 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "RAF Defford" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
RAF Defford | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NearDefford,Worcestershire in England | |||||||||||
| Site information | |||||||||||
| Type | Royal Air Force station | ||||||||||
| Owner | Air Ministry | ||||||||||
| Operator | Royal Air Force | ||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||
  RAF Defford Shown within Worcestershire | |||||||||||
| Coordinates | 52°05′49″N002°08′35″W / 52.09694°N 2.14306°W /52.09694; -2.14306 | ||||||||||
| Site history | |||||||||||
| Built | 1941 (1941) | ||||||||||
| In use | 1941-1957 (1957)[1] | ||||||||||
| Airfield information | |||||||||||
| Elevation | 20 metres (66 ft)AMSL | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Royal Air Force Defford, or more simplyRAF Defford, is a formerRoyal Air Force station located 1.1 miles (1.8 km) northwest ofDefford,Worcestershire,England.
At the outbreak of theSecond World War,Croome Court and its surrounding estate was requisitioned by theMinistry of Works. The main Palladian house was initially leased for a year to the Dutch Government as a possible refuge for QueenWilhelmina of the Netherlands to escape the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. However, evidence shows that they only stayed for two weeks at most, and later emigrated to Canada.[2]
Construction of RAF Defford was started at the outbreak of war, and completed in 1941. For a few months the airfield was used as a satellite station by theVickers Wellington bombers ofNo. 23 Operational Training Unit RAF (OTU), based a few miles away atRAF Pershore.
In May 1942, theTelecommunications Research Establishment (TRE), responsible forradar research and development, and located nearSwanage, moved toMalvern College. At the same time the Telecommunications Flying Unit (TFU), later named the Radar Research Flying Unit (RRFU), which operated flight trials on behalf of the TRE, transferred its aircraft to Defford.
So hurried was the move to Defford that many of the personnel had to be accommodated in tents at first. However, at Defford the tempo of work carried out by TFU increased month by month, and by 1945 there were approximately 2,500 personnel and 100 aircraft on the station.
Civilian scientists, flying from Defford with aircrews drawn from the Royal Air Force andRoyal Navy, tested radar systems which were to revolutionize the operational capability of Allied aircraft. Early successes with Airborne Interception (AI) systems were demonstrated byJohn "Cats Eyes" Cunningham and other night fighter pilots. Air to Surface Vessel (ASV) radar enabled the GermanU-boat menace to be effectively countered in 1943, and thus was critical to the success of theBattle of the Atlantic. By 1944,H2S radar was enabling accurate navigation and target identification to be achieved byBomber Command crews, taking part in thestrategic bombing offensive.
No. 1001 Signals Unit RAF and theSpecial Installation Unit RAF were also here at some point.[3]
There were many other notable "firsts" demonstrated by TFU. A converted Wellington bomber was the forerunner of the modernAWACS aircraft. This was successfully used to detect fast-moving GermanE-boats, and to control their interception by other aircraft. The world's first automatic "hands off" approach and landing was made byBoeing 247DZ203 at Defford in January 1945.[4]
TFU remained at Defford after the war, and was renamed the Radar Research Flying Unit (RRFU) in 1953. However, the airstrip at Defford was too short to allow the operation of the large"V" bombers on flight trials, and so RRFU moved to nearbyRAF Pershore in 1957.[5]
In 1980 the formerSignals Research and Development Establishment was moved to Defford as aRoyal Signals and Radar Establishment facility due to the flat terrain (geologically in theflood plain of theRiver Avon) for goodsatellite dish positioning and the nearbyBredon Hill for satellite simulators.[6] RSRE was involved in the design and testing of theSkynet 4 military communications satellites and their ground facilities and terminals.[7][8]
Most of the technical and domestic sites at Defford have been dismantled, but the central part of the now disused airfield still houses theSatellite Communications facility operated byQinetiQ. The various dishes andaerials used can be seen from passing trains betweenWorcester andCheltenham and from theM5 motorway nearStrensham services.
The airfield site is now owned and used by theWest Mercia Police, and many of the "golf balls" and other communications equipment have been removed. Some of the station buildings remain in other uses. A few are contained within the National Trust property ofCroome, including part of the station’s medical facilities, which now house the RAF Defford museum.[9][10]Light aviation can refer to the nearby Croft Farm Airstrip.[11]
The worst accident in the history of the unit happened on 7 June 1942, whenHandley Page HalifaxV9977 crashed, with the loss of all eleven crew and scientists on board, includingAlan Blumlein. It had been testing the new H2S radar system that used thecavity magnetron valve developed by TRE. In 2002, exactly sixty years later, an RAF Defford Memorial was unveiled by SirBernard Lovell on the village green of Defford. It commemorates those who lost their lives in accidents while carrying out scientific research.[12] It reads:
| Formations and units |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Branches and components | |||||||
| Reserve forces | |||||||
| Equipment | |||||||
| Personnel | |||||||
| Appointments | |||||||
| Symbols and uniform | |||||||
| Associated civil organisations | |||||||
