Crail Airfield

Crail (NO60NW 49.00), was a major military air station used in both First and Second World Wars, and after 1945. In the summer of 1918 the aerodrome was recorded in a survey of RAF stations as ‘No. 27 Training depot, NW Area, No 2 Group’ whose function was ‘A Training Depot Station (Three Unit) for Fighter Reconnaissance’. Training Depots were established during 1917, after it was decided to concentrate flying training at a limited number of sites. Most were still under construction when the war ended.

The aerodrome occupied an area of about 70 hectares, measuring 960m by 770m, with the aerodrome buildings (of which there were over 40) on the north-west side. As was standard for these training depots, there were six aeroplane hangars and an Aeroplane Repair Shed, as well as huts for teaching, workshops and accommodation for the officers who commanded the depot, their officer pupils, and the male and female service personnel who worked there. At the time of the report, in the summer of 1918, the aerodrome buildings were still under construction, and Crail was not included on the list of permanent air stations. In August 1918 the station’s establishment was 180 pupils, and a permanent staff of 668, of whom 215 were women. The aerodrome was designed to house 36 Bristol and 36 Avro aircraft, but it is unlikely that these numbers were achieved.

The Training Depot closed in 1919 and the First World War buildings were largely swept away; the aerodrome was re-established at the outbreak of the Second World War.

Information from HS/RCAHMS World War One Audit Project (GJB) 31 May 2013.