RAF Bolt Head
Unit Dates Aircraft Variant Notes
No . 16 Squadron RAF 1940-1941 Westland Lysander III Detachments from RAF Weston Zoyland
No . 41 Squadron RAF 29 April-16 May 1944 & 24 May-19 June 1944 Supermarine Spitfire XII Attended APC Fairwood Common , 17-23 May 1944
No . 234 Squadron RAF 1944 Supermarine Spitfire VI
No . 257 Squadron RAF 1942 Hawker Typhoon IA and IB Detachments from RAF Exeter
No . 263 Squadron RAF 1943 Westland Whirlwind I Detachments from RAF Warmwell
No . 263 Squadron RAF 1944 Hawker Typhoon IB
No . 266 Squadron RAF 1944 Hawker Typhoon IB
No . 275 Squadron RAF 1944 Supermarine Spitfire VC Later moved to RAF Exeter with detachments back to Bolt Head
No . 276 Squadron RAF 1944 Various Detachment from RAF Portreath
No . 310 Squadron RAF 1942 Supermarine Spitfire VB and VC Detachments from RAF Exeter
No . 421 Squadron RCAF 1942 Supermarine Spitfire VB Detachments from RAF Exeter
No . 610 Squadron RAF 1943 Supermarine Spitfire VC
No . 611 Squadron RAF 1944 Supermarine Spitfire IX
RAF units and aircraft
Royal Air Force Bolt Head or more simply RAF Bolt Head is a former Royal Air Force grass airfield south west of Salcombe on the south Devon coast, England from 1941 to 1945. During the Second World War it was used as a satellite for RAF Exeter. There were two runways, of 3,680 ft at 45° and 4,200 ft at 120°
The Ground Control Interceptor Station, (GCI) RAF Hope Cove. was established nearby in 1941 to direct fighter operations in the English Channel. Today the World War II buildings are almost all gone but a memorial to the airfield's war-time history exists in the centre of the site, two notable post-war buildings survive including a large R6 Rotor bunker (used until 1994 as a Regional Seat of Government) and a grass airstrip is still used occasionally by light aircraft. The landowners also hosted an air display there in 2009 which saw a Hurricane and Spitfire visit the airfield for the first time since the war.