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.
Overview
RAF Tholthorpe was a wartime airfield at near Easingwold, North Yorkshire. During the Second World War it served as a Bomber Command station within No. 6 Group (RCAF), flying heavy night raids over occupied Europe. operational as a bomber base from 1940; best known for its 1943-44 period with RCAF heavy bombers.
Like most British wartime stations, RAF Tholthorpe functioned as a small, self-contained town. Beyond the runways were technical areas for maintenance and armament, dispersed hardstandings to reduce losses during raids, and domestic sites where airmen, WAAFs or naval personnel lived, trained, and waited for the next tasking. On operational nights or intensive training days the routine revolved around briefings, meteorology, aircraft servicing, and a tight rhythm of take-off and recovery windows.
Squadrons, units and types
Aircraft commonly associated with wartime flying here: Handley Page Halifax, Avro Lancaster.
Records for RAF Tholthorpe show a mix of operational and support activity. Some units were long-term residents with a stable identity, while others arrived as detachments – often for conversion training, gunnery work-ups, dispersal, or to cover a specific operational requirement. That pattern is typical of the RAF’s wartime system: stations were constantly re-tasked as the air war shifted from defence to offence, from the Battle of the Atlantic to the bomber offensive, and later to preparations for the invasion of Northwest Europe.
- No. 431 Squadron RCAF (Iroquois)
- Associated station and servicing units supporting Halifax and later Lancaster heavy bomber operations
Operations and highlights
From Tholthorpe, 431 Squadron flew night offensive operations against industrial and transport targets across Germany and occupied Europe.
The station’s tempo reflected Bomber Command’s peak years: long sorties, high attrition risk, and rapid adaptation in tactics and navigation aids.
Wider context: the RAF and its Allies depended on layered infrastructure. Training stations produced crews, conversion units taught them to survive in heavier or faster aircraft, and operational bases launched combat sorties. Even a ‘quiet’ airfield could be strategically important as a diversion, a dispersal site, or a specialist hub for ferrying, target-towing, glider operations, or meteorology.
After the war
Though much has changed, Tholthorpe is remembered in RCAF histories and crew logbooks as a key 6 Group ‘Yorkshire’ bomber station.
Landscape and flying conditions: RAF Tholthorpe’s geography influenced operations. Prevailing winds dictated runway selection, while local terrain and weather shaped training and safety. In winter, short daylight and low cloud increased the workload; in summer, longer hours enabled intensive training programmes and high sortie rates. These practical factors are often reflected in accident reports and ORBs, which mention crosswinds, icing, fog, and diversion landings.
Connecting RAF Tholthorpe to operations: when you map unit dates against major campaigns – the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Atlantic, the Combined Bomber Offensive, or the 1944-45 ground campaign – you can see how the station fitted into the wider machine. The airfield’s contribution might be front-line sorties, or it might be the less visible work of training crews, ferrying aircraft, or supporting air-sea rescue so that experienced aircrew could fight another day.