RAF Dunsfold

RAF Dunsfold lay in the Surrey countryside near the village of Cranleigh. Unusually, the airfield was built by Canadian Army engineers, who threw up its three concrete runways and hardstandings in little over six months during 1942; flying began from the new station in December of that year. It served first under Army Co-operation Command, supporting the tactical-reconnaissance role for which it had been laid out.

The first units to fly from Dunsfold were Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons — Nos 400, 414 and 430 — equipped with Curtiss Tomahawks and later North American Mustang Is for armed reconnaissance over occupied Europe. From late 1943 the station became home to No. 139 Wing, whose North American Mitchell II medium bombers struck targets across northern France and the Low Countries in the run-up to and aftermath of the Normandy invasion. Among the wing’s units was No. 320 (Netherlands) Squadron, manned by Dutch crews. In 1945 the airfield was used to help fly home liberated prisoners of war.

The RAF declared Dunsfold inactive in 1946, but the site found a long second life in aviation industry: Hawker, Hawker Siddeley and British Aerospace developed and tested aircraft there, including the P.1127 that led to the Harrier. Flying wound down around 2000, after which the site, known as Dunsfold Park, became a business park and a well-known filming location, with much of it earmarked for housing.