Royal Air Force Finningley or RAF Finningley was a Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station at Finningley, in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The station straddled the historic county boundaries of both Nottinghamshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire.
The station was used as a bomber base during World War II, then in the early 1950s it had fighters allocated to it. From the late 1950s to the 1970s it was one of the home airfields of the V-bomber force, before becoming a Support Command base and housing the HQ of the Search and Rescue Force.
RAF Finningley was decommissioned in 1996. The airfield was developed into an international airport named Doncaster Sheffield Airport, which opened on 28 April 2005. The closure of the airport was announced in September 2022 with the final passenger flight arriving on 4 November 2022.
History
Origins
During the refurbishment of the Royal Flying Corps station at Doncaster in 1915 a decision was taken to move operations temporarily to an air strip at Brancroft Farm south of the Finningley site.
This flight of aircraft is thought to have consisted of Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2c fighters of No. 33 Squadron RAF. These fighters were used to intercept Zeppelin bombers approaching Yorkshire cities from the East Coast, in this instance, the heavily industrialised City of Sheffield.
Brancroft Farm became a Royal Flying Corps landing ground in 1916.
Second World War
Finningley's participation in RAF Bomber Command's offensive may have been short but the station played a vital part in finishing crews with operational training for the bombing role. An early pre-war expansion scheme airfield the site, farmland in a well wooded locality southeast of Doncaster was acquired in the summer of 1935. The Doncaster-Lincoln railway line ran a quarter mile to the north and Finningley village lay a similar distance to the east. The flying field covered around with the camp area situated to the northwest between Mare Flats Plantation and the A1 'Great North Road' (now the A638). Five Type C hangars were erected in the usual crescent layout facing the bombing circle, with a fifth directly behind the southernmost of the line. Administration and technical site buildings were immediately to the rear of the hangars. The camp cost £430,000 () to build and came under the command of No. 3 Bomber Group, who were headquartered at RAF Andover.
The station opened officially on 30 July 1936, however, Nos. 7 and 102 RAF Squadrons did not move in until September 1936 from RAF Worthy Down with Handley Page Heyfords. During the next year, No. 7 Squadron split into No. 76 and No. 102 similarly divided to produce No. 77 the latter two soon being moved south to RAF Honington. No. 7 Squadron converted to Whitleys in March and April 1938 while No. 76 continued to operate Wellesleys, the type it had been formed to fly. By the end of that year No. 5 Group completed its acquisition of No. 3 Group stations north of the Wash and, under its control, Finningley squadrons started conversion to the Handley Page Hampden, with Avro Ansons to fill out strength until more of this new type were available from production.
The need to establish units devoted to training crews on the new bomber types resulted in the setting up of so-called pool squadrons during the summer of 1939. A revision of this arrangement brought the designated pool squadrons into operational training units and, shortly after war was declared, both the Finningley squadrons moved to RAF Upper Heyford to form one of these organisations.
Finningley was to continue in a training role for No. 106 Squadron, which brought its Hampdens from RAF Cottesmore in October. Also classed as a reserve squadron, No. 106 continued the operational training role for No. 5 Group that the previous occupants had started to provide. The squadron also brought a flight of three Fairey battles which were used for target towing at the gunnery range at Skipsea on the Yorkshire coast.
During early 1940, Fairey Battles of 98 Squadron were moved to RAF Finningley from RAF Scampton. In June of the same year, No. 12 Squadron, also flying Fairey Battles, came to Finningley to re-arm and re-coup after suffering losses in conflict with the advancing German forces over France in May 1940. The squadron moved on to RAF Binbrook in July 1940.