The location was chosen for its flat terrain and its situation close to the now disbanded
Eryholme-Richmond branch line that had a sub branch line to
Catterick Garrison and
RAF Catterick. The first unit to use the airfield was a detachment of
Bristol Blenheim aircraft from
No. 219 (Mysore) Squadron, which had reformed at RAF Catterick in the same month that Scorton had opened. Although originally designated as a satellite station, in 1941, the site was extended into a 'full' RAF station with 12 hangars and three tarmac runways, with the main east/west runway measuring compared to RAF Catterick's runway which was . This was done because Catterick could not be extended as it was sandwiched between the
Great North Road and the
River Swale. At the same time, the decoy landing site at
Birkby (to the east near to
Danby Wiske, came under the command of Scorton, having previously been an asset of RAF Catterick. On its re-opening, the first squadron allocated to Scorton was
No. 122 (Bombay), which was equipped with
Spitfire Vs for convoy patrols over the North Sea. No. 122 left for
RAF Hornchurch in 1942, with
No. 406 Squadron RCAF and No. 219 Squadron later operating from the base. Initially, four aircraft from No. 406 Sqn were detached to Scorton from
RAF Drem in February 1942, with the rest of the squadron following in the same year. Both 219 and 406 would later move out again and during 1943,
No. 167 (Gold Coast) Squadron was reformed at Scorton, before moving to
RAF Castletown. Between the spring of 1943, and the spring of 1944, Scorton was host to
No. 604 (County of Middlesex) Squadron AAF who arrived from
RAF Ford in
Hampshire and
No. 56 Squadron from
RAF Martlesham Heath. The squadrons flew
Beaufighters and
Typhoons respectively. In May 1944, the USAAF
Ninth Air Force transferred two
Northrop P-61 Black Widow night interceptor squadrons, No.s 422 and 425, to Scorton from
RAF Charmy Down near Bath in
Somerset, to train and fly with the RAF night fighter Operational Training Unit assigned there. Initially flying
de Havilland Mosquitoes, their first P-61 arrived at Scorton in May 1944 and their first assignment was to chase night-flying
V-1 "buzz bombs". Scorton was known as
USAAF Station AAF-425 for security reasons by the USAAF during the war, and by which it was referred to instead of location. The Black Widows would be vectored to intercept approaching V-1s by ground control. Since the V-1 was a little faster than the P-61, the Black Widow had to approach the V-1 from behind and go into a slight dive in order to catch up with it. The first Black Widow V-1 "kill" took place on 16 July 1944, credited to pilot Herman Ernst and radar operator Edward Kopsel of the 422nd Night Fighter Squadron. One of the greatest dangers involved in killing V-1s was the possibility of getting too close to the flying bomb when one fired at it, running the risk of damage to their own plane if the bomb exploded when hit. After
D-Day, the USAAF Black Widows moved to Advanced Landing Grounds at Maupertus (A-15) (422d NFS) near Cherbourg and Vannes (A-33N) (425th NFS) in Brittany France to intercept German night fighters and bombers attacking Allied positions. After the two American squadrons vacated the base, it was quiet again for a period before the site was transferred from Fighter Command to Balloon Command who used the site for storage. At the end of the war, the airfield was surplus to requirements, but was used first by No. 224 Maintenance Unit, and then with No. 91 Maintenance Unit, who vacated the site in 1952. ==Units==