RAF Bolt Head

Royal Air Force Bolt Head or more simply RAF Bolt Head is a former Royal Air Force satellite station 1 mile (1.6 km) south west of Salcombe on the south Devon coast, England from 1941 to 1945. During the Second World War it was used as a satellite for RAF Exeter. There were two runways, of 3,680 ft at 45° and 4,200 ft at 120°.^[2]

RAF Bolt Head
Salcombe, Devon in England
Site information
Type	Royal Air Force satellite station
Code	OH[1]
Owner	Air Ministry
Operator	Royal Air Force
Controlled by	RAF Fighter Command * No. 10 Group RAF * No. 11 Group RAF
Location
RAF Bolt Head Shown within Devon
Coordinates	50°13′24″N 003°48′21″W
Site history
Built	1941 (1941)
In use	1941-1947 (1947)
Battles/wars	European Theatre of World War II
Airfield information
Elevation	128 metres (420 ft)[1] AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 00/00 1,121 metres (3,678 ft) Sommerfeld Tracking 00/00 1,280 metres (4,199 ft) Sommerfeld Tracking

The Ground Control Interceptor Station (GCI) RAF Hope Cove was established on the northeast side of the field in 1941 to direct fighter operations in the English Channel. Unlike the airfield, Hope Cove remained in use into the 1990s.

Today the World War II buildings are almost all gone but a memorial to the airfield's war-time history exists in the centre of the site, two notable post-war buildings survive including a large R6 Rotor bunker (used until 1994 as a regional seat of government) and a grass airstrip is still used occasionally by light aircraft. The landowners also hosted an air display there in 2009 which saw a Hurricane and Spitfire visit the airfield for the first time since the war.

RAF units and aircraft

Unit	Dates	Aircraft	Variant	Notes
No. 16 Squadron RAF	1940–1941	Westland Lysander	III	Detachments from RAF Weston Zoyland.[3]
No. 41 Squadron RAF	29 April-16 May 1944 & 24 May-19 June 1944	Supermarine Spitfire	XII	Attended APC Fairwood Common, 17–23 May 1944.[4]
No. 234 (Madras Presidency) Squadron RAF	1944	Supermarine Spitfire	VI	[5]
No. 257 (Burma) Squadron RAF	1942	Hawker Typhoon	IA and IB	Detachments from RAF Exeter.[6]
No. 263 (Fellowship of the Bellows) Squadron RAF	1943	Westland Whirlwind	I	Detachments from RAF Warmwell.[7]
	1944	Hawker Typhoon	IB	[7]
No. 266 (Rhodesia) Squadron RAF	1944	Hawker Typhoon	IB	[8]
No. 275 Squadron RAF	1944	Supermarine Spitfire	VC	Later moved to RAF Exeter with detachments back to Bolt Head.[9]
No. 276 Squadron RAF	1944	Various		Detachment from RAF Portreath.[9]
No. 310 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF	1942	Supermarine Spitfire	VB and VC	Detachments from RAF Exeter.[10]
No. 421 (Red Indian) Squadron RCAF	1942	Supermarine Spitfire	VB	Detachments from RAF Exeter.[11]
No. 610 (County of Chester) Squadron RAuxAF	1943	Supermarine Spitfire	VC	[12]
No. 611 (West Lancashire) Squadron RAuxAF	1944	Supermarine Spitfire	IX	[13]

The following units were here at some point:^[14]

• Detachment from No. 10 Group Communication Flight RAF (February - October 1943)^[15]
• No. 2704 Squadron RAF Regiment
• No. 2715 Squadron RAF Regiment
• No. 2738 Squadron RAF Regiment
• No. 2953 Squadron RAF Regiment
• No. 4179 Anti-Aircraft Flight RAF Regiment

During the Second World War, 17 personnel operating from RAF Bolt Head were killed in action or died on active service.^[16]