avia.wikisort.org - Aerodrome

Royal Air Force Hell's Mouth or more simply RAF Hell's Mouth is a former Royal Air Force Emergency Landing Ground at Hell's Mouth, (Porth Neigwl) on the Llŷn Peninsula near Abersoch, Gwynedd, Wales.

RAF Hell's Mouth
Near Abersoch, Gwynedd in Wales
The site of RAF Hell's Mouth
RAF Hell's Mouth Shown within Gwynedd Show map of Gwynedd RAF Hell's Mouth RAF Hell's Mouth (the United Kingdom) Show map of the United Kingdom
Coordinates	52°48′25″N 004°32′14″W
Type	Emergency Landing Ground Air gunnery and bombing range
Site information
Owner	Air Ministry
Operator	Royal Air Force
Controlled by	RAF Coastal Command
Site history
Built	1940 (1940)
In use	1940-1946 (1946)
Battles/wars	Second World War
Airfield information
Elevation	18 metres (59 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 00/00  Grass

History

RAF Hell's Mouth was commissioned in February 1937 as a Relief Landing Ground, later an Emergency Landing Ground for RAF Penrhos. It took its name from the local coastline which is known as Hell's Mouth due to the 'hellish' conditions for sailors with little shelter from the sea.[1] It was also an air gunnery and bombing range, with targets on the land, floated 1 mile offshore and towed drogues in the air. A small range railway was in use to provide moving targets.[2]

Typical aircraft using the airfield were Bristol Blenheim and Armstrong Whitworth Whitley. In August 1944 a Vickers Wellington was successfully landed by a Polish pilot following an engine failure. Despite the mismatch in size, the aircraft also was able to subsequently take off.[2]

No. 9 (Observers) Advanced Flying Unit RAF was posted here at some point.[3]

Current use

The site was decommissioned in 1945 and returned to agriculture.[3]

See also

• List of former Royal Air Force stations

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Annand, David. RAF Penrhos near Pwllheli 1937-45 and RAF Llandwrog near Caernarvon 1940-45. Tywyn : David Annand, 1986.

External links

• Gilby, John. "RAF Hell's Mouth (Porth Neigwl)". Retrieved 10 February 2013.
• Images at Geograph

---