adjacent to the north-west taxiway and, together with one of the two sets of 1950s Cold War blast walls, is now a scheduled monument.
With the anticipated arrival of the Eurofighter Typhoon in the RAF, the gradual retirement of the Jaguar force began. Coltishall was not chosen as a future Typhoon airfield for a number of reasons, and so, with no future RAF role for Coltishall, the station was earmarked for closure.
The UK's Ministry of Defence, in the 'Delivering Security in a Changing World' review, announced that the station would close by December 2006. The first two Jaguar squadrons to disband, No. 16 (R) Squadron and No. 54 (F) Squadron, did so on 11 March 2005. The final Jaguar squadrons departed on 1 April 2006, when No. 6 Squadron transferred to RAF Coningsby, however, this was subsequently disbanded on 31 May 2007 (to await delivery of the Eurofighter Typhoon at RAF Leuchars), and No. 41 (F) Squadron transferred to RAF Coningsby in OCU role. The final front line RAF movement from the station was by Jaguar XZ112, piloted by Jim Luke, on 3 April 2006.
Of the final gate guardians, the replica Hawker Hurricane (dedicated to Douglas Bader) was transferred to RAF High Wycombe, and the Jaguar was formally named the Spirit of Coltishall, and was subsequently transferred to the grounds of Norfolk County Council where she is dedicated to the memory of all those who served at Coltishall. RAF Coltishall is commemorated at the RAF Air Defence Radar Museum at Neatishead (which Coltishall formerly parented).
Some limited flying from light aircraft, including those of the Coltishall Flying Club, did continue after the end of RAF flying operations, until October 2006. While 1 April 2006 saw the disbandment parade for the station, it did not actually disband and finally close until 30 November 2006. Associated facilities such as the Douglas Bader Primary School for military dependents were also closed. On the final day of the station, the gates were opened to the public; anybody with photographic ID was welcomed onto the station to have a look around and view the final closing ceremony and parade, which saw a flypast by four RAF Jaguars, and a solitary Hawker Hurricane from the Imperial War Museum Duxford.
On 30 November 2006, RAF Coltishall was officially handed over to Defence Estates (the then MoD agency responsible for all UK Military sites) who were to handle the disposal of the site; it was then formally known as MoD Coltishall until its ultimate disposal.
The site was sold to Norfolk County Council for £4 million.
Station commanders
Note: The ranks shown are the ranks held at the time of holding the appointment of commanding officer, Royal Air Force Coltishall. +RAF Coltishall station commandersdate fromdate torankname15 May 19409 January 1941Wing CommanderW K Beisiegal9 January 194111 September 1942Group CaptainRonald Lees11 September 194220 April 1943Group CaptainGeorge D Harvey20 April 194310 December 1943Group CaptainArthur V Harvey10 December 194325 May 1945Group CaptainA H Donaldson25 May 19459 August 1945Group CaptainA H Dunn9 August 194527 February 1946Group CaptainT H Rolski27 February 194613 February 1947Group CaptainAleksander Gabszewicz13 February 194722 January 1948Wing CommanderRobert Stanford Tuck22 January 19486 March 1950Wing CommanderDenis Spotswood6 March 19501 February 1951Wing CommanderE L Colbeck-Welch1 February 19518 May 1953Group CaptainA H Smythe8 May 195312 December 1955Group CaptainP P Hanks12 December 195525 November 1958Group CaptainJohn Clayton Sisson CBE DFC25 November 19581 June 1959Wing CommanderW Laing1 June 195915 November 1961Group CaptainHarold A C Bird-Wilson15 November 19611 November 1963Group CaptainL H Malins1 December 19633 June 1966Group CaptainR L Topp4 June 19663 January 1969Group CaptainM E Hobson3 January 196920 November 1969Group CaptainW J Stacey20 November 196918 November 1971Group CaptainJ T Jennings18 November 197128 December 1973Group CaptainJ A Gilbert28 December 19736 August 1976Group CaptainL Swart6 August 19766 September 1978Group CaptainJ H Honey6 September 197815 October 1980Group CaptainT H Stonor15 October 19803 December 1982Group CaptainT J Nash3 December 19828 February 1985Group CaptainG R Profit8 February 19854 June 1987Group CaptainM R French4 June 19872 August 1989Group CaptainF J Hoare3 August 198916 August 1991Group CaptainM J Abbott16 August 19915 July 1993Group CaptainJ P Dacre5 July 199328 July 1995Group CaptainN C Rusling28 July 19995 September 1997Group CaptainT C Hewlett5 September 19975 September 1999Group CaptainStephen G G Dalton6 September 19995 October 2001Group CaptainChris N Harper6 October 200128 November 2003Group CaptainR D Cobelli28 November 2003 2006Group CaptainGraham A Wright, OBE 200613 October 2006Wing CommanderPaul Robins13 October 200630 November 2006Squadron LeaderJason Hughes
Coltishall squadrons
No. 1 Squadron RAF; Spitfire LFIXb, F21 No. 6 Squadron RAF; Jaguar GR1/1A/1B, T2/T2A, GR3/3A, T4/T4A (November 1974 – April 2006) No. 16 Squadron RAF (? – March 2005) (Squadron Standard now laid up in Notre-Dame Cathedral Saint-Omer, France) No. 22 Squadron RAF; Beaufort I, II, Whirlwind HAR2, HAR10, Wessex HAR2 No. 23 Squadron RAF; Mosquito NF36, Vampire NF10, Venom NF2, NF3, Javelin FAW4, FAW7, FAW9R No. 25 Squadron RAF; Mosquito VI, XVII, NFXXX No. 26 Squadron RAF No. 29 Squadron RAF; Beaufighter IF, VIF No. 41 Squadron RAF; Javelin FAW4, Jaguar GR1/1A/1B, T2/T2A, GR3/3A, T4/T4A (1976 – April 2006) No. 42 Squadron RAF; Beaufort I, II