Royal Air Force Digby otherwise known as RAF Digby is a Royal Air Force station located near Scopwick and 11.6 mi (18.7 km) south east of Lincoln, in Lincolnshire, England. The station is home to the tri-service Joint Service Signals Organisation, part of the Joint Forces Intelligence Group of Strategic Command. Other units include the RAF Aerial Erector School, No. 54 Signals Unit and No. 591 Signals Unit. Formerly an RAF training and fighter airfield, it is one of the country's older Royal Air Force stations, predated only by RAF Northolt, which is the oldest and predates the Royal Air Force by three years, having opened in 1915. Flying at Digby ceased in 1953.
History
First World War There are dated photographs that show that the airfield was already in use for flying training by Royal Naval pilots in the summer of 1917, although no documents supporting this have ever been found. The photographs show contemporary hangars, sheds and aircraft already in place around grassed runways and uniformed Royal Naval trainee pilots from the HMS Daedalus facility at Cranwell receiving instruction. What is on record is the minutes of a conference held at the Scopwick airfield in November 1917 that confirmed its suitability for conversion to a training depot station in its own right. On 12 January 1918 the War Office issued the authority notice for the site to be formally taken over under the Defence of the Realm Regulations.
Early accommodation for personnel was under canvas and the first pilots arrived on 28 March 1918, commanded by Major John H D’Albiac a former Royal Marines aviator. The party left Royal Flying Corps Portholme Meadow aerodrome in Huntingdonshire and moved to Scopwick, bringing Handley Page bombers with them. RAF Scopwick aerodrome was deemed officially open with their arrival, although the newly established Royal Air Force did not formally come into existence until four days later on 1 April 1918. D’Albiac was appointed as RAF Scopwick's first commanding officer. A works report dated November 1918 shows that all building works had been completed. Designated as No. 59 Training Depot Station RAF, its initial establishment of 10 x Handley Page 0/100s, 18 x FE2EB/DS and 30 x Avro 504Ks indicates that it was a night bomber training unit. The only action seen by RAF Scopwick during World War I was when a German Zeppelin attempted a bombing raid, with its bombs missing the station and falling in a nearby field.
Between the wars In April 1920 No. 59 TDS handed over to No. 3 Flying Training School RAF whose first commander was Squadron Leader A T Harris, later to become known as Air Marshal 'Bomber' Harris. Five months later the name of the station changed from Scopwick to RAF Digby, after several instances of aircraft spares being delivered in error to RAF Shotwick in North Wales. The role of the station also switched from training bomber pilots to training fighter pilots. In April 1922 the school was disbanded and the station placed on care and maintenance, when the RAF contracted further after the end of the war. The closure was short-lived and in June 1924 No. 2 Flying Training School RAF arrived from RAF Duxford. The school flew Avro 504s, Bristol Fighters, and Sopwith Snipes and specialised in training novice pilots to fly in fighter-type aircraft, rather than the usual practice of learning on basic trainers and later converting to fighters. The school was commanded by Wing Commander Sidney 'Crasher' Smith DSO AFC, so named because of his habit of landing his aircraft rather more robustly than they were designed for; including three aircraft in a single day. Smith returned to Digby five years later as a Group Captain, for a second stint as station commander. Smith's replacement as station commander was an officer due for greater things, Wing Commander Arthur Tedder later became Lord Tedder and Marshal of the Royal Air Force. In 1934 the station was commanded by Group Captain T Leigh-Mallory, who was later to become Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory and one of the most notable commanders in Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. Between 1929 and 1936 the appearance of the station changed dramatically and most of the original wooden 1917/1918 hangars, barrack blocks and offices were demolished and replaced with substantial brick structures. The seven original hangars were replaced by two new ones, although a planned third hangar was first delayed and eventually never built. Most of the domestic barrack blocks, officers' mess, station headquarters, squadron offices and married quarters built at this time still stand and remain in use. The No. 12 Group RAF Lima Sector Operations bunker, now the station museum, was constructed at a cost in 1936 of £5,000. The following year saw a major change to the station's function. On 7 September 1937 No. 2 Flying Training School relocated to RAF Brize Norton, and Digby was handed to No. 12 Group Fighter Command as an operational fighter station intended to provide fighter cover for the cities of Lincoln, Nottingham and Leicester. Two months later there were already two squadrons of fighters at Digby, No. 73 Squadron RAF flying Gloster Gladiators and No. 46 Squadron RAF equipped with Gloster Gauntlets. In 1938 both squadrons were re-equipped with Hawker Hurricanes and joined by another Hurricane squadron No. 504 Squadron RAF, an auxiliary squadron from Nottingham.
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