RAF Base or Station?
 

When I was attached as a civvy, it was always to an RAF (name follows) and called a station, with a Staish.

My granddaughter, newly minted as RAF Regiment Reserve refers to RAF Honington as a base. I think that is an Americanism.

Before I berate her, should I perhaps move with the times? I hope not.

Anyway, she is bigger than I am [most people are].

Well the official RAF recruiting website talks about bases. The main RAF website calls them Stations.

Seems the RAF can’t make their minds up either, although you commonly hear people talking about ‘being based …’

Interestingly my old Kuwaiti DS was often getting flagged up by security for being overheard talking about ‘Al Qaeda’ … which in English is ‘The Base’ when he was just pottering round the place. So may be Stations and being stationed might be a better idea?

Isn't the use of the term "station" taken from the (in general but exceptions are there) historic policy of naming RAF units after the nearest railway station?

During WW2, the older RAF Stations were allocated satellite airfields - the main station acting as their administration centre. The Stations together became a Base, so for example the combine of RAF Waddington, looking after RAF Skellingthorpe and RAF Bardney became Base 53: the third Base in 5 Group. Each of the stations had a Group Captain Station Commander, but in overall control at the main station was the Base Commander, an Air Commodore. Indeed, aircrew/groundcrew are seen in the F540s of the time as posted from a squadron to "Base" if administratively sick for example. I suspect that the "Base" as the HQ of the Stations carried on from here.

Thank you all. Admonition clearly over the top. Will wind my old-fashioned neck in .................

When I was in the R.A.F. I was always posted to R.A.F. XXXXXXX.
When asked where in the R.A.F. I was, the reply was always 'I am stationed at R.A.F. XXXXXXX'.
The word 'Base' was only used by our American cousins.

If I worked on the unit I was said I was stationed there but if I lived there but worked elsewhere I said I was based. I suppose that doesn’t help.:)

The R.A.F declined to name Odiham after its nearest railway station.

“R.A.F. Hook”, especially if said quickly, might have caused offence.

Ostensibly so, however, local geography wasn't always what you might call the name designators strong point. Hence RAF Hednesford on Cannock chase, which falls firmly under the heading of "grim and bleak" in Winter was named as such when Rugeley is considerably closer.

The nearest Railway Station is usually the "rule". However, if it could cause confusion then an alternative was used. For example, RAF Scopwick and RAF Shotwick are very similar, and so became Digby and Sealand respectively. The idea to use the nearest railway station was to help with the movement of logistics and personnel - you just bought a ticket to the station name!

An alternative view...?

It may be that an RAF Station can exist without having aircraft being "based" there.

However, a Station can also be a "Base" for aircraft. E.G High Wycombe is a Station but Lossiemouth is a base.

IG

It could get worse, having built a lovely airfield near Yelverton (that's Devon for the northern folk amongst us) the nice people at the Air Ministry decided that the young men entrusted with the aircraft at that time might mistake Yelverton for Yeovilton and called it Harrowbeer!

Genuine question: when did the term "Staish" come into common RAF parlance? I had never heard it until joining PPRuNE in the noughties.

I've only heard junior aircrew use the term, like a bit of slang, maybe they think they sound cool.

The expression "Staish" or even "Harry Staish" was in use during the 60s.
And it was nearly always "RAF Stations", or American "Air bases". However RAF Marham was frequently termed "Mar-ham Air Base" in a mock American accent.

Reminds me of another station 'funny', RNAS Twatt (HMS Tern). Nearest railway station probably Thurso.

Likewise, for the RAF station adjoining the town of Carterton it was felt that they might get confused with RAF Cardington so it was named after the small village on its eastern boundary, Brize Norton.

Camp was often used when referring to your own station when I was in the '70s RAF.
I'm going back to camp.
Where's the camp barber?
The camp's very quiet over Christmas.
Do you live near the camp?
Etc, etc.
I'm guessing it originated from the tented accommodation airmen lived in when overseas (back in the very old days). Is it still used?

Sorry for the thread drift here...but whilst we are talking Brize Norton...

What is the disused airfield WNW of the western runway end....looks mostly back to farmland now with some solar panels, but clearly an ex airfield and only a stones throw (maybe 2!) from the current Station / Base ...whatever we are calling them!

Just seems a bit odd that the new one was built so close to the old one.

RAF Broadwell (from a map of historic airfields)

RAF Broadwell, now home to a massive solar farm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Broadwell

YLSNED ... I had always understood that RAF Stations were named after the Parish in which they were located. Railway Station it is, then ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming...tary_air_bases

I remember receiving my arrival booklet for RAF Saxa Vord.

Nearest train station - Bergen, Norway.

Nice one!

I heard that Odiham was meant to be RAF North Warnborough after the name of the parish...but it was a mouthful so they went with the name of the village instead.

622 - there you go: https://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/ai...der/broadwell/

Wikipedia quotes:No. 512 Squadron and No. 575 Squadron were based here, flying the Douglas Dakota.

