Battle of Britain (at home) open days
Battle of Britain at home airshows were established to commemorate the Battle of Britain. The official Battle of Britain day is September 15th, the date when in 1940 the Luftwaffe launched a massive aerial assault on Britain as part of their Operation Eagle Attack offensive believing this would finally crush British resistance and pave the way for an invasion of Britain (Operation Sea Lion). The RAF were victorious and the invasion never materialised - the Battle of Britain was won. Battle of Britain at Home airshows took place each year at various airfields normally on the 3rd Saturday in September. The first Battle of Britain airshow in the North East of England was held at Ouston in 1946, the last at Acklington in 1967
In the table below, "Y" denotes that the base held a Battle of
Britain at home airshow for the given year (further details and
photographs of aircraft on display are very welcome), A
denotes that the base was "at home" and a report is available (click
the roundel to view) and a "C" shows that the airfield was closed or
no longer an active RAF base.
| Acklington | Middleton St. George | Ouston | Thornaby | |
| 1946 | Y | |||
| 1947 | Y | |||
| 1948 | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| 1949 | Y |  |
Y | |
| 1950 | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| 1951 | Y | Y | Y | |
| 1952 | ? | ? | Y | |
| 1953 | Y | Y | ||
| 1954 | Y | Y | Y | |
| 1955 | Y | Y | ||
| 1956 | ? | ? |  |
Y |
| 1957 | |
? | ? | |
| 1958 | |
C | ||
| 1959 | |
Y | C | |
| 1960 | |
C | ||
| 1961 | |
C | ||
| 1962 | |
Y | C | |
| 1963 | |
Y | C | |
| 1964 | |
C | C | |
| 1965 | |
C | C | |
| 1966 | See below | C | C | |
| 1967 | |
C | C |
An open day was scheduled to be held at Acklington in 1966 along with eight other stations, but the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries cancelled the show due to an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease.