RFCS Shotwick, RAF Shotwick, RAF Sealand, MoD Sealand - Flintshire, North Wales.
Top - The Shotwick/Sealand site today. Below - RAF Sealand 1945
Situated approx 3 miles north west of Chester and a similar distance south west of Ellesmere Port on the north side of the River Dee.
The airfield was originally named RFCS Shotwick and later RAF Shotwick, the station was finally named RAF Sealand after another nearby village in June 1924.
This was to avoid confusion between RAF Shotwick and RAF Scopwick approx 10 miles south east of Lincoln in Lincolnshire. RAF Scopwick was renamed RAF Digby
Shotwick was originally a civilian airfield and was taken over by the military in 1916 for training.
Two twin hangars built in 1917 were used by the Royal Flying Corps.
103 Squadron arrived at the airfield from France with their DH9s on the 26th March 1919 and disbanded on the 1st October 1919.
103 Squadron Officer group pictured late 1918/early 1919
No 5 Flight Training School ( FTS ) were formed there in 1920. Their first aircraft were DH9s which may have been those left over when 103 Squadron were disbanded.
103 Squadron DH9
30 Maintenance Unit RAF was formed at Sealand in 1937.
At the start of WW2 5 FTS was redesignated No. 5 Service Flight Training School RAF (5 SFTS) equipped with the twin engined Airspeed Oxford and a variety of single engined types including the De Havilland Tiger Moth and North American Harvard.
De Havilland Tiger Moth
North American Harvard.
During the war these SFTS Schools provided further training for RAF pilots who had received basic flight training at an EFTS (Elementary Flying Training School)
Kenneth Cross, brother of IKP Cross who flew with 103 Squadron during WW2 and was murdered in the aftermath of the Great Escape, spent time at No. 5 FTS as an instructor in the 1930s.
Among the pilots who trained at 5 SFTS, RAF Sealand was RAF fighter ace Johnnie Johnson.
In 1941 No. 19 EFTS equipped with Tiger Moths was located at RAF Sealand.
In 1951 the station was taken over by the United States Air Force. The 30th Air Depot Wing was located at Sealand but later moved RAF Brize Norton
Most of the personnel of the 30th Air Depot Group were reassigned to the 7558th Air Depot Group of the 59th Air Depot Wing in November 1951.
The Americans left in 1957 and the station reverted to RAF control
Sealand then became a communications support base for RAF operations around the world functioning as a third-line repair station for avionics equipment for all three services.
No. 631 Volunteer Gliding Squadron RAF operated at Sealand between 1963 and 2006, initially operating the Slingsby T.21 "Sedbergh" glider and then the Viking TMk1.
The RAF vacated the airfield in 2006
Sealand was then home to the Civilian Technical Training School giving training in avionics, radio, radar and flight instrumentation.
The school also trained ATTOs (Assistant Telecommunications Technical Officers (formerly Radio Technician)), ATTs (Avionics Trainee Technicians), and apprentices.
Other organisations based at the site included, 2001–2008 Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA), 2008–2015 Defence Support Group, 2015 - DECA (Defence Electronics and Components Agency), Army Base Repair Organisation (ABRO), the Defence Communication Services Agency (DCSA), and Defence Equipment & Support.
The old airfield is still and very active and important site today with a doubtless long and productive future in store.
Along the banks of the River Dee near the airfield a number of interesting pillboxes remain intact like the one below. in Addition there is an interesting post war Yarnold sangar within the old airfield perimeter which is still intact and visible from the road
Type 24 pillbox on the banks or the River Dee
Yarnold Sangar at Sealand
Item compiled by David Fell. Photos from my own archive except the 1945 airfield photo at the top which is courtesy of the Wing Commander T G 'Jeff' Jefferson, DSO AFC AE website. This is a very good site about a gentleman who had a very long distinguished and varied RAF career including a spell at RAF Sealand No 5 Flying Training School
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