RNAS Dale
RAF airbase in Wales, UK
Royal Naval Air Station Dale (RNAS Dale, also known as HMS Goldcrest) is a former Royal Navy Naval Air Station, located 10 miles (16 km) South West of Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It was operational between 1942 and 1948, being used by both the Royal Air Force (1942–1943) and the Royal Navy (1943–1948).
The village of Dale in Pembrokeshire is situated 0.5 miles (0.80 km) south-east of the airfield, which itself lies adjacent to the coast, 2 miles (3.2 km) north of St. Ann's Head, the western entrance to the Milford Haven waterway. The town of Milford Haven lies 5 miles (8 km) east and Pembroke Dock lies 11 miles south-east. Notable landmarks are St. Anne's Head and Milford Haven, with Skomer Island lying 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north-west and the small island of Skokholm lying 2.5 miles (4 km) south-west.
History
Station design
Construction of the airfield began between the villages of Dale and Marloes in 1941. RAF Dale opened in the 1 June 1942. The airfield had three runways, constructed of tarmac and concrete in a triangular pattern, measuring: 1065 m (3495 ft) long, 1285 m (4215 ft) long, and 1458 m (4785 ft) long.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “RNAS Dale” is rAF airbase in Wales, UK. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through RNAS, Dale and airbase, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “rAF airbase in Wales, UK” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7275261. Authority coordinates are 51.718, -5.194. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1948, 1943 and 1941.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “RNAS Dale” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.