Beccles Airport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beccles Airport
IATA: N/A - ICAO: EGSM
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Rain Air
Serves		Beccles
Elevation AMSL		80 ft (24 m)
Coordinates		52°26′07″N, 001°37′06″Enited Kingdom
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
09/27	2,283	696	Concrete/Grass

Beccles Airport (IATA: N/A, ICAO: EGSM) is located 2 nautical miles (3.7 km) southeast of Beccles, Suffolk, England.

It was built for the USAAF and completed in 1943. It had the three concrete runway layout typical of many bomber airfields in East Anglia, and was allocated the airfield number 132. It is possible that Beccles was intended to be used by the 3rd Air Division, 95th Combat Wing. The 95th had two Bomber Groups, the 489th at Halesworth and the 491st at Metfield. Other Combat Wings had three Bomber Groups.

In the event USAAF had no use for the airfield so it passed briefly to RAF Bomber Command before passing to Coastal Command in August 1944. Until closure in 1945 the airfield was used by various RAF and FAA squadrons operating such diverse types as Warwick, Barracuda, Walrus, Swordfish, Sea Otter and Albacore on air-sea rescue and anti-shipping duties. At one time Beccles was called HMS Hornbill II.

One of Beccles few claims to fame is that in 1944 it was used by Mosquitos of 618 Squadron to practice dropping spinning bombs called 'Highball' which were a derivative of the bombs used by 617 Squadron to breach the dams. The use of 'Highball' is shown in the 1970 film Mosquito Squadron.

After the war Beccles remained dormant until 1965 when it became a heliport serving North Sea oil rigs until that operation transferred to Norwich International Airport.

Beccles airfield has been home to RainAir since 1997 when Rainer Forster transferred his flight trainning operations from Swanton Morley.