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RAF West Freugh is a Royal Air Force station located in Wigtownshire, five miles (8 km) south east of Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It has always been an armaments training school, either for handling or deployment of ordnance. ==History== During the First World War the site was a base for naval airships, known as RNAS Luce Bay. The base was provided with one huge airship hangar. RAF West Freugh opened in 1937 as an armament training camp. During the Second World War, it expanded to include training facilities for observers, navigators, and bomb aimers; and served as a base for the Bombing Trials Unit.〔(Mull of Galloway, History, Myths & Legends )〕 The known history of units known at West Freugh is:〔http://www.gcbooks.demon.co.uk/rafwrecks.htm〕 *22 October 1939 - 10 Service Flying Training School formed. Moved November *4 November 1939 - 4 Air Observer School formed *11 January 1940 - re-designated 4 Bombing & Gunnery School *14 June 1941 - 4 Air Observer School reformed *11 June 1943 - re-designated 4 Observer Advanced Flying Unit *21 June 1945 - 4 Observer Advanced Flying Unit disbanded *April 1957 - RAF West Freugh incident *2001 - Airfield closed, all RAF operations cease *2001 - operations taken over by QinetiQ〔(Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament )〕 In addition to the units listed above and with manpower possibly drawn from some of them a Mountain Rescue Team was based at West Freugh from 1945 to 1956 when the MRT at RAF Leuchars assumed responsibility for the area covered by West Freugh. The team was part of the RAF's Mountain Rescue Service. ==West Freugh incident== In April 1957, while monitoring a test bombing exercise, radar units of the Ministry of Supply Bombing Trials Unit headquartered at RAF West Freugh observed the UK's most reported UFO incident. Awaiting a test over Luce Bay from an aircraft RAE Farnborough, the civilian radar operators of the Ministry of Supply were told to turn their sets off due to a delay. One unit at Balscalloch near Corsewall Point did not receive the signal. They observed a large and solid unidentified echo, an almost stationary object, located above the Irish Sea. It remained stationary for 10 minutes at an initial height of , 20 to north of Stranraer; its height then increased to . The Balscalloch Unit contacted West Freugh air traffic control and informed the controller that there were now several moving targets. These were moving at speeds of thousands of miles per hour, and the echoes were like nothing the radar operator had ever seen before. West Freugh observed the targets, as did the now switched-on Ardwell Unit (14 miles to their south), confirming the observation. After ten minutes, the position begun to move north-east at speeds gradually increasing up to , and at a height of . A third radar station then confirmed the target, and noted that after the radar echo had travelled about , it did an "impossible" sharp turn and proceeded in a south-easterly direction whilst increasing its speed. The third station then tracked four objects at altitude and 4000 yards line astern from each other, which was confirmed by Balscalloch. The radar operators noted the echoes were much larger than those of normal planes, size being nearer to that of a ship.〔(ufo - UFOs at close sight: The West Freugh Incident, 1957 )〕 RAF intelligence ordered radar stations throughout the UK to be on 24-hour alert. A few days later, civilian operators reported the incident to various newspapers including the Sunday Dispatch, which published the incident on 7 April 1957. An Air Ministry spokesman declined to make a detailed statement until a full report had been studied by experts, while Wing Commander Walter Whitworth, RAF West Freugh Commanding Officer, made an Air Ministry approved statement:〔(SHG: J. J. A. Hennessey - "West Freugh UFO Sighting, 1957" )〕
Questions were asked in Parliament and the Air Ministry were eventually obliged to admit they were unable to explain the incident. As the incident had leaked to the press, internal RAF records were well preserved, although details of official records are protected by the Official Secrets Act〔(Ufos At Raf Lakenheath )〕 However, in an RAF meeting minutes document of 1970, Whitworth additionally commented that:〔
The station was also used, during the Summer of 1957, to house airmen deployed on Operation Hardrock, which was the name given to establishing a rocket tracking station on the island of Hirta in the St Kilda archipelago. Airmen were driven daily to Cairnryan Military Port and those, destined for St.Kilda, were shipped out on Mk VIII LST's (landing ship tank). 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 West Freugh」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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