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RNAS Rattray (HMS Merganser) | |||||||||||||
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Crimond, Aberdeenshire in Scotland | |||||||||||||
Coordinates | 57°36′44″N01°53′01″W / 57.61222°N 1.88361°W | ||||||||||||
Type | Royal Naval Air Station | ||||||||||||
Site information | |||||||||||||
Owner | Ministry of Defence | ||||||||||||
Operator | Royal Navy | ||||||||||||
Site history | |||||||||||||
Built | March 1943 | ||||||||||||
In use | July 1943-present | ||||||||||||
Airfield information | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 13 metres (43 ft) AMSL | ||||||||||||
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Commissioned | 3 October 1944 |
Royal Navy Air Station Rattray, (RNAS Rattray; or HMS Merganser) and also known as Crimond Airfield, Crimond Aerodrome or Rattray Aerodrome was a Royal Naval Air Station near Crimond, Aberdeenshire.
The station started to be built from March 1943, with 774 Naval Air Squadron moving in from July 1943 for Telegraphist Air Gunners training but the site was not commissioned until 3 October 1944.
The base then switched to training Torpedo Bombing Reconnaissance crews.
The following units were here at some point:
The base was closed in 1946, being moved into a state of care & maintenance. It was also used as a Royal Naval Wireless Station until 2004.
The site is home to a high frequency transmitter station forming part of the Defence High Frequency Communications Service. The station is operated by Babcock International Group on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. [3]
Royal Air Force Machrihanish or RAF Machrihanish is a former Royal Air Force station located near the town of Machrihanish and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) west of Campbeltown, at the tip of the Kintyre peninsula, Argyll and Bute, in Scotland.
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717 Naval Air Squadron was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. It formed as a Torpedo Bomber Reconnaissance Training Squadron, at RNAS Fearn, in July 1944, operating with Barracuda aircraft. The squadron then moved to RNAS Rattray, in the October, continuing in Torpedo Bomber Reconnaissance training. In early 1946 the squadron received Firebrand aircraft, with the objective of forming a Firebrand Conversion Unit, however the squadron disbanded in March 1946.
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753 Naval Air Squadron was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. It was active as an Observer Training Squadron from 1939 to 1946 as part of No.2 Observer School, forming out of the School of Naval Co-operation, in May 1939. Initially at RNAS Lee-on-Solent, the squadron moved to RNAS Arbroath just over one year later, in August 1940, following a German bombing attack on the air station. It spent four years operating out of Arbroath, before relocating again, this time to RNAS Rattray, where the squadron disbanded in August 1946.
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