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 Scorton, beside the village of Scorton in North Yorkshire, opened in October 1939 as a satellite to RAF Catterick within Fighter Command’s No. 13 Group. Its position in northern England made it valuable for protecting industrial targets and maritime approaches, while also providing a flexible dispersal field for squadrons rotating through the region. Although first established as a satellite, Scorton was expanded during 1941 into a fuller station with hard runways and increased hangarage – an upgrade driven by the need to operate heavier, faster aircraft and to reduce vulnerability to weather and runway limitations elsewhere.
Early use included detachments from units at Catterick, including Bristol Blenheims from No. 219 Squadron, reflecting the station’s role as a night-fighting and defensive base. As the air war evolved, Scorton hosted a varied cast of wartime residents. Among the better-known were No. 56 Squadron, which operated Supermarine Spitfires from Scorton during the war, part of the broader network guarding Britain’s northern airspace. Other squadrons rotated through with aircraft such as Beaufighters and Mustangs, supporting roles that ranged from interception to tactical reconnaissance and coastal protection.
Scorton also has a late-war American chapter. Elements of the United States Army Air Forces’ Ninth Air Force used the station, and the presence of US night fighter squadrons is particularly notable: units such as the 422nd and 425th Night Fighter Squadrons operated the Northrop P-61 Black Widow, one of the most advanced dedicated night fighters of the conflict. The P-61’s radar-equipped capability suited Britain’s night defence and offensive intruder work, and its appearance at a Yorkshire satellite station highlights how rapidly new technology was integrated into the Allied system.
Life at Scorton would have been shaped by the rhythms of a fighter station – scrambles, readiness states, night flying, and constant maintenance – combined with the everyday demands of operating from a northern airfield where weather could dictate everything. Dispersals and perimeter tracks kept aircraft spread out, reducing risk from attack and allowing quick access to the runways. The station’s association with Balloon Command also reflects the layered nature of British air defence, in which fighters, radar, anti-aircraft guns and barrage balloons all played interlocking roles.
After the war Scorton became surplus to requirements, and in the decades that followed the landscape changed dramatically: large parts of the airfield have been quarried. Even so, the story of RAF Scorton remains a strong example of how the RAF used satellites to create depth and resilience – fields that could host everything from early Blenheim detachments to cutting-edge American night fighters, depending on the needs of the moment.
For researchers and visitors, RAF Scorton can often be understood through the surviving pattern of its runways, perimeter track and dispersal points. Even where buildings have vanished, aerial photographs and ground traces can reveal the technical site, the former station entrance, and the ‘domestic’ camps where personnel lived. These physical clues help connect the local landscape to the wider wartime system of aircrew generation, logistics and operations.