Hylton Aerodrome
Also known as Royal Air Force Base Usworth
Type: Airfield
In response to the Zeppelin attack on Sunderland on 1 April 1916, seven fields belonging to Cow Stand and South Moor farms were requisitioned by the Royal Flying Corps and developed into Hylton aerodrome. The new aerodrome replaced the Night Landing Ground at nearby West Town Moor.
The site name was officially changed from Hylton to Usworth on 15th July 1918, but wasn’t adopted until the November ‘B’ Flight 36 (Home Defence) Squadron arrived on site in October 1916 and flew B. E. 2c and B. E.12 planes. Their main task at the time was to fly along the coast on the lookout for German submarines as the threat from zeppelins was thought to have receded.
In addition to the main base at Cramlington, flights were detached to Seaton Carew and Ashington as well as Hylton.
On 24 May 1917 Lieutenant P Thomson took off from Usworth Airfield and when returning observed a crowd of people gathered on Southwick Green. This was a public meeting at 8.30pm in the evening and was about food savings during the war. The pilot dropped low to see what was happening and failed to see a flagpole on the Green resulting in a wing being torn from the plane and caused it to crash into the Co-op building at the corner of Stoney Lane. Five people were killed and others injured, surprisingly the pilot survived. At the inquest the verdict was one of accidental death and in the spirit of the times the families of those who died publicly forgave the pilot.
By August 1918 Hylton was in use by ‘A’ Flight and continued as such until the Armistice when it was just beginning to become known as Usworth. No. 36 squadron’s HQ moved here in November 1918, the main equipment now being Bristol F2b’s. The Bristol F2b was one of the best fighters of the War despite being a two seater; it was used as a single seater with a sting in the tail. It was powered by a 275 hp Rolls Royce Falcon inline engine, with a top speed of 125 mph at sea level compared with the 90 mph of t he B.E. 12’s.
In March 1918 another pilot from Usworth, Sergeant Arthur John Joyce (9935), pursued a zeppelin for an hour and a half before crashing at Pontop Pike in County Durham, which unfortunately caused his death. There is a memorial stone on Annfield Plain in the spot where his plane came down.
The only other action that the squadron was involved in was the unsuccessful attack on the Zeppelin L42 over Hartlepool on New Year’s Day 1918. The armistice brought the disbanding on 36Sqn on 13 June 1919 and the airfield returned to non-flying use and was not used again until the 1930s.
See also
http://www.nelsam.org.uk/NEAM/NEAM.htm
Civil Parish: Usworth
Contributed by Simon W, United Kingdom
