Dalton

54°10'35"N 001°21'30"W

runway: 06/24 - 1560x..yds - concrete
runway: 12/30 - 1800x..yds - concrete
runway: 18/36 - 1410x..yds - concrete

Dalton airfield (RAF Dalton) was an airfield 310 kilometers north of London.
The airfield was built by laying concrete runways at what was originally a relief and dispersal ground of RAF Topcliffe. Although the new airfields was located much closer to the village of Topcliffe than RAF Topcliffe itself, it was named after the town of Dalton, east of the airfield. It featured 36  dispersals, 3 hangars and an encircling taxitrack connecting all 3 runways.
In late 1941 the airfield became home to 102 Sqn., operating Whitley bombers. 102 Sqn. operated from the airfield until the summer of 1942, when they returned to RAF Topcliffe. The base was then briefly used by 1652 Heavy Conversion Unit (Halifaxes), before work began on lengthening the runways.
In late 1942 the base became a RCAF Unit when 428Sqn. became the new resident unit. It joined the bombing campaign against Germany at the end of January 1943. 424 Sqn's Wellingtons also briefly the base, until 1666HCU (Heavy Conversion Unit) came to the base. However, mixing operational and training flights proved not to be very successful, so 428 Sqn. moved out to Topcliffe at the end of spring. As airspace was getting very congested, 1666HCU was sent to RAF Wombleton in autumn 1943 to provide some relieve. This left Dalton with just a gunnery flight, although 420 Sqn also briefly operated from here to prepare for Halifaxes.
Until the end of 1943, RAF Dalton had lost 29 bombers during operations: two thirds of them Wellingtons, the remainder Whitleys and Halifaxes.


No photos of the airfield while in use have been located

At the beginning of 1944 RAF Dalton was passed on to No. 7 Training Group. Although 7TG had no units of its own assigned until the summer of 1944, Dalton was not closed, but regularly used as a relief landing ground by operational training units. In August 1944 No.6 Group Aircrew School was set up at the airfield.
Shortly after the war, in the summer of 1945, all units at the airfield were disbanded and the airfield was put on care and maintenance. Under maintenance unit control, the airfield hangars were used for surplus stores and in the early fifties old bombs laid stockpiled on the runways prior to disposal.

The airfield was disposed of in 1956. Since then, a number of businesses have set up on the former airfield. Part was converted back for agricultural use. Around 2010 a number of ex-British Rail railroad carriages were stored at the airfield.


Overview of Dalton in 2002 (Google Earth)


Overview of Dalton in 2009 (Google Earth).

Note: this airfield was described earlier, using information supplied on the RAF website. Due to a 3rd party copyright claim, the part between 1940 and 1945 was rewritten, omitting certain information on units and dates.