RAF Coltishall

Work on RAF Coltishall was started in February 1939 (1939-02). 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 May 1940 (1940-05) 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.[5]

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.

English Electric Lightning F.1 XM144 of No. 74 (Fighter) Squadron, the Lightning entered service with the squadron at Coltishall in June 1960.

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.[6] 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.[7]

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.[8] 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.[9]

Trio of No. 6 Squadron SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1As at Coltishall in Op GRANBY livery, April 1991.

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.[10]

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.[11]

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.[12]
• 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).[13]
• 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).[14]

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.[15] 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.[16] No. 6 Squadron deployed once again to Incirlik in 1998 as part of Operation Resinate.[17]

SEPECAT Jaguar GR.3A XZ392 of No. 16 (Reserve) Squadron landing at RAF Coltishall, August 2004.

On 21 July 2000, No. 16 (Reserve) Squadron, the Jaguar OCU, arrived at RAF Coltishall from RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland.[18] 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.[19]

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.[20]

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.

SEPECAT Jaguar GR.1A XZ112 of No. 54 (Fighter) Squadron at RAF Brize Norton in 1991. This Jaguar was the last to leave RAF Coltishall on 3 April 2006.

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.[21] 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.

The following units were here at some point:

RAF Coltishall's badge, awarded in January 1953, features a fortified tower with a clenched gauntlet holding three blue arrows (bind bolts). The tower relates to the strength in defence of the station. The gauntlet and arrows represent the fighter aircraft based at the station and their aggressive nature.[37]

The station's motto is 'Aggressive in Defence'.[4]

SEPECAT Jaguar S on display outside the main gate to the station

Spirit of Coltishall, the former RAF Coltishall SEPECAT Jaguar S gate guardian now on display in the grounds of County Hall, Norfolk County Council

Prior to closure, Coltishall had two gate guardians. The first (on display outside the main gate and security fence) was a Jaguar S which was an airframe formed from various Jaguars, including the front fuselage of XW563. It arrived from RAF Brüggen in 2001 and was on display at the main gate until February 2007 when it was relocated to Norfolk County Hall.[38]

A replica fibreglass Hawker Hurricane was on display on the roundabout in front of Station Headquarters from 1989, until it was relocated to RAF High Wycombe in October 2006.[39]

In September 2010, the former RAF Coltishall site was designated as a conservation area by North Norfolk District Council and Broadland District Council.[40]

Parts of the airfield were designated as scheduled monuments in March 2008. The designation covers a single Second World War era aircraft dispersal point (labeled as a 'fighter pen') and eight pairs of Cold War era dispersal revetment blast walls dating from the 1950s. Historic England describes the blast walls as rare and outstandingly well preserved.[41]

The former Officers' Mess was designated as a grade II listed building in October 2017. The neo-Georgian style building was built between 1939 and 1940.[42]