RAF Brunton – A little known about airfield.

In this the second stop on our trip to Northumberland, we travel close to the North Sea coast not far from the eastern borders of England and Scotland. A small airfield, this was the satellite to RAF Milfield, and performed an important role in the Second World War. You cannot mention Milfield without reference to this airfield, and vice versa. Here we stop off at that little known about site RAF Brunton.

RAF Brunton.

Brunton is located some 3.5 miles to the south-east of Seahouses, a short distance from the Northumbrian coast. The village it takes its name from sits alongside the airfield, and is made up of a handful of buildings – primarily farmhouses. It is an open and flat area ideal for an airfield, and only a short flying distance away from its parent airfield RAF Milfield.

Brunton was designed as a satellite, and even though it was not a major airfield, it more than fulfilled the role of one. A constantly busy site, it somehow managed to ward off the high numbers of tragedies, losses and accidents that dogged Milfield and many other aircrew training facilities.

Brunton was conceived during the development of Milfield, when the need for another site was soon realised. The land on which Brunton stands was requisitioned in 1941, opening for business in early 1942. With its three runways forming an almost perfect equilateral triangle at its centre, it had a 50 yard perimeter track and twenty-five hardstands of the frying pan style. The longest of the three runways ran slightly off north-south, and was originally built to a length of 1,600 yards – it was later extended to 2,000 yards. The second and third runways, intersecting almost at their centre, were both 1,100 yards and were also extended but to 1,400 and 2,000 yards respectively.

One of several exposed shelters at RAF Brunton.

Unusually, the accommodation areas were all closely tied together, a rare feature that placed them to the south of the airfield straddling the local railway (now the East Coast main line from which views can be seen as you pass by). Being a satellite, Brunton was only designed to accommodate small numbers of personnel, upward of some 750 men and women of mixed ranks.

As a satellite, there were no permanent hangars built, but four blister hangars were erected around the site, and used to maintain the aircraft. These Blister hangars (a name given to cover a wide range of arched aircraft shelters initially designed by architects and engineers, Norman & Dawbarn and William C. Inman of Miskins and Sons) were known as Dorman Long hangars, and were built to design 4630/42. At slightly under 72 feet in length they were 45 feet wide with a height of over 20 feet. Dorman Long hangars differed in design to other hangars by being constructed of four sections each held together by three RSJ type ribs, and ‘I’ shaped Purlins along the roof. These hangars were also bolted to foundations rather than staked to the ground like the more conventional blister hangars in use at that time. A similar hangar was used at RAF Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire – none of which survive today.

As a satellite, Brunton would work closely with its parent. It would be used in the second part of the 9-10 week pilot’s course to train pilots in formation flying, ground attack and strafing techniques. In the ground attack role, pilots would use a mix of rockets, bombs and cannon to destroy dummy convoys and strongholds. There were a number of ranges in the region providing targets for this particular role; Brunton aircraft predominately using the gunnery range at Goswick Dunes on which numerous ex-army vehicles, including Churchill Tanks, were placed.

Even before Brunton officially opened, it would witness a tragic accident in which it became the final resting place of one Whitley bomber, and three of its four crew. On November 6/7th 1941, whilst on a training flight, the MK. V Whitley (Z6932) of 10 Sqn, RAF Leeming, became lost in poor weather due to a failure of its navigation equipment. After landing on the partially built site, the Whitley took off again, heading south in an effort to locate its home base. As it lifted off, it struck a steam roller causing the aircraft to jolt and strike live high tension cables. The aircraft burst into flames and subsequently crashed. The Wireless Operator/Rear Gunner Sgt. Robert Whitlock, RAFVR (s/n: 163028) was pulled free by a crew from the local search light battery, but the remainder of the crew: Pilot F/Sgt. William Stuart RCAF, (s/n: R/60298) P/O. Richard. S. Austin, RNZAF, (s/n: 403785) and Observer Sgt. P. Bryant, RAFVR, (s/n: 976876), all perished. Bryant was a mere 23 years of age whilst Stuart and Austin were both just 21 years old.

