I wrote this article for our local parish magazine, The Driffield Leader. Residents of the Capital of the Wolds may have already seen it, but I thought I'd reproduce it here, as it was mistakenly credited to the mysterious author Frank Pilkington by the printers... ah well, these things happen. "The Americans in Driffield – pt2
Growing up in Driffield, I always associated the RAF airfield with Bomber Command, Halifax bombers taking off for missions over occupied Europe, and latterly as a home to the early jets like the famous Gloster Meteor.
It was only in recent years that I’d heard about the presence of the Thor nuclear missiles at RAF Driffield, which put a whole new - and rather ominous - slant on the history of the base.
As mentioned in the ‘Over Here - the Americans in Driffield’ Leader article, the Yanks brought quite a large contingent of servicemen and their families to the Capital of the Wolds, and their presence was in many ways a positive for the town, with the facilities on the base opened up to local residents to enjoy.
But on the flipside, it seems unfeasible to believe that the Russians didn’t know about the arrival of the nuclear missiles in Driffield, and would have been adjusting the sights on their own ICBMs in anticipation.
The ‘Driffield-based’ RAF technician mentioned in the earlier article would have been none other than the late Harry Lomas, who served as a navigator on Halifaxes flying out of Lissett during WWII. His role with the Thor missiles was ‘Launch Control Console Operator’, with the unenviable responsibility of checking the target co-ordinates of the missile system.
Back in 1995, Harry presented me with a copy of his autobiography, One Wing High, telling the story of his wartime service in Bomber Command, in order for me to review it for the Driffield Post, and I’ll reprise my role as guest reviewer and revisit the book at a later date – it still has pride of place on my bookshelf.
Now, back to the subject of the Cold War, and another cryptic mention in the Driffield Times archives mentioned the world being ‘on the brink of war.’ This, of course, relates to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Imagine now, if JFK and Comrade Khruschev hadn’t come to their senses and pulled back from the brink? I probably wouldn’t be here to write this, there would almost certainly be no RAF Driffield, and I doubt much of the town itself would have been left standing, as the Soviets no doubt would be hoping to hit ‘our’ missile bases as we targeted theirs. Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD, as it was known at the time.
Thankfully, those days are long gone, and the site of the old barracks and service buildings at RAF Driffield are earmarked for a much-needed new housing development. A welcome rebirth of the old site, which has been left to fall into disrepair over the years since the RAF pulled out in the early 1970s.
Going back to the WWII theme, the 15th August 1940 ‘Eagle Day’ air raid on RAF Driffield during the Battle of Britain claimed the lives of 13 service personnel and one civilian. It would be nice if their names are commemorated somehow in the new development once it’s up and running. Several of the casualties from that Luftwaffe attack are buried in the CWGC plot in Driffield cemetery; pay them a visit when you’re next in the vicinity, and remember how much impact RAF Driffield has had, and in many ways still has, on our quiet market town."