Full WW2 control tower details and photos for this wartime airfield are coming soon. Please check back later as this is work progress. If you would like to contribute information or photos please get in touch.
RAF Acaster Malbis, south of York and close to the River Ouse, began the war as a modest satellite field and ended it as a useful, if slightly unusual, example of how quickly priorities could change. Officially built in 1941 and brought into wartime use from 1942, the station’s early operational identity was tied to Fighter Command needs in the region. It opened as a satellite of RAF Church Fenton and its first notable front-line occupant was No. 601 Squadron, which arrived from Duxford in January 1942 flying Bell Airacobras. The Airacobra was never a comfortable fit for British fighter doctrine, and the squadron’s stay at Acaster Malbis was brief: by April 1942 it had re-equipped with Spitfire VBs and moved on. Even so, those months give Acaster Malbis a clear connection to the defensive and transitional phase of the air war when the RAF was still experimenting with types, tactics, and basing.
After that fighter episode, the airfield slipped into the more routine but equally important rhythm of training support. It became a relief landing ground for Airspeed Oxfords of No. 15 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit, whose parent station was RAF Leconfield. This relief landing role mattered because it eased congestion at main training bases, spread flying loads, and provided additional capacity for circuits and landings – often the most accident-prone phase of training. The Oxfords’ departure in January 1943 could have marked a quiet backwater future for the station, but instead Acaster Malbis was dramatically rebuilt during 1943 to heavy-bomber specifications. Concrete runways and ‘spectacle’ dispersals were constructed under No. 4 Group of Bomber Command, suggesting an intention to bring in large four-engined aircraft. In the event, the airfield never became a full operational bomber base; it transferred to No. 7 (Training) Group without receiving an operational squadron.
Even without an operational bomber squadron, Acaster Malbis still played its part in Bomber Command’s wider ecosystem. In 1944 it was used by Handley Page Halifaxes of 1652 and 1663 Heavy Conversion Units, the specialist organisations that trained crews to handle heavier aircraft before they were posted to front-line groups. That same year it also hosted Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys of 1341 Special Duties Flight, working in the radio and signal counter-measures sphere – an unshowy but increasingly decisive area of the war as both sides fought for advantage in navigation, jamming, and electronic deception. In winter 1944, No. 4 Group Aircrew School arrived (later No. 4 Aircrew School), again underlining the airfield’s training orientation.
Flying activity wound down after the war: the airfield closed to flying in February 1946, but it remained useful as part of RAF Maintenance Command’s network. Several maintenance units used the site across the later 1940s and into the 1950s, turning it into a place for storage, handling, and logistics rather than take-offs and landings. Today, remnants of runway and perimeter track still hint at what was built here in haste – and how, for a few years, a quiet patch of Yorkshire countryside was threaded into Fighter Command experiments, bomber conversion work, and the shadowy contest of wartime signals and counter-measures.
- Early 1942: No. 601 Squadron (Airacobra), later Spitfire VB
- 1943-44: rebuilt to heavy-bomber standard; heavy conversion and special duties work
- Post-war: maintenance and storage role rather than front-line flying