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RAF Montrose was a Royal Air Force (RAF) station in Forfarshire (now more commonly called Angus) in Scotland.

In 1912, the British government planned twelve "Air Stations" operated by the Royal Flying Corps. The first of these was at Montrose, which became operational on February 26, 1913, with No 2 Squadron in residence, firstly, at Upper Dysart, to the South of the town, then at Broomfield, Montrose from January 1914. When No 2 Squadron moved to France in 1914, the first to land there, the aerodrome was inactive until the Royal Naval Air Service and then the Royal Flying Corps took up residence again in May 1915.

It became a major training base with Americans arriving in 1918 to train for the Western Front, and Canadian and British Squadrons forming. When the RAF started to expand, the aerodrome was re-opened for training purposes. Later, during World War II, many fighter squadrons and the RNAS served at RAF Montrose. Commonwealth, Polish, Czech, American, Russian, Turkish, Free French and other Allied nationals all trained and served at RAF Montrose during this time.

In 1948 the unit stationed at Montrose was 63MU but aircraft for repair were brought in and shipped out by road as there were no tarmac runways. Activity was minimal until the crisis in Hong Kong and the onset of the Korean war when the unit became very busy.

In 1949 a Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service was established to cover the area of the central Grampians. This improved the emergency rescue facilities for the whole of Scotland with teams at RAF Kinloss covering the north and RAF West Freugh the west. When Montrose closed the MRT was relocated at RAF Edzell.

It is famously said to be haunted by the ghost of Desmond Arthur, who was based at Montrose and died in an air crash on 27 May 1913.^{[1] [2]}

References

External links

• RAF Montrose

Coordinates: 56°43′44″N 2°27′26″W / 56.72889°N 2.45722°W / 56.72889; -2.45722

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