Brunton’s opening in the summer of 1942, coincided with the start of operations at RAF Milfield, Brunton’s first residents would be 59 Operational Training Unit, a unit set up to train pilots for Fighter Command.

59 OTU operated the Hurricane, many of which were themselves veterans of the Battle of Britain. War-weary and battle-scarred, they were joined by a number of other aircraft types including Magisters and Fairy Battles. These flights would take the now adept pilots and train them to fly in formation and at low-level. A speciality would be to fly across the sea, at low-level, turn toward land and then strike at land based targets with bombs and canon or later rockets.

During the Spring of 1942 it was decided to allocate reserve squadron numbers to Operational Training Units, these numbers being in the range 551 – 566. The idea behind this plan – code name ‘Saracen‘ – was to create a series of squadrons that could be mobilised at a moments notice to counteract an imminent German invasion threat. The plans were later revised under the codename ‘Banquet‘ but would remain, in essence, in its original form well into 1944 before being seen as unnecessary, and so  withdrawn. At Brunton, 559 Sqn was allocated, (500 was generally added to the OTU number to create the reserve number) but the pilots of 31 Course, like many others, were never officially mobilised. However, Brunton was run as if it were a fully fledged operational squadron, the same rules and regulations, with two flights ‘E’ and ‘F’ both operating the Hurricane MK.I.

Flying with old and war-weary aircraft was difficult. Many would suffer engine fires, oil leaks or complete engine failures – some whilst in flight – and they rarely flew without the need for excessive trimming or constant adjustments to flying controls. These continuing problems would hound the pilots and ground crews for months, but undeterred they carried on, and morale remained particularly high.

A very small number of buildings exist dotted about the former airfield. Thought to be the former flight offices, these examples are the largest.

On October 13th 1942, one of these Hurricanes would suffer from such a problem and its engine would fail causing the pilot to crash-land. A MK.I  Hurricane (P3524) it would be forced to land in a field not far from Alnwick, the county town a few miles to the south-west of the airfield. The aircraft was slightly damaged in the incident but fortunately the pilot, Sgt. C. Tidy (s/n 1042890), would walk away unhurt. In carrying out the controlled crash, Sgt. Tidy would steer his aircraft down missing a nearby school, but as he exited the aircraft, the documents he was carrying were scattered to the four winds. Wanting to do their bit, a local school master organised a search party with the boys in his care, and the documents were all gathered up and retrieved successfully. *¹

Brunton, like Milfield, would have a high turnover of visiting aircraft. Many would come from Milfield, but some from much further afield to practice landings at night or as pilots transferred from one aerodrome to another. Some aircraft were also using Brunton as a safe haven, getting down after getting in trouble in the air. In March 1943 a Hurricane MK. I (W9121) of 59 OTU based at Milfield  crashed whilst on final approach at night to Brunton airfield. The pilot, Sgt. Cullener was very sadly killed in an event that was repeated in early 1944, when another Milfield 59 OTU Hurricane MK.I (P3104) also crashed on its approach to Brunton.

The dawn of 1944 saw 59 OTU along with the Specialised Low Attack Instructors School  (SLAIS) (also formed in 1942 at Milfield) disband, being replaced by a specialised unit the Fighter Leader School. The FLS was a unit designed solely to train pilots in the ground attack role and was set up primarily in preparation for the forthcoming Allied Invasion of Normandy. With this change so came a change of aircraft type, the Spitfire VB and MK IX now becoming the main aircraft operated in place of the Hurricane. The FLS would make great use of Brunton, training many pilots until it moved to Wittering at the end of 1944.

But not all staff would vacate Brunton in this move. A small detachment remained behind to give support to the build up of the newly reformed 56 Operational Training Unit who were brought together, both here and at Milfield, in place of the vacating FLS. This meant that the two sites would continue to operate very closely, but now using the heavier radial engined Tempests and Typhoons still in the ground attack role rather than the previous Spitfires and the now vulnerable Hurricanes of before.

