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Royal Air Force Sutton Bridge or more simply RAF Sutton Bridge is a former Royal Air Force station found next to the village of Sutton Bridge in the south-east of Lincolnshire. The airfield was to the south of the current A17, and east of the River Nene, next to Walpole in Norfolk. ==History== On 1 September 1926 the Air Ministry established R.A.F. Practice Camp Sutton Bridge〔The official naming used and found in official Air Ministry notices, the London Gazette and other publications is "R.A.F. Practice Camp Sutton Bridge". One example publication: FLIGHT, 24 May 1928, Air Ministry Announcements, Page 394: The Royal Air Force, Royal Air Force Intelligence, Appointments, I.W.C. Mackenzie to "R.A.F. Practice Camp, Sutton Bridge", 14.4.28 ()〕 on 289 acres of acquired agricultural land next to Sutton Bridge village from Guy's Hospital Agricultural Estates.〔Combat Ready!, Author: Alastair Goodrum, Publisher: GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1997, ISBN 9781870384605〕〔Airfield Focus 65: Sutton Bridge, Author: Alastair Goodrum, Publisher: GMS Enterprises, Peterborough, 1997, ISBN 9781904514152〕 It was the responsibility of the first camp commandant, Flight Lieutenant A. Mackenzie, to establish the base camp and its flying ground, to set up, operate and maintain ground and towed targets for practice machine gun firing and bomb dropping by the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm biplane squadrons. Its principal gunnery range was to be located along the coastal marshland on The Wash in close vicinity to the small village of Gedney Drove End (see Holbeach Marsh Range).〔〔〔(GOV.UK Publications, Ministry of Defence: Holbeach Air Gunnery and Bombing Range Bylaws 1939. )〕 Although an RAF aircraft gunnery practice camp from 1926, from 1 January 1932 it was officially renamed to No. 3 Armament Training Camp〔Publication: FLIGHT, 8 January 1932, Air Ministry Announcements, Page 43: The Royal Air Force, Royal Air Force Intelligence, Reorganisation of the Armament and Gunnery School, from 1 January 1932, R.A.F. practice camps will be known as armament training camps and numbered as follows...: No. 3 Armament Training Camp, Sutton Bridge ()〕 Sutton Bridge, subsequently No. 3 Armament Training Station Sutton Bridge,〔Publication: FLIGHT, 26 May 1938, Page 516, "A pair of Gloster Gauntlet single-seaters over the ranges at No. 3 Armament Training Station, Sutton Bridge" ()〕 and later simply RAF Sutton Bridge.〔〔 In October 1939 No. 266 Squadron RAF reformed at RAF Sutton Bridge as a fighter squadron and from January 1940 operated the Supermarine Spitfire, becoming the RAF’s second Spitfire fighter Squadron after RAF Duxford’s No. 19 Squadron RAF.〔〔 In March 1940 No. 6 Operational Training Unit (OTU) was formed and arrived at RAF Sutton Bridge for training fighter pilots, commanded by Squadron Leader Philip Campbell Pinkham, with a complement of Hawker Hurricane, Miles Mentor and North American Harvard aircraft, including one Gloster Gladiator, its first pilot pool came from No. 11 Group RAF transferring to No. 12 Group RAF of Fighter Command.〔〔 No. 6 OTU RAF was re-numbered in November 1940 to No. 56 OTU RAF and remained at RAF Sutton Bridge until relocating in March 1942 to RAF Tealing.〔〔 The single most important function of RAF Sutton Bridge was as the home for the RAF's Central Gunnery School (CGS) from April 1942 to March 1944. Here for the first time, fighter pilots of RAF Fighter Command and rear gunners of RAF Bomber Command were trained together so as to become Gunnery Instructors who would then be sent to airfields around the country to pass on newly acquired skills. In the words of Group Captain Allan Wright "the Central Gunnery School itself was the first of its kind in the world".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「RAF Sutton Bridge」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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