Qualla: RAF Cottesmore https://qualla.com/raf-cottesmore en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/r/e/raf-cottesmore-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: RAF Cottesmore https://qualla.com/raf-cottesmore RAF Cottesmore: Introduction https://qualla.com/raf-cottesmore/ Photo credit Andrew Tatlow, CC BY-SA 2.0. The hunting horn on the station badge was earned. RAF Cottesmore opened on 11 March 1938 on land that had been Cottesmore Hunt country for centuries, and the squadron's heraldic emblem (a hunting horn over an inverted horseshoe with an American star on top) reads as a compressed three-line autobiography of the place. Hunt country. Rutland horseshoe. American visitors. The motto, granted in 1948, was 'We rise to our obstacles', which was a fox-hunting reference and also something an airfield does on a morning take-off. For seventy-three years aircraft flew off these runways. The last formal departure was on 31 March 2011. In April 2012 the army took it over, renamed it Kendrew Barracks and parked tanks on the dispersals.

Read more: RAF Cottesmore on Qualla

Image: Andrew Tatlow | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/r/e/raf-cottesmore-wp/gcre-raf-cottesmore-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full RAF Cottesmore: Wellesleys, Hampdens, and the Phoney War https://qualla.com/raf-cottesmore/ Photo credit Kate Jewell, CC BY-SA 2.0. The station's earliest residents flew the Vickers Wellesley, an angular monoplane bomber notable mainly for its geodesic airframe construction (the lattice-work design Barnes Wallis later refined into the Wellington). They quickly converted to Fairey Battles, three-seat light bom...

Read more: RAF Cottesmore on Qualla

Image: Kate Jewell | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/r/e/raf-cottesmore-wp/gcre-raf-cottesmore-wellesleys-hampdens-and-the-phoney-war.mp3 0:06 2 full RAF Cottesmore: The 316th Troop Carrier Group https://qualla.com/raf-cottesmore/ Photo credit Signal Corps Archive from United States, Public domain. In September 1943 the United States Army Air Forces took over the facilities as USAAF Station 489. Thirty-two Airspeed Horsa gliders were delivered for storage in July, well before the Americans arrived, in anticipation of what was coming. The 316th Troop Carrier Group flew in fr...

Read more: RAF Cottesmore on Qualla

Image: Signal Corps Archive from United States | Public domain

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/r/e/raf-cottesmore-wp/gcre-raf-cottesmore-the-316th-troop-carrier-group.mp3 0:06 3 full RAF Cottesmore: V-Bombers and Tornadoes https://qualla.com/raf-cottesmore/ Photo credit Robert Cutts from Bristol, England, UK, CC BY 2.0. The RAF returned on 1 July 1945. The station spent the late 1940s and the 1950s training basic and advanced pilots on Prentices, Harvards and Boulton Paul Balliols. The Cold War repurposed it: No. 10 Squadron reformed in 1958 flying the Handley Page Victor, one of the three V-bom...

Read more: RAF Cottesmore on Qualla

Image: Robert Cutts from Bristol, England, UK | CC BY 2.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/r/e/raf-cottesmore-wp/gcre-raf-cottesmore-v-bombers-and-tornadoes.mp3 0:06 4 full RAF Cottesmore: The Last Harriers and the Tanks https://qualla.com/raf-cottesmore/ Photo credit RuthAS, CC BY 3.0. After refurbishment, Cottesmore became home to the British Aerospace Harrier IIs of Nos 3 and 4 Squadrons, later joined by 800 and 801 Naval Air Squadrons to form Joint Force Harrier. The Harrier, with its capacity for vertical and short take-off and landing, had been the United ...

Read more: RAF Cottesmore on Qualla

Image: RuthAS | CC BY 3.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/r/e/raf-cottesmore-wp/gcre-raf-cottesmore-the-last-harriers-and-the-tanks.mp3 0:06 5 full