In February 1944, No. 512 Squadron was transferred to No. 46 Group at RAF Broadwell. It was a tactical Dakota squadron and started training glider towing and parachute dropping. Its first operation in the new role was a leaflet drop on 17 April 1944 over France; this was followed by intensive flying in and out of France, including dropping parachutists at Arnhem. In fact, 512 Squadron can claim that they were the first planes over on D Day as 3 Dakotas piloted by Fl Lt Hyde, W.O. James Proctor and a C Flight Flying Officer dropped a specialist team at 00.02 on 6 June to try and disrupt the Merville Battery before the main assault.

Broadwell took part in the D-Day assaults alongside nearby RAF Down Ampney and RAF Blakehill Farm. On the eve of D-Day, No. 575 Squadron dropped 5 Para into the invasion drop zone. On 6 June, it towed 21 Horsa gliders into France. In the next few weeks it started a casualty evacuation service from France back to England. In September 1944, it was involved in operations at Arnhem where the squadron suffered severe casualties.

The airfield continued to be a terminus for long-range transport operations to Europe, the Middle East and India.

The following units were here at some point:[1]

• No. 6 (RCAF) Casualty Air Evacuation Unit
• No. 10 Squadron RAF
• No. 21 Heavy Glider Conversion Unit RAF
• No. 76 Squadron RAF
• No. 77 Squadron RAF
• No. 91 (Forward) Staging Post
• No. 92 (Forward) Staging Post
• No. 94 (Forward) Staging Post
• No. 104 Terminal Staging Post
• No. 105 (Major) Staging Post
• No. 126 Staging Post
• No. 271 Squadron RAF
• No. 512 Squadron RAF
• No. 575 Squadron RAF
• No. 2792 Squadron RAF Regiment
• No. 2807 Squadron RAF Regiment

During my 37 years service I was always 'stationed' at an RAF Station.
Therefore if I was caught displaying excessive 'high spirits' after Happy Hour in the Officers Mess I'd be on the Station Commanders carpet on Monday morning. The Americans have Bases and it's the Army who have 'Camps' however it was quite common for non commissioned personnel to use the word 'camp' when referring to an RAF Stations and hence this became a common colloquialism.

It's all in the Crest!
 

Seems clear to me:
https://www.raf.mod.uk/sites/raf-bet...662_source.png

I think most RAF stations are similarly named.

As were Topcliffe and Tockwith (which became Marston Moor).

Following the Broadwell/Brize Norton diversion ... I went to Google Earth to have a look [as on does]. Drag the imagery timeline back to 1945, and there's a very clear B&W image o Broadwell ... but Brize seemingly does not exist! Just a patchwork of fields [which look as though they're photoshopped in], despite Brize having been there since 1937.

Why "hide" Brize, in that 1945 imagery? What was so 'special' there? There are plenty of other airfields displayed in their full glory [eg Alconbury, Wyton etc.]. But then go to Kent, and the entire county seems to be covered with 'cut and paste' imagery!

Curiouser and curiouser, said Alice.

Shirley an RAF station should have an SHQ whereas a base doesn't?

What about the ones with an SHQ and a BSW? :ooh:

I recall reading about 'self mobile squadrons', title may a bit wrong.
Was WW2 era.
When they re-located themselves was that a base ? How did the rest
of the R.A.F know where to find them ?

Rumoured to be so named because somebody, having been posted there, asked "who's the tw*t that had the bright idea of putting a staion here?"

Or was it "base" that he said ?

My Record of Service (RAF Form 543R) that I requested a copy of quite a few years ago shows that I was posted to a "Unit" - not a Base or Station- see attached.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6aec98859f.jpg

Ken Scott #17 & MPN11 # 22
The name of the railway station by the South East (Brittania) gate on the RAF Brize Norton airfield boundary at the time the airfield was built was "Bampton" even though Bampton is 5 miles away. Carterton at that time was merely a crossroads with a shop and a few smallholdings established by Mr Carter. Brize Norton Parish and Village were well estabished centuries before. I have a map of the area dated 1828 showing Brize Norton and Bampton, but No Carterton. The railway station was renamed "Bampton and Brize Norton"in 1944 to reflect the new importance of the RAF station.
The railway station closed in 1962.

MPN11,

When the USAF extended the Brize runway, did they ever consider the effect of having a railway across it? On the face of it, it is apparently a somewhat silly thing to do: if you have an aircraft needing an emergency landing and there's a train in the section, it may not be possible to stop the train in time....

The Army are now based at Leuchars Station…

radeng … also Ballykelly, IIRC. Perhaps the USAF had spoken to Dr. Beeching?

Tengah Type

If staish was in use in the sixties, it certainly passed me by. At Waddo we talked of Bootsie, Mike or Des (RIP all of them).

Sorry, should have mentioned Viv - still with us, I hope.