A MEMORIAL has been unveiled at the site of a former RAF station to mark the part the airfield played in the Second World War.
RAF Leeming station commander Group Captain Steve Reeves unveiled a plaque at the former site of RAF Scorton, near Catterick, at a ceremony which included accounts of activities at the base, which opened in October 1939 under 13 Group of Fighter Command as a satellite to RAF Catterick.
Before parish reader Anne Whyman dedicated the memorial, a crowd of people attending the ceremony heard 219 Squadron had moved to the airfield in 1940 from Catterick with its Blenheim bombers, before being joined by 56 Squadron and its Spitfires.
In 1941, the airfield was enlarged to full station status and three tarmac runways, including one which was 4,800ft long and had service personnel stationed there from Canada, the United States and Poland alongside RAF crews.
Councillor Ian Threlfall said after receiving donations, including from ex-servicemen and Lafarge Tarmac, the memorial had been erected to preserve an important part of Scorton's history.
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