The Typhoons came in with a number of teething troubles, one such attribute was the propensity to lose its tail plane during mid-flight, or the engine suffering a blow-back resulting in a fire in the engine or worse still in the cockpit. These issues were soon dealt with  though, and the Typhoon went on to become renowned as a ground attack aircraft, with its bombs or rockets proving devastating weapons in the role.

Av Typhoon IB JP853/SA-K of No 486 Squadron (Tangmere) (IWM CH 11578)

Brunton continued its close relationship with Milfield, supporting its 140 aircraft. Course No. 1 would begin in that January of 1945 and through it a large number of pilots would pass on their way to new roles in the European campaign.

Even as the war drew to a close accidents were still to happen and Brunton was no exception. In early January 1945, whilst being ferried from Milfield to Brunton Typhoon IB. (RB343) developed engine failure on take of at Milfield causing it to lose height and ultimately crash into the ground. The pilot, Canadian born P/O Nelson I. Gordon (J88818) was killed. Then just a month before the end of the war on April 9th, Tempest MK. V (EJ845) swung on take off at Brunton colliding with a wind sock. The accident took the life of another Canadian pilot, 32-years-old F/Lt. Ivan W. Smith (J22244) RCAF; he remains buried at Harrogate (Stonefall) Cemetery in Yorkshire along with over 1,000 other war dead.

Gradually though, the need for ground attack pilots diminished and Brunton, no longer required, was earmarked for closure. The war finally came to a close, and on February 14th 1946, 56 OTU were disbanded and the RAF pulled out of Brunton almost immediately. The airfield was now all but deserted.

After the war, for around 20 years, the Borders Parachute Centre occupied Brunton, until the land was sold, and the owner gave them notice to quit. Their lease ran out in 2004 and the club closed on the site. During this time a small contingent of RAF personnel were brought in when a radar facility was set up on the eastern side of the site. This too eventually closed though, and the personnel were pulled out. A small number of private pilots used the airfield to store and fly their aircraft from, it is believed they too have had to vacate the site, although this is not certain.

A large portion of the airfield still exists and in very good condition today. If travelling toward Brunton village you pass beneath the main East Coast main line railway, and on into the village. This road was the original entrance to the airfield, with the main technical area to your left. Now only farm buildings stand here, but the concrete pathway is still visible as it leads away to the main airfield site. Views across the airfield from this point offer little advantage, so turning back and driving along side the railway  down a single track, will lead you along the western side of the airfield and toward the back of the site. This is another original road and provides much better, but still limited, views of the site. The runways and perimeter track are present and many air raid shelters are also present along this western side. The remainder of the buildings from these various sites are now gone.

The small radar / monitoring dome is also still present but on the eastern side of the airfield, and although information about this is scarce, it was linked to nearby RAF Boulmer, and manned by RAF personnel. Boulmer which is currently the home of the Air Surveillance and Control System (ASACS) plays a key role in the home defence of the United Kingdom. Boulmer is linked to a number of monitoring stations around the British Isles and monitors, around the clock, an area of over one million square miles of airspace. This airspace stretches from the northern tip of Norway to as far out as Iceland and beyond, and encompasses the whole of the United Kingdom. With links direct to the QRA sites at RAF Coningsby, it monitors and tracks all aircraft activity around British Airspace, and in particular Soviet intrusions into this Airspace.

Another of the exposed shelters to along the western boundary. The taxiway of a short distance from here.

Brunton, whilst only a satellite, proved its worth during the Second World War. It trained numerous pilots in the art of ground attack techniques, and was pivotal in both the Normandy invasion and the drive on through occupied Europe. Visited by many commonwealth pilots, it was more ‘relaxed’ than other wartime airfields, but always maintained the highest of standards, operating as strictly and smoothly as any operational airfield of the Second World War.

Sources and further Reading.

*¹ Article appeared in “The Northumbrian Times – No. 28” and was quoted in Walton, D. (1999), Northumberland Aviation Diary, Norav Publications.