RAF Middleton St George Station, the northernmost bomber station in the British Isles, opened on January 15, 1941.
The home of the RAF and RCAF, Middleton, better known locally as Goosepool, provided the springboard for many of the most famous bomber missions of World War II. These include the raids on the pocket battleship Tirpitz, the Battle of Hamburg, the Battle of Berlin, the V2 rocket sites at Penemünde, and the infamous Dresden raids of February 1945.
These, and dozens of other targets in Germany and Italy, received undivided attention from squads based at Middleton St George between April 1941 and May 1945.
The losses suffered by airmen from the British Isles, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a dozen other countries, who were based at RAF Middleton St George during World War II, amounted to 1,266 deaths. Even more were injured, taken prisoner or eluded capture.
This book covers the entire history of the airfield from the beginning of its construction in 1938, to the end of hostilities in the summer of 1945 and beyond. All sorties are recorded and every type of warplane based there is featured, including the Whitley and the Halifax.
It then continues with the peacetime training role of the airfield and the shift from Bomber Command to Fighter Command during the dawn of the jet age. The RAF remained in Goosepool until 1964, until budget cuts deemed the RAF Middleton St George to be in excess of requirements.
The final section of the book covers the period during which the airfield said goodbye to the RAF and announced the birth of Teesside Airport and the promising new jet travel industry. Teesside Airport prospered in the post-war years and by 2003 was providing flights to destinations around the world for the towns of Durham, Cumbria, Teesside and Yorkshire.
Sadly, after Peel Holdings took over the airfield during 2003, for some reason it was downsized and became a shadow of what it was before.
Today the future of Goosepool is uncertain. During the war, the Germans were the enemy at the gate. Now it seems that the gods of money hold the poisoned chalice that could decide the fate of the airfields.
The author’s website and blog are now available, an excellent reference for WWII historians.