Valley Airfield

Located on the western coast of the Isle of Anglesey approximately seven miles from Holyhead and 20 miles from Bangor and is sign posted with the traditionally red bordered signs.

Royal Air Force Valley is the RAF’s Advanced Tactics and Training Unit. Located on the western coast of the Isle of Anglesey (north-west Wales, UK), the Station is responsible for the advanced flying, tactics and weapons training for all the United Kingdom Armed Forces fast jet pilots.

The base is also home to C Flight, 22 Squadron of the RAF Search and Rescue organisation and is the parent unit for the Search and Rescue Training Unit who train all the SAR crews for the RAF. Follow the links to find out more.

RAF Valley is home to No 4 Flying Training School, now the only Advanced Training and Tactics Unit, responsible for training all RAF and RN fast jet pilots to front-line Operational Conversion Unit entry standard for Harrier, Sea Harrier, Jaguar, Tornado F3 and GR4 and when it enters Service the Eurofighter Typhoon. In addition, 4 Flying Training School trains its own Qualified Flying Instructors, Qualified Tactics Instructors and Qualified Weapons Instructors, as well as providing training for Exchange Officers and Foreign & Commonwealth pilots.

History:

The Station opened on 13 February 1941, in No 9 Group, Fighter Command, and for the first few weeks of its existence was called Royal Air Force Rhosneigr after one of the nearby villages, but was re-named Royal Air Force Valley on 5 April 1941.

At the time the Station opened enemy air activity over this country was still being conducted on a considerable scale and Valley's geographical location made it suitable as a Sector Operations Centre for the control of fighter defences in the approaches to Merseyside and Belfast, as well as the protection of shipping in the Irish Sea. Valley sector was served by a number of radar reporting stations strategically placed in the vicinity to give the widest possible coverage; these were at Nefyn, South Stack, Pen y Bryn, Rhuddlan and Castell Mawr. In addition, there was a GCI station at Trewan Sands for which Valley was responsible. The sand blown on to the airfield from the dunes of Traeth Cymyran by the prevailing westerly wind caused severe problems to aircraft engines and was only eventually resolved by the dumping of tonnes of mud dredged from the nearby lakes of Llyn Penrhyn and Llyn Traffwll.

On 3 March 1941, No 312 (Czech) Squadron moved in from Speke with its Hurricanes and began flying convoy patrols over the Irish Sea, and by the time it departed for Jurby on 25 May 1941 it had claimed the destruction of a Ju 88 during one such sortie. It was replaced by No 615 Squadron from Kenley, also flying Hurricanes, and was joined on 10 May by 'A' Flight of No 219 Squadron who brought their Beaufighter IFs on one month's attachment from Tangmere and whose nocturnal activities claimed several enemy aircraft. In the June, 2 sections of Hurricane IIBs of No 302 (Polish) Squadron and one section on No 68 Squadron with Beaufighter IFs arrived at Valley for one month's fighter defence duties.

No 456 (Royal Australian Air Force) Squadron formed at Valley on 30 June 1941 with Defiant 1s for night operations under the command of Wing Commander Olive DFC and became operational on 5 September. The Squadron converted to Beaufighter IIs in the same month as operations began, and these in turn were replaced by Beaufighter VIs in June 1942. The Squadron’s first ‘Kill’ came on 10 January 1942 when Squadron Leader Hamilton shot down a Do 217 during a routine night patrol and by the time the Beaufighters were replaced by Mosquito IIs in January 1943 and the Squadron departed for Middle Wallop in the March, 3 more enemy aircraft had been claimed as destroyed.

Address:
Royal Air Force
Valley
Holyhead
Anglesey
LL65 3NY

Tel 01407 762241

WWW: http://www.rafvalley.org/index1.htm

Runway 01/19

5377 x 150 feet
1639 x 46 meters

Runway 08/26

4200 x 150 feet
1280 x 46 meters

Runway 14/32

7513 x 150 feet
2290 x 46 meters

Navaids

The content above was published at Airports-Worldwide.com in 2005.
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