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Normal Topic RAF Danby Beacon (Read 11,752 times)
Nick Loveday
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RAF Danby Beacon
21.04.2010 at 08:02:38
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Danby's beacon was recently ignited to honour the work of the unsung heroes who worked at the village's former Radar Station which helped to shoot down the first enemy aircraft to fall on English soil since the First World War.
http://www.scarborougheveningnews.co.uk/news/Beacon-lit-for-heroes.6239022.jp
  
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Plez
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Re: RAF Danby Beacon
Reply #1 - 08.05.2010 at 11:28:32
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Went to the beacon last weekend.  Unfortunately there is no indication as to what the site was used for.  There are also two small white crosses with a plastic wreath nearby the beacon.  Does anyone know the significance of the crosses?
PLEZ
  
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Richard Jenner
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Re: RAF Danby Beacon
Reply #2 - 08.05.2010 at 16:33:38
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Plez,

I can't answer your question about the crosses but having visited the site you may find this link interesting:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/don.burluraux/rafdanby.htm

The layout is very similar to Staxton Wold - one of the very few CH sites to have been retained for radar. I'm not sure that the link is correct about the 'large red house'....at Staxton it was a semi and built, I believe for the site wardens (before 24/7 ops).

Richard
  
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Jan Cobb
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Re: RAF Danby Beacon
Reply #3 - 08.05.2010 at 18:29:18
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Hi Richard

Plez might have some additional information about SW, but the 2 semi-detached houses there (still intact when I drove past on 30th April, for the first time since I left in Summer 1993!) appear on the model (currently at the ADRM) used for every 'VIP' visit to the Station (certainly in my time there!). My recollection of the history lesson I used to give to the visitors is that the houses were for the 2 Warrant Officers (one of whom was the Ops OC), but I may not have got that entirely right. I know that I was the first fighter controller (i.e. non-engineering) station commander since the war, but - other than it no longer seeming so important now (!!) - my memory seems to be dimming somewhat too!! Sad

There are several other sites providing a background to Danby Beacon, such as this BBC one, and a lot of archived material may well be available on the 'net once it's been scanned and stored by the National Park Authority.

Jan
  
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Jan Cobb
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Re: RAF Danby Beacon
Reply #4 - 09.05.2010 at 10:19:13
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Quote:
There are also two small white crosses with a plastic wreath nearby the beacon.Does anyone know the significance of the crosses?

Plez

They are probably personal tributes paid by visitors such as yourselves. Do the crosses appear to be 'established' in any way? As Nicky's initial message highlights, there seems to be a lot of interest in Danby Beacon locally, with many articles emerging in local newspapers (Click here for the 'Google' response I found).

Jan
  
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Tim Willbond
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Re: RAF Danby Beacon
Reply #5 - 28.05.2010 at 10:54:40
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I have some pictures of Danby Beacon. Which was one of the original 20 Chain Home stations and was operational during the battle of Britain.

Tim
  
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Dave Todd
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Re: RAF Danby Beacon
Reply #6 - 28.05.2010 at 18:25:37
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Some info on Danby can be found at:

http://www.whitbygazette.co.uk/news/Stories-from-Danby39s-secret-camp.6239467.jp

I attended the 1995 reunion ceremony/celebrations at the Beacon when CO Fylingdales and was presented with a folder containing copies of the RDF Bulletin (fore-runner of the C&R Bulletin) from Apr 41 to Jan 42.  Our present House is less than one mile from where the Heinkel came down.
  
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Richard Jenner
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Re: RAF Danby Beacon
Reply #7 - 28.05.2010 at 19:17:54
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While in no way wanting to play down Peter Townsend's achievement and Danby Beacon's role in the shooting down of the Heinkel I feel that I must point out that the first German bomber shot down over the UK - rather than England -  in WW2 was on 16 October 1939 following a bombing raid on shipping in the Firth of Forth.

The German aircraft was a Junkers 88. It crashed at Prestonpans (perhaps more famous for a Jacobite victory over the Hanoverian army under Johny Cope??). The pilot who shot it down was Patrick Gifford of 603 Sqn in a Spitfire. He was promoted to sqn ldr but sadly was shot down and killed in May 1940.

Richard Jenner
  
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Les Barrett
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Re: RAF Danby Beacon
Reply #8 - 01.02.2011 at 17:42:31
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I've heard that Danby Beacon was operating long after it's closure as a radar station in 1957 as a GEE navigational station into the 1970s, and that it was the last such station to close.  It is not listed in Flight International as one of the ten GEE stations that closed in 1970.  (There were certainly RAF personnel there in 1961).  Can anyone confirm this?  If so was it a GEE master, slave or monitoring station, and where were the associated stations in the chain?

Have any local people any memories of it still existeing in the 70s?
  
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