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RAF Cottam, near the East Riding of Yorkshire village of Langtoft (north-west of Driffield), is a classic example of a wartime airfield built for an operational purpose that events and environment ultimately reshaped. Constructed in 1939 as a satellite bomber station intended to support RAF Driffield, it was equipped with multiple runways and dispersal infrastructure, but persistent poor weather and local conditions limited its flying usefulness.
In its earliest phase, Cottam existed as a dispersal and contingency site rather than a busy operational base. The vulnerability of frontline stations was brutally demonstrated in August 1940 when RAF Driffield suffered a devastating raid that destroyed aircraft and caused casualties, leaving the station non-operational for a prolonged period. In that context, satellite fields like Cottam offered an essential safety valve: a place to disperse aircraft, reduce concentration risk, and keep some flying capability alive when a main station was damaged.
Although Cottam was built as a bomber airfield, the station never became the kind of high-tempo operational base seen elsewhere in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Instead, it found a role in the broader logistics of war. The airfield was utilised primarily for storage – particularly of bombs and associated munitions – under RAF Maintenance Command. A major wartime unit associated with the site was No. 91 Maintenance Unit, which used the station for bomb storage and related handling. That function may sound static, but it was dangerous, heavily regulated work that required strict procedures, security and a disciplined workforce. Munitions storage sites were integral to keeping Bomber Command supplied and capable of sustained operations.
Flying did occur, especially when weather and operational needs made dispersal necessary, and there were periods when aircraft from nearby stations used Cottam’s runways and perimeter tracks. These movements were typically pragmatic rather than glamorous: relocation during alerts, emergency use, or short-term overflow when other airfields were overloaded. The station’s buildings and watch office, like many wartime constructions, were functional rather than ornate, designed to do a job quickly and with minimum use of scarce materials.
The social life of a maintenance and storage station differed from that of a front-line squadron airfield. Personnel were more likely to include armourers, storage specialists, drivers, guards and administrative staff, along with WAAF members supporting communications and clerical work. The station’s wartime population figures reflect a substantial community for a site that flew only occasionally, because storage operations required manpower even when the runways were quiet.
After the war Cottam continued in service for several years before closing in the 1950s. Today, remnants of runway and perimeter tracks survive in the landscape, a faint imprint of an airfield whose main wartime contribution was not the number of sorties launched, but the resilience and logistical depth it provided to the wider air war.
Because storage sites were often camouflaged and guarded, records can be less visible than combat stations, but the station’s purpose was clear: keep the region’s operational units supplied without bottleneck or shortage.