RMB chivenor

Royal Marines Base Chivenor
Characteristics
ICAO code	EGDC
Coordinates	51 ° 5 '14 "  N , 4 ° 9' 1"  W Coordinates: 51 ° 5 '14 "  N , 4 ° 9' 1"  W.
Height above MSL	8 m (26  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	2 km south of Braunton
Street
Basic data
opening	October 25, 1940
operator	Royal Marines
Start-and runway
10/28	1833 m × 46 m asphalt

The Royal Marines Base Chivenor (short RMB Chivenor ) is a military airfield of the United Kingdom in Devon in southwest England . It now serves as a base for the British Royal Marines . It is west of the village of Chivenor between Barnstaple and Braunton on the north bank of the mouth of the River Taw . It originally had three paved runways, of which, however, only the east-west runway is used today.

history

The origins of the airfield go back to the 1930s when a small civil airfield was built near today's base.

RAF Chivenor

The area was taken over by the Royal Air Force (RAF) after the outbreak of World War II in May 1940 . The Royal Air Force Station Chivenor ( RAF Chivenor for short ) was initially used as a training airfield for the Coastal Command .

In 1942 Chivenor became a base for submarine patrols over the Bay of Biscay as part of the Battle of the Atlantic . The main aircraft types used were Beaufighter and Wellington . The latter were u. a. also flown by a Canadian and a Polish squadron.

After the war, the station served as a training station for the RAF Fighter Command between October 1946 and July 1949 and was then the location of observation aircraft of the later Army Air Corps and the starting point for fighter aircraft relocations to the Middle and Far East .

Hunter FR.10, 79th Squadron / 229th OCU , RAF Chivenor, 1971

Since mid-1955, the station has mainly served as a training ground, in particular for weapons training. Initially, however, the operational conversion unit (OCU) for the Hawker Hunter was located here . From 1957 there were two Hunter squadrons here , whose task in peacetime was weapon training. The last hunter unit stationed here was the Singapore Operational Training Flight , the retraining unit for the Republic of Singapore Air Force .

Since June 1957, Chivenor has also been the base for SAR helicopters, initially of the Sycamore HR.14 type . From 1967 the Wessex HAR.2 was flown, which in turn was replaced by the Sea King Mk.3A in the mid-1990s .

In 1974 the station was closed and only used by some gliders of the RAF youngsters. In 1979 and 1981, after modernization, Chivenor became home to No. 2 Tactical Weapons Units (TWU) with two reserve squadrons BAE Hawk , the 63rd and 151st Squadron . The unit was converted to No. 7 Flying Training School was renamed and the two Hawk squadrons took over the numbers of previous RAF Germany squadrons . The 19th and 92nd Squadron were previously Phantom squadrons in Wildenrath and before that Lightning squadrons in Gütersloh , which had shared the QRA task for the north of the Federal Republic until German reunification in 1990 . The Hawks left Chivenor in 1994 when the No. 7 with the No. 4 Flying Training School in RAF Valley was merged.

RMB chivenor

The facility was handed over to the Royal Marines in 1995. It was as a Royal Marines Base Chivenor home of logistics - Regiment of the Marines and a pioneer -Regiments.

The RAF had next to the glider group here Grob G 109 - motor gliders for years a swarm SAR - Helicopter , the 'A' Flight of 22 Squadron stationed with two Sea Kings. As a result of the privatization of British air rescue, the rescue helicopters flew their last mission in early October 2015, the last ever by an RAF Sea Kings in the UK. For training purposes for the RAF Sea Kings deployed on the Falkland Islands until the end of March 2016 , however, the crews required for this were further trained for a few months.

The airfield is also regularly served by various aircraft, especially helicopters and transport planes, of the British armed forces.

The RMB Chivenor is also responsible for Arromanches Camp , which is located on the south bank of the river, diagonally opposite to the southwest . The barracks houses the Amphibious Trials and Training Unit .

Web links

• Homepage of the base on the Royal Navy website (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chivenor Sea King Completes Final RAF UK Operational Sortie, RAF Homepage, October 5, 2015 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Farewell to RAF UK Search and Rescue, RAF homepage, October 15, 2015 ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.